very limited and propagandistic education provided to its non-Italian inhabitants under Mussolini's rule. Demographics In 1939, there were 165,267 Italian citizens in the Italian East Africa, the majority of them concentrated around the main urban centres of Asmara, Addis Ababa and Mogadishu. The total population was estimated around 12.1 million, with a density of just over . The distribution of population was, however, very uneven. Eritrea, with an area of , had a population estimated in about 1.5 million, with a population density of ; Ethiopia with an area of and a population of some 9.5 million, had a resulting density of ; sparsely populated Italian Somaliland finally, with an area of and a population of just 1.1 million, had a very low density of . Italian atrocities In February 1937, following many murders of Italian and Eritrean soldiers and an assassination attempt on Italian East Africa's Viceroy, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, Italian soldiers raided the famous Ethiopian monastery Debre Libanos, where the assassins were believed to have taken refuge, and executed the monks and nuns. Afterwards, Italian soldiers destroyed native settlements in Addis Ababa, which resulted -according to Ethiopian estimates- in nearly 30,000 Ethiopians being killed and their homes left burned to the ground. The massacre has come to be known as Yekatit 12. After the massacres, Graziani became known as "the Butcher of Ethiopia". He was subsequently removed by Mussolini and replaced by Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, who followed a more conciliatory policy towards the natives, obtaining a huge success in pacifying Ethiopia. By the eve of the Italian entry into the Second World War (January/February 1940) the Ethiopian guerrillas were still in control of some areas of Harar and the Galla-Sidamo Governorate. Amedeo's conciliatory efforts obtained that Abebe Aregai, then the last leader of the "Arbegnoch" (as the guerrilla fighters were called in Ethiopia) made a surrender proposal to the Italians in the spring of 1940 (after the 1939 surrender of Ethiopian leaders Zaudiè Asfau and Olonà Dinkel). The Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940 and British influence blocked the surrender proposal. See also List of governors-general of Italian East Africa List of governors of the governorates of Italian East Africa Dubats Political history of Eastern Africa Italian Ethiopia Italians of Ethiopia Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia Italian African Police Italian East African lira Augusto Turati Languages of Africa Notes References Bibliography Antonicelli, Franco (1961)