in 1960 both british and italian somaliland declared independence together as the "somali republic". it was chosen the latin alphabet for the somali language. many areas where somalis lived were still part of britain, ethiopia and france. somalia wanted to get back all the areas that had been colonized by the french, ethiopians and british. somalia and ethiopia had a short war in 1964 over the ethiopian part of somalia, and it was obvious that more fighting was to come.