page_title: Royal Corps of Colonial Troops
section_title: Composition
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Corps of Colonial Troops / Composition
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of Libyan paratroopers of the Italian Army at Castel Benito airport. Español: Imagen de paracaidistas libicos, tomada (con mi camara digital Kodak) de libro sobre colonias italianas en 1939.
context_page_description: The Royal Corps of Colonial Troops was a corps of the Italian armed forces, in which all the Italian colonial troops were grouped until the end of World War II in Africa.
context_section_description: At different times, the colonial troops of Italy consisted of irregular military units such as: bashi-buzuki, askari, savari, spahi, dubat. Created and the so-called "gangs" (from the Italian word bande - a group), small cavalry military formations, as a rule, consisted of 100-200 people. At the same time, in North Africa, instead of horses, they used camels , more hardy to the desert area , more familiar to the Tuareg tribes .
  With the occupation of Albania in 1939 , colonial troops were created by the Italians there as well. They also consisted of local residents. Unlike Hitler's Nazis, who, moreover, did not yet have overseas colonies, the Italian fascists did not have a clear ideology of racial superiority, but were rather typical classical colonialists , so they tried not to destroy the local population, but exploited it. Therefore, not having a sufficient number of ethnic Italians in the colonies, to protect them, they willingly used the local peoples as soldiers. In turn, the natives went to the service of the Italians, because they had from this salary, rations, clothing and a relatively high status in their society.
  Since the beginning of the colonial conquest the Kingdom of Italy created military units with colonial soldiers. The main units included as parts of the RCTC were:
  Libya: Libyan troops, which included the Libyan Meharisti, the Savari, the Spahis. and Zaptié
  Eritrea: Royal Corps Of Eritrean Colonial Troops, mainly the Eritrean Ascari, and Zaptie.
  Somalia: Somali troops, which included Royal Corps of Somali Colonial Troops, the Dubats and Somali Zaptié.
  Ethiopia: Ethiopian troops (after 1937), which included the Group "Bande Amhara" of Amedeo Guillet, and Zaptié.
  All these military units underwent a reorganization in the 1930s, the Eritrean, Somali, and Ethiopian became the Armed Forces of Italian East Africa.
caption: Libyan paratroopers of the 1st Libyan Division Sibelle
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