The Italian Invasion of Ethiopia, also called the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, was a seven-month armed conflict between October 1935 and May 1936. It is seen as a sample of the expansionist policy that characterized the Axis Powers and the inefficiency of the League of Nations before the outbreak of World War II.
In December 1934, Ethiopian and Italian troops clashed, killing one hundred and fifty men of the first and fifty of the second. After the exchange of mutual accusations, the two countries agreed to arbitrate the resolution of the conflict. The League of Nations exonerated both sides of the blame, and Italy began to accumulate forces at the border.
During the Stresa conference the apparent Franco-British indifference to the Ethiopian plans of Mussolini was confirmed. Thus, Mussolini unleashed a broad propaganda campaign that presented the colonial expansion in East Africa as the solution to the problems of the nation: economic experts described the country as a rich source of raw materials and a large market for Italian products. In May 1935, Italy openly proclaimed its intention to dominate the region and resort to war to achieve it if necessary.
The territorial and economic concessions proposed by the British were unacceptable to the Italian president, who wanted to obtain territories much greater than those offered by the British minister and the informal control of the whole country. The Italian prime minister insinuated the Italian disposition to leave the League of Nations if this finally opposed the Italian expansion. To try to reach an agreement between the British, French and Italians, several negotiations were carried out, first in Paris in August and then in Geneva in September, without success. The tripartite talks ceased in early October because of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie began recruiting men, eventually forming an army of half a million soldiers, which, however, was armed simply with rifles and carbines quite outdated, while some soldiers only carried spears. The Ethiopian troops lacked a single command, as they were summoned by almost independent clans among themselves, and by all air power had a dozen aircraft of the First World War.
