Italian expansion: Abyssinia (1935-1936) Notes

Italian expansion: Abyssinia (1935-1936) Events

1. We have already mentioned the Abyssinian crisis on several occasions.
2. The events in Abyssinia (present day Ethiopia) during 1935-1936 marked a critical moment for both international diplomacy and Mussolini’s strategic direction.
3. Italy’s military campaign in Ethiopia significantly altered the balance of its foreign relations, straining ties with Britain and France and gradually nudging Mussolini toward alignment with Nazi Germany.
4. At the same time, the League of Nations suffered another major setback.
   1. After its earlier inability to act decisively in Manchuria, its failure to prevent aggression in Abyssinia severely damaged its credibility and influence on the world stage, perhaps to a point of no return.

What were Mussolini’s aims in invading Abyssinia?

1. He wanted to grow his African Empire and take revenge for Italy having been defeated by Abyssinia in 1896.
2. Abyssinia was part of Mussolini’s spazio vitale/ultra nationalist ideology: Italy had failed to get new colonies as a result of the 1919-1920 peace treaties.
3. Part of Mussolini’s ideological project was also to restore the glory of the ancient Roman Empire, so getting part of North Africa felt as a natural step.
4. Regardless of which was the main motivation for Mussolini going to Abyssinia, without a doubt he also did it because he could do it. In particular, he was confident that neither the League nor Britain or France would take action against him.
5. He had helped Austria in 1934 to prevent Anschluss, which made him look good in the eyes of the League, Britain and France.
6. In April 1935, he had signed the Stresa Front with Britain and France as a deterrence against Hitler.
   1. As you know, this was a collective security agreement that secured his good relations with Britain and France and in a way conditioned any action that Britain and France could take against Mussolini.

Abyssinia - The events

1. Mussolini had been planning the invasion at least since 1932, but the opportunity presented itself in 1934 with the Wal Wal incident.
2. The Wal Wal incident occurred at an oasis along the disputed border between Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia, where Italian colonial troops and Ethiopian forces had a small clash over territorial claims.
3. This skirmish heightened tensions between the two nations and provided Italy with a pretext for its subsequent military aggression, which culminated in the invasion of Abyssinia in early October 1935.
4. Before the invasion, the Emperor of Abyssinia, Haile Selassie, appealed several times to the League of Nations for help, but they did not take action until the war actually began.
5. Against Mussolini’s prediction, the League did sanction Italy with economic penalties in October 1936. Mussolini completed the invasion in 1936 and Haile Selassie went into exile.

The Invasion of Abyssinia - Responses

The League of Nations’ Response

1. Contrary to Mussolini’s expectations, the League voted in favor of economic sanctions on Italy.
   1. This was mostly due to public pressure in Britain, where public opinion was clearly in favor of taking a strong stand against the invasion.
2. The economic sanctions included a banning on sales of weapons and some imports to Italy and an additional ban of loans to Mussolini.
3. Nevertheless, the sanctions were not effective: they were introduced in late November (when the invasion was already well underway) and they did not include the banning on key military materials like iron, oil, steel and coal.
4. Moreover, countries that were not part of the League, like Japan and the US, were not bound by the sanctions, and they continued their trading with Italy.
5. Britain and France feared being at odds with Mussolini because that may bring Hitler and Mussolini together, and that is why they didn’t take more decisive action.
   1. But at the same time, they could not go against the claim of the population in their nations and had to support some type of punishment.
   2. But even when the response of the League was not assertive, Mussolini was angered by the sanctions.
6. In December 1935 Sir Samuel Hoare (British foreign minister) and Pierre Laval (Prime Minister of France) reached a secret agreement in Paris that two thirds of Abyssinia should be offered to Italy, and the Emperor Haile Selassie be compensated with land elsewhere instead.
7. But the news was leaked out in the press and the agreement didn’t go through.

Political Responses

1. As a consequence of the invasion of Abyssinia, the Stresa Pact waned and was discarded.
2. Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia strengthened Mussolini’s willingness to challenge international norms, and contributed to Hitler’s reoccupation of the Rhineland while global focus was elsewhere.
3. Mussolini began aligning more closely with Hitler: in late 1936, Germany and Italy formalized their partnership through the Rome-Berlin Axis.
4. The alliance between Hitler and Mussolini was fostered by their intervention in the Spanish Civil War (1936-9) in support of Franco. Mussolini’s contribution was mostly in the form of infantry, sending 70,000 troops to Spain.
5. It is worth noting that the Italians performed poorly in Spain, and suffered a humiliating defeat in Guadalajara (1937).
   1. Nevertheless, the tighter bonds with Hitler prompted Mussolini to join the Anti Comintern Pact in 1936 and to leave the League of Nations in late 1937.