in 1892, ali bin said let italy use the city. italy bought the city in 1905. they made "mogadiscio" (italian for mogadishu) the capital of italian somaliland. the italians took control of the area around the city in 1919 after minor resistance. italian mogadiscio from a small village of 1,000 inhabitants in the 1890s to a modern capital in 1940 of nearly 100,000 persons (of whom more than 1/3 were italians), that was second only to asmara in eritrea for development inside the italian empire.