Somalia's history can be traced from positive tales of independence and unification in 1960, through to the long and complex civil war of the 1990s, scattering Somalis worldwide in search of the peace and stability they had once experienced.
Once labelled the "Switzerland of Africa", Somalia saw a decade of democracy post-independence from Britain and Italy. The first jointly elected president of Somalia, uniting the former British and Italian territories, was Aden Abdullah Osman who reigned for 7 years, only to be succeeded - peacefully and freely - by Abdulrashid Ali Sharmarke.
It was then that the brewing of discontent and corruption led to Sharmarke's assassination by one of his own bodyguards in 1969. Prime Minister Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein's succession was short-lived after Sharmarke's untimely demise, when a military coup led by General Siad Barre ended Somalia's experiment with democracy.
Whatever its failings, Barre's 22-year rule effectively built modern Somalia - with one of Africa's strongest armies - and radically improved literacy. However, Barre - supported by the United States and the Soviet Union - was also responsible for dissolving parliament, suspending the constitution, banning political parties, arresting politicians and limiting press freedoms.
"From then, there was a downward trend. In everything. A disintegration. And every time things were going down, the military regime was becoming more brutal and more dictatorial," says Jama Mohamed Ghalib, former Somali government minister.
But when Barre declared war with Ethiopia in 1977, it provoked serious internal and international opposition, including that of the Soviet Union which had once supported Barre but sided with Ethiopia. Encouraged by Ethiopia, tribes in the north rebelled against Barre's dictatorship, leading to his attack on former British-held Somalia. Thousands were killed.
It was in 1991 that the southern and northern tribes, armed by Ethiopia, rose up against Barre. With abandoned alliances, Barre's control had weakened, and soon his government fell. Civil war followed - a war that could have been avoided and continues on, even today - with myriad competing internal factions and foreign intervention, including Ethiopia's role in the emergence of Al-Shabab.
"If Siad Barre had left power two years earlier and said, 'Now Somalis, you have to organise new elections and I will be happy to leave', none of this would have happened. But when he brutalised different groups of people in different regions of the country, people were just, literally, mindlessly trying to get rid of him," says Abdi Samatar, professor of geography at the University of Minnesota.
A flood of UN aid in the 1990s and 2000s caused the collapse of agriculture and has left many farmers destitute. In the meantime, illegal foreign fishing spawned the piracy now synonymous with the country - a country with a long and deep history unknown to its own people.
