In the 1930s Italian Empire, the Italian government promoted auto & moto competitions in order to increase the image of Italy (inside the colonial populations and in the world) as a technological country with state-of-the-art mechanical industry. Indeed, Italian Mogadiscio in 1938 was the second manufacturing city -after Italian Asmara- in the Eastern Africa's Italian Empire. The triangle Mogadiscio-Genale-Villabruzzi (actual Mogadishu-Afgoi- Jowhar) was the most developed area of the Italian colony, with one of the biggest vehicles concentration (per inhabitants) of all Africa: nearly 3000 vehicles in 1939. It is noteworthy that in British Somaliland there were no vehicles for civilians until after WWII (the few were only for military use ).