I used to be flaired on a related Somali topic under a different username several years ago when there were so few African History flaired people we had a specific sub just to find more. I ended up switching fields for love of money and thus stopped checking this sub much. There were also never any questions about Somalia and it was sad, and because my studies had been a mashup of history and political science to begin with, I really didn't know much about Africa except Somalia, and I didn't even know much about Somalia outside 1800-1995. Below is an excerpt from a paper I wrote back in undergrad that may give some background. If the mods aren't a fan, delete away, with bar prep I don't have much time to organize my thoughts like they should be, but this is from a paper listing causes of the collapse, with a broader focus on famine and trans-national police development. Edit: its also long, so its split up. I apologize.

Pre-Colonial Somalia

In the 14th century, Europe and the Ottoman Empire began to be more and more involved with the Horn of Africa, beginning with the Ottoman control and eventually a Portuguese intervention to save the weakened Christian kingdoms of Ethiopia. The Ottomans exercised control over Somalia through influence and supplies of weapons to the Muslim armies fighting the Christians in Ethiopia. From then on, the Ottomans and Portuguese Empires used the Horn of Africa, primarily Somalia, as a battleground, with Spain joining with Portugal near the end of the conflict. This seems to be the beginning of what would become a recurring theme in Somalia, being used by foreign governments as a buffer zone or battlegrounds for international affairs. The Ottomans appear to have been fairly hands off, with limited state-building or policing, leaving that to the general populace.

By the 19th century, the scramble for Africa had begun, and Somalia was included in this. Despite violent and determined resistance efforts, by the end of the 19th century, Somalia had been divided into five zones, the Italian Somaliland, British Somaliland, French Somaliland, Ethiopian Somaliland and the Northern Frontier District of Kenya (Fitzgerald 2002). In 1960, British and Italian Somalia merged into one independent state, that was immediately plagued by problems resulting from different styles of colonial rule in the two parts(Fitzgerald 2002). The chaos that was created by this allowed for the dictator Siad Barre to take control of Somalia in 1969, and rule until a coup 21 years later in 1991. **note: I remember that the Italian controlled parts of Somalia tended to be ruled directly, with a large Italian presence, while the British control was less direct and there was not a significant movement to settle the region. **

The revolts against the European powers were started by the Dervish Movement, a religious group that called for the ejection of Christians from Africa (Abbink 2003). The revolts would go on from 1899 to 1920, ending with the death of Sayyid Mohammed 'Abdulle Hassan, leader of the Dervish movement (Abbink 2003). Though this revolt actually did very little harm to the Europeans and their interests in Somalia, it was devastating to the people of Somalia, who were the most frequent targets of the Dervish attacks. The Italian Empire eventually collapsed during World War II, leading to the British taking over the administration of the entire region. Eventually, Somalia gained independence in 1960.

Independent Somalia

Following the 1960 departure of Europeans, the Somali government was finally in total control, though clan politics quickly led to a destabilization of the federal government, leading to the takeover by Siad Barre. Like other post-colonial dictators, Barre had actually gotten his start in the upper ranks of the Somali Police Force, and later as a general in the Somali National Army (Abbink 2003). Barre used a so called “scientific socialism” to rule Somalia, employing anyone who showed him and his government loyalty, in order to avoid the clan based politics that had divided and eventually caused the collapse in the first years of Somalia's independence. Eventually however, he did begin to be more and more influenced by his and his mother's clans, resulting in a costly war that would result in the social and political structure being forever changed (Ahmed & Green 1999). During and after the war, various clans and alliances of clans would occasionally rise up, either against the government or other clans, and not cease their attacks until demands were met, typically in money and goods. This resulted in violent revolt becoming a normal and accepted means of social, material and political gain in Somalia (Ahmed & Green 1999).

During the time of Barre's rule, both the Eastern Bloc and NATO had strong influences on Somalia, primarily through military and food support and also through police training. Until the war with Ethiopia in 1977 and 1978, Somalia relied on both the Soviet Union and NATO for support. The majority of the support including food and military training and arms were from the Soviet Union. To balance out this Soviet Union, police from West Germany were used to train the Somali Police Force. Italy and the US also played a small role in the training of the SPF (Ahmed & Green 1999). When Somalia went to war with Ethiopia, the Soviet Union abandoned Somalia in favor or Ethiopia, and NATO, primarily the US took over the role that the Soviet Union had been playing. Despite the US taking over, West Germany maintained its position as the main influence on the SPF. The one exception from this was that in the early 70s, the East German police and the Stasi assisted with the training of the police, though West Germany took control again a few years later. In contrast to the SPF was the National Security Service, the secret police force that answered directly to Barre. This force was trained and equipped by the Soviets using the KGB as a model and then left on its own by the US (Library of Congress Country Survey). While the SPF had maintained a very respected and highly regarded since it was a constabulary force under British and Italian control, the NSS had a reputation of cruelty and was despised my many Somalis. Though it had its roots as a constabulary, under German instruction, the SPF grew to include an investigation team, a woman’s unit, a traffic department, a fire brigade and an elite mobile unit that served as riot and ceremonial police (Library of Congress Country Survey).

Ogden War

The Ogaden is a region that lies partially in Somalia and partially in Ethiopia. Many of the inhabitants of this region consider themselves Somali, regardless of official nationality (Fitzgerald 2002). A guerrilla war turned into a full fledged war and a reversal of superpower support in the region. While Somalia had been supported by the Soviets, a regime change in Ethiopia resulted in the Soviets aligning themselves with Ethiopia, while the US in turn switched their support to Somalia (Ismail 1999) . By the end of the war, hundreds millions of dollars of Soviet military supplies had reached Ethiopia, and 700 million dollars worth of military assistance and economic assistance had been sent by the US to Somalia (Ismail 1999). Despite the contributions by the west, Somalia was defeated, and an estimated 500,000 refugees, soldiers and militants were forced back into Somalia, often carrying the latest in Soviet and US military technology (Ismail 1999). In 1981, the Somali National Movement (SNM) was formed in northern Somalia following a coup in 1978. The Isaaq clan of north Somalia began a brutal guerrilla war with Siad Barre's forces (Ismail 1999). In a last ditch effort to salvage his grip on power, Barre struck a peace deal with General Mengistu of Ethiopia, who had been in a state of unofficial guerrilla war for years, though both were also facing mounting opposition within their own countries (Ismail 1999). Because they could no longer hide on the boarder of the two nations any longer, the SNM returned to Somalia in a mass offensive, overwhelming the forces of Barre, though resulting in a counter offensive that ended with the capital of the Isaaq clan being razed as well as murdering thousands of civilians from the city (Ismail 1999). Though Barre defeated the SNM, the initial defeat inspired other clans to launch offensives, culminating with the founding of the United Somali Congress (USC) in 1989 (Ismail 1999). In his final stand in Somalia, Barre ordered a total destruction of all Hiyawe controlled sections of Mogadishu, resulting in a total destruction of much of the city's infrastructure and enraging the city even more (Ismail 1999). In 1991, Barre fled Mogadishu to his clans homeland where he hoped to mount a second opposition. In his absence, the USC, led by General Mohamed Farah Aidid and businessmen Ali Mahdi Mohamed took control of Mogadishu. Aidid left to pursue Barre while Mohammed remained in Mogadishu to solidify the USC control of the capital (Ismail 1999). Barre was quickly overwhelmed following his retreat and died soon after in exile in Nigeria. At the same time, northern Somalia began their secession into the Republic of Somaliland (Ismail 1999).

Continued

If you find some answers constrained, you could also try x-posting this to somewhere like /r/ask_politics or /r/neutralpolitics, as they can answer a little later than this sub is allowed to.

That's not to mean that this sub can't give you a complete answer, but they necessarily cannot give you an answer to current Somalia and will have a slightly different perspective than a political scientist might.

The discussion here is great and I think I'll post to a different sub that can provide answers based on modern events such as Clinton's Somalian operations, spike in piracy, and al-Shabbab.

However from the surface knowledge I have, it seems as though it was already in a sharply declining trend before the civil war. If I could get any clues such as what pre-colonial, colonial, or post-colonial 60s/70s Somalia (Italian or British, including Djibouti) was like in terms of economy, culture, and politics, it would be greatly appreciated.