European empires dominated entire continents for centuries. Yet, the literature on colonial legacies has largely focused on the long-term effects of colonialism in former colonies, overlooking its consequences for the former colonial powers themselves. We study the effect of fascist Italy’s colonial campaigns in East Africa in the 1930s on contemporary political outcomes. Using data on the surnames of Italian soldiers buried in Eritrea and Ethiopia, and the contemporary distribution of surnames across Italy, we construct an index of exposure to colonial wars at the municipality level. To isolate exogenous variation in colonial exposure, we exploit the historical spatial distribution of mountain troops, which were disproportionately deployed in East Africa because of Ethiopia's mountainous territory. The instrument is unrelated to pre-treatment support for fascism. We show that municipalities more exposed to the 1930s colonial wars were more likely to support neo-fascist and nationalist parties in the immediate postwar electoral cycles and remain more likely to support far-right parties today. The effects are stronger in municipalities with larger proportions of Black African migrants.

Fisheries provide livelihoods for 8 percent of the global population, especially in developing countries. I study the impact of the first offshore oil and gas discoveries in Senegal on the fisheries sector. Leveraging the plausibly exogenous timing and location of the discoveries as a natural experiment, I employ a difference-in-differences approach, comparing fishing municipalities close to the discovery sites to fishing areas farther away. The results show a sharp decline in artisanal fishing, offset by growth in industrial fishing. I argue that this shift reflects increased competition for ocean space: offshore oil activities reduce fish stocks and restrict physical access to coastal fishing grounds traditionally used by artisanal fishers. The findings highlight a case of involuntary structural transformation within the fisheries sector, from artisanal to industrial activities. At the same time, treated areas experience significant increases in employment rates.