Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Italian colonial empire existed between 1882 and 1960. It began with the Italian government taking over Assab Bay on the Red Sea in 1882 and ended on the 1st of July 1960 when the Somali Republic became independent.
At its peak between 1936 and 1941, the Italian Empire in Africa included the territories of present-day Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, and Ethiopia, collectively grouped as Africa Orientale Italiana. Outside Africa, Italy controlled the Dodecanese Islands, Albania, and a concession in Tianjin, China.
The Battle of Adwa in 1896 was a decisive defeat for Italy in its first attempt to conquer Ethiopia. Italy suffered 6,889 dead, including 4,133 Italians, and was forced to abandon its ambitions in Ethiopia for nearly four decades.
Mussolini argued that Italy was a prisoner of the Mediterranean, surrounded by British and French-controlled chokepoints including Gibraltar, Suez, Malta, Cyprus, Corsica, and Tunisia. In a 1939 document called "The March to the Oceans," he asserted that nations without free ocean access were only semi-independent.
The Treaty of Paris of 1947 stripped Italy of all its overseas possessions. The Dodecanese went to Greece, Libya came under Anglo-French administration, and Eritrea was handed to Ethiopia. Italy was later granted a United Nations trusteeship over Somalia, which ended when Somalia became independent in 1960.
By 1939, Italian settlers numbered 120,000-150,000 in Italian Libya and 165,000 in Italian East Africa, a result of the Fascist government's policy of systematic demographic colonisation.