Preface

For the first time this book deals organically with the issue of colonial citizenship and colonial subjecthood in the Italian colonial Empire, through a wide range of case studies. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, the theme of colonial citizenship and subjecthood is examined in its various aspects and functions: belonging, rights and social identities. Embracing a wide time span that goes beyond the narrow boundaries of classic chronological periodizations and ranges from the XIX century to the XX century, the cases of Eritrea, Libya, Dodecanese, Ethiopia and Albania confirm that citizenship and subjecthood in the colonial context were ductile political tools, which changed according to the orientations of the Metropole and the challenges that came from the colonies (always swinging between submission and revolt). Focusing on the the analysis of the legal construction and the practices, this book reveals how citizenship and subjecthood in the Italian Overseas domain should not be considered only as concessions of the colonial power, but as the result of complex dynamics of mediation and bargaining between colonized and colonizer.