British Somaliland was a
British protectorate in the northern part of present-day
Somalia. The protectorate incorporated much of what now constitutes the
Puntland (
Maakhir) and
Somaliland macro-regions of Somalia. For much of its existence, British Somaliland was bordered by
French Somaliland, the
Ogaden, and
Italian Somaliland. From 1940 to 1941, it was occupied by the
Italians and was part of
Italian East Africa.
For a brief period in the 1870s, the Egyptian Muhammad Ali dynasty controlled the area. However, it withdrew in 1884. That same year, the British established a protectorate in the region, after signing successive treaties with the ruling Somali Sultans. The British garrisoned the protectorate from Aden and administered it from British India. Administration from India ended in 1898. British Somaliland was then administered by the Foreign Office until 1905 and afterwards by the Colonial Office.
Generally, the British did not have much interest in the resource-barren region. They principally viewed the protectorate as a source for supplies of meat for their British Indian outpost in Aden. Hence, the region's nickname of "Aden's butcher's shop".
From 1899, the British were forced to expend considerable human and military capital in a bloody struggle to contain a decades-long resistance movement led by the Somali religious leader Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan. Referred to colloquially by the British as the Mad Mullah, repeated expeditions were unsuccessfully launched against Hassan and his men before World War I.
