Eritrea Governorate (Governatorato dell'Eritrea) was one of the six governorates of Italian East Africa. Its capital was Asmara. It was formed from the previously separate colony of Italian Eritrea, which was enlarged with parts of the conquered Ethiopian Empire following the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.
Italian Eritrea (Italian: Colonia Eritrea, "Colony of Eritrea") was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy in the territory of present-day Eritrea. The first Italian establishment in the area was the purchase of Assab by the Rubattino Shipping Company in 1869, which came under government control in 1882. Occupation of Massawa in 1885 and the subsequent expansion of territory would gradually engulf the region and in 1889 the Ethiopian Empire recognized the Italian possession in the Treaty of Wuchale. In 1890 the Colony of Eritrea was officially founded.
In 1936 the region was integrated into Italian East Africa as the Eritrea Governorate. This would last until Italy's loss of the region in 1941, during the East African campaign of World War II. Italian Eritrea then came under British military administration, which in 1951 fell under United Nations supervision. In September 1952 it became an autonomous part of Ethiopia, until its independence in 1991.
Italian East Africa (Italian: Africa Orientale Italiana, A.O.I.) was a territory of the Italian empire under Fascist Italy, existing from 1936 to 1941 in the Horn of Africa. It was established following the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, which led to the military occupation of the Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia), and encompassed Italian Somaliland, Eritrea and the Ethiopian territories (although Italy did not have stable control over the whole of Ethiopia), all governed by a single administrative unit, the Governo Generale dell'Africa Orientale Italiana. Its establishment contributed significantly to the outbreak of World War II by exposing the weaknesses of the League of Nations.
Italian East Africa was divided into six governorates. Eritrea and Somalia, Italian possessions since the 1880s, were enlarged with captured Ethiopian territory and became the Eritrea and Somalia Governorates. The remainder of the occupied Ethiopian territories comprised the Harar, Galla-Sidamo, Amhara, and Scioa Governorates. At its largest extent, Italian East Africa occupied territories in British Somaliland, British Kenya, and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. By 1939, it was settled by about 165,270 Italian colonists.
The Italian colony of Italian East Africa (Italian: Africa Orientale Italiana) was composed of six governorates which made up the first level of country subdivisions for the colony.
The governorates of Amhara, Galla-Sidamo, Harar and Scioa constituted the "Italian Empire of Ethiopia", which covered about half of the previous Ethiopian Empire. The Eritrea and Somalia Governorates were formed from the previously separate colonies of Italian Eritrea and Somaliland, enlarged with the remainder of Ethiopian territory.