Contents Series Foreword Frank W. Thackeray and John E. Findling ix Preface xiii Acknowledgments xix Acronyms and Abbreviations xxi Timeline of Historical Events xxv 1 An Overview of Geography, Earliest Peoples, States, and Societies to the Seventh Century BCE 1 2 Traders, Merchants, and Invaders, Seventh Century BCE–16th Century CE 19 3 The Italian Colonial Conquest, 1911–1912 39 4 Colonial Rule, Anticolonial Struggles, and World War II, 1912–1950 53 5 Independence and Nation-Building, 1951–1968 75