Somalia (sōmä'leə) , country (2005 est. pop. 8,591,000), 246,200 sq mi (637,657 sq km), extreme E Africa. It is directly south of the Arabian peninsula across the Gulf of Aden. Somalia comprises almost the entire African coast of the Gulf of Aden and a longer stretch on the Indian Ocean. It is bounded on the NW by Djibouti, on the W by Ethiopia, on the SW by Kenya, and on the S and E by the Indian Ocean. Mogadishu is the capital.

Land and People

Arid, semidesert conditions make the country relatively unproductive. In most areas, barren coastal lowland (widest in the south) is abruptly succeeded by a rise to the interior plateau, which is generally c.3,000 ft (910 m) high and stretches toward the northern and western highlands. The Jubba and the Webe Shebele are the only important rivers. In addition to Mogadishu, other important cities are Hargeisa, Berbera (the main northern port), and Kismayo (the principal port of the south).
The vast majority of the republic's population is Somali; they speak a Cushitic language and are Sunni Muslims. They are divided into five principal clans and many subclans. Islam is the state religion. Although Somali is the national tongue, Arabic, Italian, and English are used officially. There are Bantu-speaking ethnic groups in the southwest and numerous Arabs in the coastal towns.

Economy

Pastoralism is the dominant mode of life; both nomadic and sedentary herding of cattle, sheep, goats, and camels are carried on. The major cash crop is bananas. Other important crops include sugarcane, sorghum, corn, mangoes, sesame seeds, and cotton. There is a small fishing industry. Livestock, charcoal, bananas, hides and skins, and fish are exported. Somalia's most valuable mineral resource is uranium. Oil, iron ore, and other minerals have been discovered but are not produced commercially. Agricultural processing constitutes the bulk of Somalian industry, which includes meat and fish (notably tuna) canning, sugar refining, oilseed processing, leather tanning, and the production of cotton textiles and charcoal. There is also some petroleum refining; however, much of Somalia's industry has been shut down due to civil strife. There are no railroads. The chief trading partners include Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Djibouti, Yemen, and Italy.

Government

Politics of Somalia takes place in a framework of a state without de facto structures in civil war. De jure the President of Somalia is head of state and the Prime Minister of Somalia is head of government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Parliament.
Somalia became a united state 1 July 1960 (from a merger of British Somaliland, which became independent from the UK on 26 June 1960, and Italian Somaliland, which became independent from the Italian-administered UN trusteeship on 1 July 1960, to form the Somali Republic). The provinces formed out of former British Somaliland seceded from Somalia to form Somaliland.

History

Early and Colonial Periods
Between the 7th and 10th cent., immigrant Muslim Arabs and Persians established trading posts along Somalia's Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean coasts; Mogadishu began its existence as a trading station. During the 15th and 16th cent., Somali warriors regularly joined the armies of the Muslim sultanates in their battles with Christian Ethiopia.
British, French, and Italian imperialism all played an active role in the region in the 19th cent. Great Britain's concern with the area was largely to safeguard trade links with its Aden colony (founded 1839), which depended especially on mutton from Somalia. The British opportunity came when Egyptian forces, having occupied much of the region in the 1870s, withdrew in 1884 to fight the Mahdi in Sudan. British penetration led to a series of agreements (1884–86) with local tribal leaders and, in 1887, to the establishment of a protectorate. France first acquired a foothold in the area in the 1860s. An Anglo-French agreement of 1888 defined the boundary between the Somalian possessions of the two countries.
Italy first asserted its authority in the area in 1889 by creating a small protectorate in the central zone, to which other concessions were later added in the south (territory ceded by the sultan of Zanzibar) and north. In 1925, Jubaland, or the Trans-Juba (east of the Juba [now Jubba] River), was detached from Kenya to become the westernmost part of the Italian colony. In 1936, Italian Somaliland was combined with Somali-speaking districts of Ethiopia to form a province of the newly formed Italian East Africa. During World War II, Italian forces invaded British Somaliland; but the British, operating from Kenya, retook the region in 1941 and went on to conquer Italian Somaliland. Britain ruled the combined regions until 1950, when Italian Somaliland became a UN trust territory under Italian control.