Italian Invasion of Ethiopia (1935): Mussolini's Colonial War

The Italian invasion of Ethiopia, also called the Second Italo-Ethiopian War or the Abyssinia Crisis, began on 3 October 1935 when Fascist Italy attacked the Ethiopian Empire without a declaration of war. Using aircraft, tanks and poison gas against a largely traditional army, Italian forces captured Addis Ababa in May 1936. The war exposed the weakness of the League of Nations and pushed Mussolini towards an alliance with Hitler.

Background

Ethiopia was one of only two African states, with Liberia, that had kept its independence during the European “Scramble for Africa”. Its emperor Menelik II had crushed an Italian army at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, a defeat many Italian nationalists still resented. In 1923 Ethiopia joined the League of Nations, which in principle guaranteed its independence.

Benito Mussolini, in power since the March on Rome in 1922, wanted a new Roman empire. Conquering Ethiopia would link Italy’s colonies of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, offer land for settlers and give the regime a prestige victory during hard economic times. Planning for war began in earnest in 1932–1934.

The pretext came on 5 December 1934, when Italian colonial troops and Ethiopian soldiers clashed at the wells of Walwal (Welwel), inside Ethiopia’s Ogaden region. Italy demanded an apology and compensation. Emperor Haile Selassie took the dispute to the League, which delayed for months while Italy shipped troops and equipment through the Suez Canal.

The invasion

On 3 October 1935 Italian forces under General Emilio De Bono crossed from Eritrea into northern Ethiopia, while General Rodolfo Graziani advanced from Somaliland in the south. Adwa fell on 6 October, an event Italian propaganda celebrated as revenge for 1896. Progress was slow, and in November Mussolini replaced De Bono with Marshal Pietro Badoglio.

Ethiopia’s armies were large but poorly equipped. Many soldiers carried old rifles or traditional weapons, and the country had only a handful of aircraft. In December 1935 Ethiopian commanders launched a counter-offensive in the north, known as the Christmas Offensive, which caught Italian units off balance.

Italy then turned to chemical warfare. Mussolini authorised the use of gas, and Italian aircraft dropped mustard gas bombs and sprayed the agent over troops, villages and water sources. Italy had ratified the 1925 Geneva Protocol banning such weapons. The gas caused terrible burns and blindness among soldiers and civilians who had no protection. Italian aircraft also bombed several foreign Red Cross field hospitals, drawing international protests. Italy denied using gas for decades and admitted it officially only in 1996.

The decisive battles

In early 1936 Badoglio’s forces won a series of battles in the north: the First and Second Battles of Tembien, the Battle of Amba Aradam (also called Enderta) in February, and the Battle of Shire. Italian air power and artillery shattered Ethiopian armies, and retreating troops were bombed and gassed.

The last major battle was fought at Maychew on 31 March 1936, where Haile Selassie personally led his Imperial Guard against fortified Italian positions and was defeated. In the south, Graziani advanced towards Harar. On 2 May the emperor left Addis Ababa by train for Djibouti and exile. Badoglio entered the capital on 5 May 1936, and on 9 May Mussolini proclaimed King Victor Emmanuel III Emperor of Ethiopia. Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somaliland were merged into Italian East Africa.

The League of Nations fails

On 7 October 1935 the League Council declared Italy the aggressor, and from 18 November member states applied economic sanctions. However, the sanctions did not include oil, the one import Italy could not easily replace, and Britain did not close the Suez Canal, through which Italian troops and supplies passed. The United States, not a League member, stayed neutral.

Britain and France were anxious to keep Mussolini as a partner against Hitler. In December 1935 the British foreign secretary Samuel Hoare and the French prime minister Pierre Laval drafted a plan to give Italy much of Ethiopia. When the Hoare–Laval Pact leaked to the press, public outrage forced Hoare to resign.

Inside Italy, the sanctions were turned into a source of patriotic mobilisation. On 18 December 1935, the “Day of Faith”, Queen Elena led Italian women in handing over their gold wedding rings to the state in exchange for steel ones. Abroad, the invasion provoked protests among people of African descent in the Caribbean, the United States and Britain, where many saw Ethiopia as a symbol of African independence.

On 30 June 1936 Haile Selassie addressed the League Assembly in Geneva. Italian journalists in the gallery jeered him. He described the gas attacks and warned that if the members abandoned a small state, collective security would collapse. The League nonetheless lifted sanctions in July 1936.

Key people

• Haile Selassie (1892–1975): emperor of Ethiopia from 1930, who led resistance, went into exile in Britain and returned in 1941.
• Benito Mussolini (1883–1945): Fascist dictator of Italy, who ordered the invasion and authorised the use of gas.
• Emilio De Bono (1866–1944): first commander of the invasion, replaced in November 1935 for slow progress.
• Pietro Badoglio (1871–1956): marshal who won the decisive northern battles and entered Addis Ababa.
• Rodolfo Graziani (1882–1955): commander on the southern front and viceroy of Italian East Africa in 1936–1937, notorious for the reprisals of 1937.

Occupation and resistance

Italian control remained incomplete. Ethiopian resistance fighters, known as arbegnoch (“patriots”), continued to fight in the countryside. After an attempt on Graziani’s life in Addis Ababa on 19 February 1937 (Yekatit 12 in the Ethiopian calendar), Italian forces and Fascist squads carried out three days of reprisals. Estimates of the dead range from about 1,400 (an Italian figure) to 19,000 or more, and Ethiopian sources give up to 30,000. In May 1937 Italian troops massacred monks and pilgrims at the monastery of Debre Libanos.

During the Second World War, British, Commonwealth and Ethiopian forces drove the Italians out in the East African campaign. Haile Selassie re-entered Addis Ababa on 5 May 1941. He ruled until the revolution of 1974.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 1934, 5 December: Clash at Walwal between Italian colonial troops and Ethiopian soldiers.
• 1935, 3 October: Italy invades Ethiopia from Eritrea and Somaliland.
• 1935, 7 October: League of Nations declares Italy the aggressor.
• 1935, 18 November: League economic sanctions come into force.
• 1935, December: Hoare–Laval plan leaks; Samuel Hoare resigns.
• 1936, 31 March: Haile Selassie is defeated at the Battle of Maychew.
• 1936, 5 May: Italian troops under Badoglio enter Addis Ababa.
• 1936, 30 June: Haile Selassie addresses the League of Nations in Geneva.
• 1937, 19 February: Attempt on Graziani’s life is followed by the Yekatit 12 massacre.
• 1941, 5 May: Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa.

Why it matters

The conquest of Ethiopia showed that a major power could invade a League member, use banned weapons and face no lasting penalty. The episode destroyed faith in collective security, drew Mussolini closer to Nazi Germany, and encouraged further aggression in Europe and Asia. For Africans and people of African descent around the world, Ethiopia’s resistance became a lasting symbol of anti-colonial defiance.