Italian East Africa (Italian: Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI) is an Italian colony in the Horn of Africa.

It was formed in 1936 through the merger of Italian Somalia, Italian Eritrea, and the newly occupied Ethiopian Empire, conquered in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.

Italian East Africa was divided into six governorates.

Eritrea and Somalia, Italian possessions since the 1880s, are enlarged with captured Ethiopian territory and become the Eritrea and Somalia Governorates.

The remainder of "Italian Ethiopia" consists of the Harar, Galla-Sidamo, Amhara, and Scioa Governorates.

Fascist colonial policy has a divide and conquer characteristic and favors the Somali and Tigrayan peoples in order to weaken the Amhara people, who had been the ruling ethnic group in the Ethiopian Empire.

During the Second World War, Italian East Africa is occupied by a British-led force including colonial units and Ethiopian guerrillas in November 1941.

After the war, Italian Somalia and Eritrea come under British administration, while Ethiopia regains its independence.

In 1950, occupied Somalia becomes the United Nations Trust Territory of Somaliland, administered by Italy from 1950 until its independence in 1960.

Occupied Eritrea becomes an autonomous part of Ethiopia in 1952.