The capital of Somalia, a country located directly south of the Arabian Peninsula across the Gulf of Aden, that is bordered by Ethiopia on the west, Kenya on the southwest, Djibouti on the northwest, and the Indian Ocean on the south and east.
Between the seventh and tenth centuries, Arab traders settled in the cities of Mogadishu and Kismayu, where they conducted trade and con verted the native population to the Islamic faith. The city maintained its important position for several centuries and then fell under the rule of several different leaders. In the fourteenth century, the Islamic sultanate was under the Muzaffar dynasty, which was succeeded by the Fakhr ad-Din dynasty. In the seventeenth century, the Hawiye Somali took control of the city. In the sixteenth century, the Portuguese attempted to conquer the region but failed. From 1704 to 1828, the Mogadishu tried unsuccessfully to prevent the Omani from conquering the city. In 1841, the Omani sultanate was divided and Mogadishu was under the control of both the sultanate of Zanzibar and the Somali Geledi clan.
Since the region is primarily desert and held relatively little economic value to European colonial powers, the city remained free from colonial control until 1889, when Italy established the colony of Benadir. However, the region was divided between the British Somaliland Protectorate, French Somaliland, Italian Somalia, northern Kenya, and the Ogaden in Ethiopia. In 1940, the Italian army, with the help of Ethiopians, captured the British Somaliland Protectorate, but the British regained control seven months later.
After World War II, Somalia experienced a Marxist revolution and received the assistance of Soviet military advisers. The new military government, known as the Supreme Revolutionary Council, continued to impose Sunni Islamic law on the population even though it embraced communist political philosophy. In 1971, Siad Barre, the leader of Somalia, announced the formation of a political party to rule the country, but chaos followed as local warlords fought with each other for power. After the Soviets withdrew their aid, the country descended into total civil war. The United Nations and the United States attempted to enforce peace in the country, but after the military disaster of 1994 during which Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in Mogadishu, the United States withdrew its forces and the United Nations left the country in 1995. Human rights violations continue to be a major problem in the country.
Early trade consisted of cloth made in Mogadishu that was exported to Egypt. Goods from the African interior that were traded to Egypt and the Middle East included hides, leopard and giraffe skins, ostrich feathers, ivory, rhinoceros horns, and slaves. During the ninth century, Mogadishu was the most prosperous town along the Somali coast. During the Middle Ages and early modern times, trade declined because of the successive changes in power. In the twentieth century, the principal crops included bananas, sugarcane, sorghum, corn, mangoes, sesame seeds, and cotton. Exports included livestock, fish, and uranium. The primary trading partners of the country are Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Djibouti, Yemen, and Italy. The constant state of warfare has all but eliminated international trade since the 1990s, and today Somalia is one of the least developed countries in the world.
Cynthia Clark Northrup
See also: Africa; East Africa.
Mohamed, Osman Omar. The Scramble in the Horn of Africa: History of Somalia, 1827–1977. Mogadishu: Somali, 2001.