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. In this article, we study the effect of Italy's colonial expansion in East Africa on contemporary political outcomes. Using data on all 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 municipalities' exposure, we exploit the historical geographical distribution of mountain troops of the Italian Army, which were largely deployed in East Africa because of Ethiopia's mountainous territory. We show that exposure to the 1930s colonial campaigns increased support for neo-fascist and nationalist parties in the immediate postwar electoral cycles, and still increases support for far-right parties today. Exploring possible mechanisms, we find that: (i) the effect is amplified in municipalities with a larger presence of Black African immigrants; (ii) far-right parties obtain larger electoral returns from anti-immigration rhetoric in municipalities with stronger colonial exposure. Taken together, our results suggest that the racial narratives used to justify the colonial expansion may have persisted across generations and continue to shape political attitudes today.

Fisheries provide livelihoods for 8 percent of the global population, especially in developing countries. I study the impact of offshore natural resource discoveries – 40 percent of all global discoveries to date – on the fisheries sector. I first provide cross-country evidence that offshore discoveries systematically reduce fish-based food supply and undermine artisanal fishing opportunities. I then focus on the case of Senegal to investigate the mechanisms behind this pattern. Leveraging the plausibly exogenous timing and location of the first offshore discoveries in Senegal over 2014–2017 as a natural experiment, I employ a difference-in-differences approach, comparing fishing municipalities close to the discovery sites to those farther away. The results show a sharp decline in artisanal fishing, offset by growth in industrial fishing. I argue that this shift is driven by a reduction in fish stocks and physical access to fishing grounds in coastal waters.  At the same time, treated areas experience significant increases in overall employment rates, consistent with broader economic opportunities generated during the development phase following the discoveries.