Giacomo De Martino (governor)

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

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.

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