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 Swiss Colony (wine) Italian Swiss Colony (wine) Italian Swiss Colony was a nineteenth- and twentieth-century American wine company and brand. Based in Asti, California, Italian Swiss Colony was at one time the leading wine producer in California. In 1881, Andrea Sbarboro founded an agricultural colony at Asti (named for Asti in Italy), primarily focused on grapes. Sbarboro's intent was to establish a profitable enterprise which would provide work for the many Italians who had migrated to San Francisco (although there were at first some Italian Swiss from Ticino, thus giving the colony its name, it soon became an entirely Italian-American enterprise.) The corporation