Page 572 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo II

1212 XXXIX Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

colony, from the other side it is important to underline the tasks and the skills of Assab
Carabinieri and, specifically, of warrant officer Cavedagni.
In that way started a new phase of the Italian colonial engagement in Africa.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the job led by warrant officer Cavedagni and by three Carabinieri was
important to build a very intensive relationship between Carabinieri and natives.
Cavedagni, coming back to Italy in 1885, was awarded, first of all, with a solemn
citation by the Naples legion commander with the following motivation: “for important
and very good duties when he commanded Assab Station (Africa) and specifically
49
during the Beilul occupation by Italian forces” . After a while, Cavedagni received the
50
title of knight of the Italian crown order when he was warrant officer; this means a very
high prize from the hierarchy to a warrant officer and after another small period he was
51
promoted to the rank of second lieutenant .
It is important to emphasize the high quality of carabinieri personnel chosen to be
deployed in Africa. It is obvious, regarding the special duties of Carabinieri in Assab
that they performed many tasks such as preventive surveillance, information gathering,
public order maintaining.
It has been recognized that the presence of that small presidium of Carabinieri in the
Horn of Africa, reinforced by native guards with guns, constituted an important point
in order to establish the colony. The point is the integration among Italian and native
personnel that reached very good results on the ground.
It is a very good point to stress because thanking the good relationship with local
population, the good quality of the recruited native personnel (later called zaptié), the
image in the colonial territory of Carabinieri and Zaptié was always in a very high
perspective.
The experience of these four Carabinieri personnel was important also to establish a
new experience with the recruitment of local police forces under carabinieri command
with a small unit of these men it was possible to establish the Zaptié corps, a small
military corps composed by natives that had a very big importance in the organisation
and evolution of the Italian colonies till the end of the colonial experience with the peace
agreement after the Second World War in 1947.

49 Bollettino dei Carabinieri Reali, a. VIII – aprile 1885, p. 188. In Italian: “per gli importanti e distinti
servizi resi durante il tempo che tenne il comando della stazione di Assab (Africa), e segnatamente nella
circostanza dell’occupazione di Beilu[l] per parte delle truppe italiane”.
50 The topic of the Italian crown order is available in alberTo aTTolini, L’Ordine Cavalleresco della
Corona d’Italia, in Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento, a. XCIII (2006), pp. 59-65. Cavedagni was
nominated knight with R. decreto 9 aprile 1885, in Bollettino dei Carabinieri Reali, a. VIII – giugno
1885, p. 278. All the informations about the military life of Cavedagni come from Bollettino dei Cara-
binieri Reali years 1885/1895 and from the Annuario militare (Ruolino dei Sigg. Ufficiali) dell’Arma
dei Carabinieri Reali, Florence, Stab. Tipografico G. Passeri, years 1899/1903.
51 He was promoted to the rank of officer with R. decreto 26 luglio 1885; first he was transferred to the
Carabinieri cadets legion in Bollettino dei Carabinieri Reali, a. VIII – July 1885, p. 312 and p. 321.