A brief history of modern Italy's failed African adventure.
BY CAMERON ABADI
To the ancient Romans, the Mediterranean was mare nostrum, "our sea" -- a claim that not only pertained to its waters, but to much of the territory that bordered it. At its height, the Roman Empire spanned from Britain to Mesopotamia. But when the modern state was eventually founded in 1861 -- bringing together a number of independent monarchies and city-states on the Italian peninsula -- Italy was a shadow of its former self, more a collection of duchies and principalities than anything resembling a modern nation...[continued]
