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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Serendipitous Resistance in Fascist-Occupied Ethiopia, 1936-1941
Author:Schaefer, CharlesISNI
Year:1996
Periodical:Northeast African Studies
Volume:3
Issue:1
Pages:87-115
Language:English
Geographic terms:Ethiopia
Italy
Subjects:colonialism
national liberation movements
History and Exploration
nationalism
External link:http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/northeast_african_studies/v003/3.1.schaefer.pdf
Abstract:The objective of Ethiopian resistance against the Italian invaders was to increase the military and social costs of occupation. This paper argues that more passive forms of resistance contributed to inflating the economic costs of occupation. It considers the effectiveness of the Ethiopian Patriots or guerrilla fighters, as a foundation for a discussion of the financial problems the Fascists faced. It then probes a fiscal handicap (the element of serendipitous resistance): how opposition to Italian monetary reforms and insistance on using the Maria Theresa thaler inflated prices to the point that many of Italy's dreams of empire were jettisoned in order to pay for its military presence. Every Ethiopian who transacted a monetary exchange and insisted on being paid in thalers resisted in a non-belligerent manner. The effects of occupying Ethiopia were to leave the Italian economy prostrate. The war absorbed all Italian revenues. The majority of Ethiopians fell back on a proven method of storing their wealth, securing value and exchange, and maintaining personal autonomy by availing themselves of the supranational silver economy. Their countermeasure was coinage-barter. This elevation of internal criteria under which monetized transactions took place, resulted in a resale of lire which depleted Italy's colonial budget. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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