Federal Republic of Somalia

Federal Republic of Somalia Jamhuuriyadda Federaalka Soomaaliya جمهورية الصومال الفيدرالية
Flag Coat of arms
Light green territory disputed with Somaliland
Capital and largest city	Mogadishu
Official languages	Somali Arabic
Demonym(s)	Somali
Government	Federal parliamentary constitutional republic
• President	Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
• Prime Minister	Hamza Abdi Barre
Area
• Total	637,657 km²
Population
• 2023 estimate	18,143,378

The Federal Republic of Somalia, also known as Somalia, is a country in East Africa located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Kenya to the southwest, Ethiopia to the west and Djibouti to the northwest as well as having an eastern coast on the Indian Ocean.

History

Precolonialization

The earliest evidence of human habitation in the Somali Peninsula consists of Acheulean stone blades and flint tools discovered near Hargeisa and in the Golis Mountains in the present day Somaliland region, dated between 40,000 and 12,000 BCE.  During the Pleistocene, East Africa experienced periods which changed the region's hydrology and created lush environments which supported the early human population. Which allowed for the transition from hunting and gathering to pastoralism several millennia earlier than in Europe.

The change in the region's hydrology created lush environments and inconsistency in rainfall which created a shift toward nomadic and semi-nomadic animal husbandry within Somalia. This Neolithic pastoral revolution is most visibly documented at the Laas Geel cave near Hargeisa, covered in paintings of African aurochs with lyre-shaped horns adorned with ceremonial mats surrounded by humans in white robes. Somalia contains the highest concentration of rock art in East Africa with major sites like Dhagah Kureh, Dhagah Nabi Galay, Dhambalin, and Karinhegane. Alongside rock art, funerary megaliths, ruined cities, and massive stone walls such as Wargaade Wall show a civilisation long before the arrival of Islam or European contact.

Land of Punt

By 2000 BCE, Somalia was integrated into the earliest documented long-distance trade networks and also was a major part of the ancient Land of Punt referred to by ancient Egypt as the Land of the Gods. It spanned present-day Somalia, specifically Somaliland and Puntland regions, Djibouti, and Eritrea. It supplied ancient Egypt with frankincense, myrrh, gold, ebony, ivory, and exotic animals. Queen Hatshepsut commissioned a mission which involved Puntite King Parahu and Queen Ati which resembles a form of tributary commerce as it was a powerful state extracting luxury goods from a periphery to enrich the ruling stratum.

By 1000 BCE and through classical antiquity, a line of wealthy urban city-states emerged across the Somali coast. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea documents these states in detail: Opone (present Xaafun), was a massive emporium for spices and aromatics, Malao (present Berbera), was deeply involved in the frankincense and myrrh trade, Mundus (present Xiis), was central to the cinnamon and gum arabic trade, Sarapion (present Mogadishu) and Mosylon (present Bosaso) were commercial polities that connected and integrated with merchants from Phoenicia, Ptolemaic Egypt, Greece, Parthian Persia, Saba, Nabataea, and the Roman Empire.

Somali merchants used beden, a Somali seafaring ship who used these and their understanding of monsoon wind patterns to navigate and bypass the foreign empires to preserve their monopoly on the global incense trade and by 300 BCE Somalis were among the most active and skilled navigators in the Indian Ocean. A mercantile elite grew from these maritime expeditions with archeological surveys in northern Somalia showing seventy ruined towns from this period, with hundreds of ancient inscriptions indicating a localized culture of literacy among the merchant elite.

Sultanate of Mogadishu

The arrival of Islam in Somalia shortly after the hijra in 622 CE, made Somalia the earliest non-Arab country to become muslim. Islamic governance fused with the traditional Somali mercantile clan structures and created a chain of centralized sultanates that projected military and economic power across East Africa. Within this the Sultanate of Mogadishu emerged in the 10th century, the city of Mogadishu turned into a major commercial hub. The Fakhr ad-Din dynasty, established by Abu Bakr bin Fakhr ad-Din, ruled until the 16th century and constructed the famed 13th-century Fakhr ad-Din mosque, the seventh oldest mosque in Africa. The 12th-century Syrian historian Yaqut al-Hamawi noted that the city was inhabited by "dark-skinned Berbers," the direct ancestors of modern Somalis.

From circa 1300 to 1700 CE, Mogadishu minted its own currency which were standardized bronze fals and rarer billion dirhams bearing Arabic inscriptions invoking titles such as "al-Malik al-Muzaffar" (the Victorious King). The earliest coin in East Africa is a Mogadishan billon dirham from 1322–23 CE, struck under Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad. Through these coins, archeologists identified at least 26 successive sultans, and have been spread widely as coins have been recovered in Tanzania, the UAE, and Iraq. When the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta visited in 1331, he documented a metropolis ruled by a Somali Sultan, Abu Bakr ibn Shaikh Omar, with a highly structured royal court featuring viziers, legal experts, military commanders, and royal eunuchs, the structure of a tributary state.

Ajuuraan Sultanate

The Ajuuraan Sultanate emerged in the 13th century, governed by the House of Garen, a dynasty originating in the Ogaden region. The Ajuuraan state is unique in that it’s Africa's only hydraulic empire, The Garen ruling class monopolized the water resources of the Shebelle and Jubba rivers through engineering limestone wells, cisterns, dykes, and irrigation canals irrigating the arid land into fertile agricultural lands though by centralizing control over water, the state forced nomadic pastoralists and sedentary farmers into a relationship of dependency enabling a system of taxation. The administration was highly centralized, with the Garen rulers styled as Imams overseeing Emirs (military commanders), Na'ibs (governors), Wazirs (tax collectors), and Qadis (judges). The empire extended from Mareeg, Galguduud in the north to Kismayo, Jubbaland in the south.

The Ajuuraan had one of the most advanced militaries in Africa at the time, when the Portuguese Empire reached the Indian Ocean in the 16th century, it systematically sacked the southeastern city-states of Kilwa, Mombasa, and Malindi in their ambitions to colonize but the Ajuuraan waged an strong resistance such as the Battle of Barawa, Portuguese forces burned the city but failed to permanently occupy the area, and after they avoided attacking Mogadishu entirely. But to expel the Portuguese completely, the Ajuuraan allied with the Ottoman Empire in joint expeditions that permanently expelled the Portuguese from Somalia but temporarily in Pate, Mombasa, and Kilwa (i.e Kenya).

Despite this, the Ajuuraan Sultanate collapsed from internal contradictions at the end of the 17th century. The absolute power concentrated in the hands of the later Garen rulers devolved into tyranny as they enforced punitive taxation and oppressive control over water access which sparked multiple clan rebellions. Ajuuraan fractured into successor kingdoms, most notably the Geledi Sultanate and the Hiraab Imamate.

Colonialization

In the late 19th century and early 20th century the region of Somalia was partitioned between the imperialist powers of Italy, the UK and France (the latter's colony of French Somaliland would later become Djibouti). This colonization spurred on a national liberation movement led by Muḥammad ibn 'Abdallāh Hassan which lasted from 1899 to 1920. The struggle against the imperialists forced the British to retreat to the coast in 1910 and in the wake of the First World War the rebels were given a reprieve, however, this would only last until 1919 with the Somalis being defeated in 1920.

The colonists seized the best of the land and a large portion of the livestock as well as taxing the native population whilst leaving them in poverty. The exploitation of the population intensified when the fascists came to power in Italy but in both British and Italian Somaliland the living standards were low and industry was non-existent.

In the Second World War Somalia was a battleground with the Italians seizing British Somaliland in August 1940 before the British drove the Italians out of Somalia in early 1941. During the war years a number of manufacturing industries sprung up allowing the establishment of a small local bourgeoisie and intelligentsia which in turn led to increased agitation for independence. In November 21, 1949 the UN placed Italian Somaliland under international trusteeship but the Italians were still allowed to administrate and oppress the population.

Independence

On June 26,1961 British Somaliland gained independence and on July 1 Italian Somaliland joined it to form the Somali Republic.

Socialist era (1969–1991)

See main article: Somali Democratic Republic

Somali Civil War

The Somali National Movement fought against the socialist government of Siad Barre and overthrew him in 1991. Secessionists led by the SNM then split northwest Somalia from the rest of the country and formed the Republic of Somaliland.

The United Nations, led primarily by the United States, launched an invasion of Somalia in 1992 and again in 1993 under the guise of providing relief and humanitarian aid, when it was really killing thousands of Somalis. They sent troops to secure areas with oil fields owned by four Statesian corporations, those being Conoco, Amoco, Chevron, and Phillips 66.

Modern era

In 2006, Somalia reunified under one government after over a decade of Somali Civil War. George W. Bush soon overthrew the government of Somalia with support from Ethiopia under Meles Zenawi.