Giacomo De Martino
Italian Governor of Somaliland
In office 1910–1916
Preceded by	Tommaso Carletti
Succeeded by	Giovanni Cerrina Feroni
Italian Governor of Eritrea
In office 16 September 1916 – 20 July 1919
Preceded by	Giovanni Cerrina Feroni
Succeeded by	Camillo De Camillis
Italian Governor of Cyrenaica
In office 5 August 1919 – 23 November 1921
Preceded by	Vincenzo Garioni
Succeeded by	Luigi Pintor
Personal details
Born	(1849-09-21)21 September 1849 London
Died	23 November 1921(1921-11-23) (aged 72) Benghazi

Giacomo De Martino (21 September 1849 – 23 November 1921) was an Italian politician, who was governor in the Italian colonies.^[1]

Biography

Born in London in 1849 from a rich Italian family. He was one of the main supporters of the Italian colonialism since he was young. Initially he was a diplomat, but soon started to do a political career. In 1905 he was elected at the Italian Senate. In 1906 De Martino created the Istituto coloniale italiano, in order to promote the development of the Italian colonies and their management.^[2]

Appointed senator (March 4, 1905), De Martino made long journeys to the Indies and to eastern and northern Africa and continued his propaganda with speeches and publications including the book Cyrene and Carthage (Bologna 1908). Appointed governor of Somalia (January 11, 1910), he began a policy of economic strengthening of that colony and of affirmation and expansion of Italian dominion, starting studies for the construction of a port, a road network and a railway towards the interior, making the first attempts at white colonization, establishing the regime of agricultural concessions on the Giuba and initiating the first contacts with the populations of the Oltre-Giuba. The dams of the Scebeli, the Genale dam and the relative state experimental company, and the purchase of Mahaddei-Uen on the Scebeli, Bur Acaba and Baidoa date back to him. As governor of the Colony of Eritrea (1916-1919), De Martino gave great impetus to public works, such as the construction of the customs sheds of Massawa, the building development of Asmara, the extension of the railway line in Cheren and beyond, towards the Gasc , the plants of the first mountain hydroelectric basin with the Belesa dam, and the industrial agricultural setting of Tessenei. On 1 July 1919, De Martino was sent to govern Cyrenaica. Treccani E.^[3]

He had held several colonial posts as he had been a governor of the Italian colonies of Somaliland (1910–1916),^[4] Eritrea (1916–1919), and finally Cyrenaica (1919–1921), where he had died at office of heart attack.