Southern Asia 1940: Italian Conquest of British Somaliland

Changes to the map 22 December 1939–7 August 1940

British Somaliland: The Italians have captured Zeila and Hargeisa and are advancing on Berbera.

Egypt & Sudan: The British have occupied Egypt in response to the Italian entry into the War. In Sudan, the Italians have occupied Kassala, Gallabat, and Kurmuk.

Italian East Africa: The British have evacuated Gambela to the Italians.

Kenya: The Italians have occupied Moyale, Buna, Dabel, and land to the west of Lake Rudolf.

Vichy French Empire: Syria, French Somaliland, French Indochina and French India (Pondicherry) have declared loyalty to the Vichy French government, which is collaborating with the Germans. Chandernagore, surrounded by British territory, has declared for the pro-Allied Free French.

British Protectorates in the Persian Gulf

The British Residency of the Persian Gulf maintained British India's influence in a number of Gulf states from the 19th Century until 1947. These states were nominally independent - and shown as such in most atlases from the period - but all signed treaties guaranteeing British control over their foreign affairs.

The Sultanate of Muscat and Oman was the only one of these states with significant international relations, having obtained trade agreements with the US and France before it signed its treaty with Britain. Maps of the time often show Trucial Oman and even Qatar as regions of Oman.

Trucial Oman was the region to the west of Oman which collectively signed treaties with Britain. The sheikhdoms of this region were often called the Trucial States, and later became the United Arab Emirates. However at this time they had little unity, with no regional council until 1952.

Indian Empire

The British Indian Empire, also known as the British Raj, was comprised of a complex of presidencies, provinces, protectorates, and agencies. Only the top level subdivisions are shown here.

The area under direct British rule was known as British India and made up of presidencies and provinces - a presidency simply being the name for an older province.

Outside British India, but often included within the sphere of the presidencies/provinces, were the hundreds of protectorates or 'princely states'. These were indirectly ruled states, the largest being Hyderabad, Kashmir, and Mysore. The others were either collected into agencies - which might in turn contain other smaller agencies - or fell under the sway of the provinces.