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Tangier, door of Africa and crossroads between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic world, was the diplomatic capital of the Moroccan empire in the 19th century and its cultural and commercial heart connected with Europe. The Italians who migrated from the Italian peninsula or from other North-African colonies to settle down in Tangier constituted a small community which contributed to the creation of the cosmopolitan nature which defined Tangier until the Moroccan independence in 1956. Both the end of the international regime and the colonial occupation caused the loss of the privileges the Italians, and the Europeans in general, had been enjoying. Furthermore, they were compelled to relocate themselves in the new society, the Moroccan one for those who decided to remain, or the Italian, Spanish or French one for those who decided to leave. In other words, they had to rethink their own cosmopolitan identity in national terms alone. During the process of re-negotiation of their belonging, consciously or unconsciously, they found themselves partially Moroccan, proving that the cosmopolitanism was also related to Africa and the Africans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the long post-war period, Italy was engaged in reconnecting to the old colonial policy in Africa, with the specific aim of obtaining the support of the former intermediaries of the colonial administration. The match for the colonies, conquered through the blood and the work of Italians, became a vital question for the construction of a country that had been deeply shaken by the war. The violence, the crimes and plunder of colonialism were then charged to fascism and the new Italy could reappear on the African scene carrying on an idea of a renewed civilizing mission that referred to the liberal era of colonialism and even to the previous founding myth rooted in the struggles of the Risorgimento. The attempt to combine the old with the new led to a vicious circle whose protagonists were some Libyans and Eritreans, who found themselves in Italy after World War II and did everything they could to remain in the country as African Italians. The alleged involvement of former subjects to the benefits of what was supposed to be a season of democratic colonialism unveiled the failure of the idea of associate the colonies to the new Italian Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]