Somaliland 2

Somaliland

Somaliland 3
A banner used by the Adal Sultanate and later the Isaaq on key religious shrines

The Isaaq Sultanate had 5 rulers prior to the creation of British Somaliland in 1884. Historically Sultans would be chosen by a committee of several important members of the various Isaaq subclans. Sultans were usually buried at Toon south of Hargeisa which was a significant site and the capital of the Sultanate during Farah Guled‘s rule.[86]

Battle of Berbera

The first engagement between Somalis of the region and the British was in 1825 and ended violently. This culminated in the Battle of Berbera and a subsequent trade agreement between the Habr Awal and the United Kingdom. This was followed by a British treaty with the Governor of Zeila in 1840. An engagement was then started between the British and elders of Habar Garhajis and Habar Toljaala clans of the Isaaq in 1855, followed a year later by the conclusion of the “Articles of Peace and Friendship” between the Habar Awal and East India Company. These engagements between the British and Somali clans culminated in the formal treaties the British signed with the henceforth ‘British Somaliland’ clans, which took place between 1884 and 1886 (treaties were signed with the Habar Awal, Gadabursi, Habar Toljaala, Habar Garhajis, Esa, and the Warsangali clans), this paved the way for the British to establish a protectorate in the region referred to as British Somaliland. The British garrisoned the protectorate from Aden and administered it as part of British India until 1898. British Somaliland was then administered by the Foreign Office until 1905, and afterwards by the Colonial Office.

British Somaliland:

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The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera covering the start of the British Somaliland offensive

The Somaliland Campaign, also called the Anglo-Somali War or the Dervish War, was a series of military expeditions that took place between 1900 and 1920 in the Horn of Africa, pitting the Dervishes led by Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (nicknamed the “Mad Mullah”) against the British. The British were assisted in their offensives by the Ethiopians and Italians. During the First World War (1914–1918), Hassan also received aid from the OttomansGermans and, for a time, from the Emperor Iyasu V of Ethiopia. The conflict ended when the British aerially bombed the Dervish capital of Taleh in February 1920.

The Fifth Expedition of the Somaliland campaign in 1920 was the final British expedition against the Dervish forces of Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, the Somali religious leader. Although most of the combat took place in January of the year, British troops had begun preparations for the assault as early as November 1919. The British forces included elements of the Royal Air Force and the Somaliland Camel Corps. After three weeks of battle, Hassan’s Dervishes were defeated, bringing an effective end to their 20-year resistance.

The Italian conquest of British Somaliland was a military campaign in East Africa, which took place in August 1940 between forces of Italy and those of several British and Commonwealth countries. The Italian expedition was part of the East African Campaign.

State of Somaliland (Independence):

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