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.

Artisanal fishing is crucial for employment, food security, and the sustainability of marine ecosystems. Identifying the factors that threaten this sector is essential for designing efficient and effective policies. In this article, I study the effect of offshore hydrocarbon discoveries – 40 percent of all global hydrocarbon discoveries to date – on artisanal fisheries. Using data on coastal countries from 1950 to 2017, I exploit variation in the plausibly exogenous timing and location of offshore discoveries in a stacked difference-in-differences design. I find that artisanal fishing effort declines steadily, falling to about 20 percent below its pre-discovery level eight years after a discovery. To investigate the mechanisms, I then focus on Senegal, which offers highly granular census data. I estimate a difference-in-differences model comparing fishing municipalities located close to discovery sites with those farther away. Consistent with the cross-country evidence, artisanal fishery employment falls significantly; this decline is largely offset by a rise in deep-sea fishery activity. Using data on fish catches and chlorophyll-a, a proxy for marine conditions, I provide suggestive evidence that fishers reallocate toward deep-sea fishing due to restricted access to fishing grounds and coastal ecosystem degradation. This suggests that existing marine protected areas and inshore exclusive zones may be insufficient to protect artisanal fisheries from the consequences of offshore resource development.