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Somalia
Union of British Somaliland (independent 26 June 1960) and the UN Trust Territory of Somaliland under Italian administration, forming the Somali Republic on 1 July 1960.
- Independence
- July 1, 1960
- Before
- Italian Trust & British Somaliland
- Metropole
- Italy / UN
- Transition
- Negotiated
- Movement
- Somali Youth League (SYL)
- Head of government at independence
- Aden Abdullah Osman Daar
“May Allah protect the Republic.”
— Aden Abdulle Osman, Provisional President, July 1, 1960
A People Divided Five Ways
In the late nineteenth century Somali-inhabited lands were divided among British Somaliland, Italian Somalia, French Somaliland (Djibouti), Ethiopia's Ogaden and Kenya's Northern Frontier District. The Somali Youth Club, begun by thirteen young men as an urban self-help society, founded in Mogadishu in May 1943 and renamed in 1947 the Somali Youth League, championed the unity of all Somalis and campaigned against any return of Italian rule.
The Italian Trusteeship
After British wartime occupation, UN General Assembly Resolution 289 of 21 November 1949 placed the former Italian colony under a ten-year trusteeship administered by Italy, which began on 1 April 1950, with independence due in 1960. The SYL won the elections of 1956 and 1959, taking 83 of 90 seats in the latter, and Somalis took over the administration ahead of the deadline.
Union of North and South
Britain accelerated plans for its protectorate, and British Somaliland became independent on 26 June 1960. The next day its Legislative Assembly passed the Union of Somaliland and Somalia Law, and on 1 July the two territories united to form the Somali Republic. Aden Abdullah Osman Daar became provisional President and appointed Abdirashid Ali Shermarke Prime Minister, answerable to a 123-member National Assembly drawn from both territories.
Chronology
- May 1943 — Somali Youth Club founded in Mogadishu (renamed the SYL in 1947)
- 21 November 1949 — UN General Assembly places Italian Somaliland under Italian trusteeship for ten years
- 1 April 1950 — Italian trusteeship administration begins
- 8 March 1959 — SYL wins 83 of 90 seats in trust-territory elections
- 26 June 1960 — British Somaliland becomes independent
- 1 July 1960 — Union forms the Somali Republic
- 1967 — Osman Daar hands over after losing the presidential election to Shermarke
Documents
- UN Resolution UN General Assembly Resolution 289 (IV) on the former Italian colonies (1949)
- Treaty Trusteeship Agreement for Somaliland under Italian Administration (1950)
- Act Somaliland Legislative Assembly act approving union with Somalia (27 June 1960)
Aftermath
Osman Daar's peaceful handover in 1967 was among the first by an African head of state defeated in an election. Claims to Somali-inhabited lands in neighbouring states led to wars with Ethiopia in 1964 and 1977–78. After Shermarke's assassination in October 1969, Mohamed Siad Barre seized power; the state collapsed into civil war in 1991, and Somaliland declared its own independence.
Legacy
The union of two colonial territories was a rare act of post-colonial unification. But the unfulfilled goal of a Greater Somalia drove costly wars, and the hasty, legally untidy union later fed Somaliland's claim to separate statehood.