The Addis Ababa Massacre

The myth of the “Good Italians”

During World War II, the Italian Empire reached its maximum extent. Image source: Basquetteur, Imperio italiano es, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Italians have always intrigued me with their incredible ability to reinvent stereotypes about themselves. Unlike the Germans, their former allies during the Second World War, the Italians successfully rebranded themselves around good food, fashion, and engineering (Ferrari and Lamborghini) in the years following the war. This has concealed another side of them, which reveals a history of being unwanted and brutal oppressors towards some populations from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s.

The “Good Colonialism”

Italian troops march through the streets of Addis Ababa. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The myth of the “good Italians” is a positive prejudice that emerged in Italian society after 1946, when the Kingdom of Italy ended and the Italian Republic was established. It portrays Italians as peaceful people who are incapable of committing violent acts against the enemy in war or against colonized nations. This belief has led to downplaying the crimes committed by Italians against the populations they subjugated from the start of Italian imperialism in 1882 until the end of World War II, when Italy was defeated as an ally of Nazi Germany and Japan, leading to the fall of Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime. However…