Franchetti, Raimondo

views updated

FRANCHETTI, RAIMONDO

FRANCHETTI, RAIMONDO (1890–1935), Italian explorer. In 1910 Franchetti traveled alone through Indo-China and Malaysia. After World War i he explored the Sudan, East Africa, and Ethiopia. In Nella Dancàlia Etiopica (1935) he described the Danakil region of northeastern Ethiopia. His sympathetic understanding encouraged many of the Ethiopian tribal chiefs to join an alliance with Italy before hostilities began in 1934. Franchetti was killed in a plane explosion near Cairo airport.

More From encyclopedia.com