Siege of Saïo the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, proclaimed the colony of "Africa Orientale Italiana" (AOI, Italian East Africa), formed from Ethiopia (after the Italian victory in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, fought 3 October 1935 – May 1936) and the existing Italian possessions of Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. On 10 June 1940, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France, which made Italian military forces in Libya a threat to Egypt and those in Italian East Africa a danger to the British and French colonies in East Africa. Italian belligerence also closed the Mediterranean to Allied merchant ships and endangered British supply routes
Italian irredentism in Malta quo ante" returning Malta to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, but British interests in the Mediterranean changed it abruptly. So Malta became a British Crown Colony in 1813 even if with diplomatic protests from southern Italian authorities, which was confirmed a year later through the Treaty of Paris. Cultural changes were few even after 1814. In 1842, all literate Maltese learned Italian while only 4.5% could read, write and/or speak English. However there was a huge increase in the number of maltese magazines and newspapers in Italian language during the 1800s and early 1900s, so as a consequence the