The World Aflame by Dan Jones & Marina Amaral

Author:Dan Jones & Marina Amaral
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2020-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

The Abyssinia Crisis

As the Nazis gathered strength, in Italy Benito Mussolini remained determined to expand his territories in Africa. In 1935 he and his generals set their sights on the empire of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). The history of Italian–Abyssinian conflict stretched back to the 1890s, when Italian troops were beaten at the Battle of Adwa and Abyssinia escaped conquest. By the 1930s, Mussolini was ready to avenge that defeat.

In early December 1934, troops from the colony of Italian Somaliland skirmished with Abyssinian forces at the Walwal oasis. The Abyssinian emperor, Haile Selassie, complained to the League of Nations, and protested against further build-ups of Italian troops on his borders in the following months. It did him no good. On 3 October 1935, Mussolini’s invasion began. Italian troops, around 100,000-strong, were heavily outnumbered, but they had air support, machine guns, artillery and mustard gas, while many of Selassie’s forces still wielded spears and Adwa-era rifles.

Belatedly, the League of Nations tried to impose economic sanctions on Italy. It was a vain effort. Mussolini ignored the sanctions, secured Hitler’s backing for his war, withdrew Italy from the League of Nations, and made private pacts with Britain and France assuring him that there would be no serious punishment. The Abyssinian capital, Addis Ababa, fell in May 1936 and Haile Selassie fled into exile. The international community was shown to be unable or unwilling to intervene against fascist aggression. There was now no going back.

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