Somalia

Somalia

Somalia gained its independence from Italy on 1 July 1960. On the same day, it united with the State of Somaliland to form the Somali republic. The Somali state currently exists largely in a de jure capacity; Somalia has a weak but largely recognised central government authority that currently controls only the central region of Somalia, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which until recently controlled only Baidoa. De facto authority in the north of the country resides in the hands of Puntland, Maakhir, and Somaliland respectively. In the south of the country, no government exists at all, while various tribal militias battle for dominance or rule their own regions. Violence has plagued Mogadishu, the capital, since warlords ousted former President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

While many of these self-proclaimed states acknowledge the authority of the TFG (Puntland, Southwest,Galmudug, Maakhir, Jubbaland) and maintain their declaration of autonomy within a federated Somalia, Somaliland maintains its declaration of independence and does not recognize the TFG as their governing authority. Somaliland in return, also does not recognize TFG.

Somalia has been continuously inhabited by numerous and varied ethnic groups, some of Oromo or other cushitic ancestry, but the majority were Somalis, for the last 2,500 years. From the 1st century numerous ports like ancient Opone (now Hafun) and ancient Mosylon-Bandar Gori were trading with Roman and Greek sailors. The northwestern part of current Somalia was part of the Kingdom of Aksum from about the 3rd century to the 7th. By the early medieval period (700 AD–1200AD), Islam became firmly established especially with the founding of Mogadishu in 900AD. The late medieval period (1201AD-1500AD) saw the rise of numerous Somali city-states and kingdoms. In northwestern Somalia, the Sultanate of Adal (a multi-ethnic state comprised of Afars, Somalis and Hararis) with Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi as their leader in 1520AD, successfully led a campaign which saw three-quarters of Ethiopia coming under Adal rule before being defeated by a joint Ethiopian-Portuguese force at the Battle of Wayna Daga on February 21, 1543. The Ajuuraan Sultanate flourished in the 14th and 17th centuries. Following the collapse of Adal and Ajuuraan in the early and late 17th century, current day Somalia saw the growth and gradual rise of many successor city states such as the Sultanates of eastern Sanaag, of Bari, of Geledi-Afgoye, of Gasar Gudde-Lugh Ganane, of Benadir Coast and of Hobyo. However due to competing Somali clans that lived in the region for thousands of years, until 1960, when Somaliland gave away its sovereignty to Somalia to form a Union,Somalia was not a country. After the British and Italians drew boundaries and lines, and then after the independence of all previously self-governing Somali clans, it gradually became a new united nation of Somalia in the 1960s. The country is made of various competing clans and sub-clans, which has made unity very difficult as is also the case presently. Due to the forced allegedly acceptance of a Somalia state, since the post colonization era, the historically self-governing clans in the north have currently (unofficially) separated from Somalia after voting for independence of the Somaliland nation. President Aden Abdullah Osman, who is seen as the founding father of the Somalia state, was the first president after its creation in 1960.

The year 1884 ended a long period of comparative peace. At the Berlin Conference of 1884, the scramble for Africa started the long and bloody process of the imperial partition of Somali lands. The French, British and Italians came to Somalia in the late 19th century.

The British signed treaties with the clans in what was known after as British Somaliland which was a protectorate in 1886 after the withdrawal of Egypt. Egypt sought to prevent European colonial expansion in Northeast Africa. The southern area, was colonized by Italy in 1889, became known as Italian Somaliland.

Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan, Sayyid) (born April 7, 1864, in the north of Somalia, died December 21, 1920 in Imi, Ethiopia) was Somalia's religious, nationalist and also controversial leader (called the "Mad Mullah" by the British) who for 20 years led armed resistance to the British, Italian, and Ethiopian