Italian invasion of Abyssinia

Abyssinia, Italian invasion of (Italian invasion of Ethiopia) (1935-6). This invasion, which was condemned futilely by the League of Nations, was effected with poison gas, and created great popular indignation, in Britain, Africa, and elsewhere. The conflict had its roots in the rise of fascism in Italy, and in Mussolini's ambition to avenge Adowa, and win Italy ‘a place in the sun’. He and his aide Emilio De Bono decided, in 1933, to invade Abyssinia ‘no later than 1936’. The pretext was the Wal Wal incident of December 1934, when Ethiopian forces clashed with Italian colonial troops, which had infiltrated 62 miles (100 km) into Ethiopian territory. Mussolini used the ensuing period of negotiations to build up his armies in Italian Eritrea and Somalia. They eventually numbered 200, 000 men. Britain and France, which together controlled the remainder of the coastline around Abyssinia, imposed an arms embargo on both parties. This fell heavier on Abyssinia, which imported arms, than on Italy, which manufactured them.

Mussolini's armies finally attacked, from the north and south, without any declaration of war, on 3 October 1935. They enjoyed vast superiority in weapons, and total control of the air. The League of Nations declared Italy guilty of aggression, but imposed only ineffective economic sanctions. The Italian advance, from Eritrea under De Bono, was initially slow, and that from Somalia under Gen Rodolfo Graziani (the subsequent Italian viceroy) relatively unimportant. Mussolini accordingly dismissed De Bono, in November, and replaced him by Gen Pietro Badoglio, a career soldier, whom he authorized to use chemical weapons. The Italians, who employed heavy aerial bombardments and used mustard gas extensively, then advanced rapidly. They defeated Emperor Haile Selassie's chiefs early in 1936, and the monarch's own army at Mai Chew, at the end of March 1936, and entered Addis Ababa on 5 May. The emperor had left for Europe three days earlier. He appealed to the League in vain, on 30 June. The Italian conquest was soon recognized by most of the world. Ethiopian patriotic resistance nevertheless continued throughout the Italian five-year occupation.

Bibliography

• Del Boca, Angelo, I gas di Mussolini (Rome, 1996).
• Mockler, Anthony, Haile Selassie's War (London, 1984).
• Pankhurst, Richard, ‘The Ethiopian Patriots’, Ethiopia Observer, 8 (1970).
• Steer, George, Caesar in Abyssinia (London, 1936)

— Richard Pankhurst