Italy Invades Abyssinia

OCT 03 1935 · 12:00

Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia addresses the League of Nations in Geneva, 30 June 1936, appealing for collective action against the Italian invasion. Place: From Eritrea and Italian Somaliland into Ethiopia Figures: Benito Mussolini, ordering from Rome · Marshal Pietro Badoglio, commanding · Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, southern front · Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia · Samuel Hoare and Pierre Laval, drafting a secret partition · Anthony Eden, resigning over it Mustard Gas in the Highlands Italian forces cross from Eritrea into Tigray on 3 October 1935 without declaration of war. Badoglio commands roughly 400,000 men, the largest colonial expedition assembled to that date. Ethiopian resistance under Ras Mulugeta and Ras Imru is determined; Italian advance is slow until early 1936, when Mussolini authorizes the use of mustard gas, sprayed from aircraft over Ethiopian troops, civilians, and Red Cross stations in direct violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol Italy has ratified. Addis Ababa falls on 5 May 1936. Haile Selassie escapes by train and ship to Britain. On 9 May Mussolini proclaims the empire from the Palazzo Venezia balcony. Italian East Africa, formed by the merger of Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Italian Somaliland, lasts five years. Sanctions Imposed and Quietly Dropped The League of Nations declares Italy the aggressor on 7 October and imposes Article 16 sanctions on 18 November: arms embargo, financial restrictions, ban on imports from Italy, ban on exports to Italy of certain raw materials. Oil, the one sanction that might have stopped the war, is excluded. In December the British and French foreign ministers privately draft the Hoare-Laval Pact, which would partition Ethiopia in Italy's favour; the plan leaks, public outcry forces Hoare's resignation, but the signal to Rome is unmistakable. On 30 June 1936, Haile Selassie addresses the League Assembly in Geneva in person: It is us today. It will be you tomorrow. Hecklers from the Italian press gallery shout him down. The League ends sanctions on 15 July. France and Britain are by now actively prioritizing Italian alignment against Germany. The League's second total failure (see [[japan-invades-manchuria-1931]]) is complete inside seven months. Within four years Italy is fighting on the German side anyway. Video: Indy Neidell on Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia from 3 October 1935 and the League of Nations failure that followed.