Ethiopia said, "Get away fascists! We got a friend on our side."

From 1936  to 1941 (5 years), Ethiopia joined with Eritrea and Italian Somaliland to form Italian East Africa. During this time, Italy mainly affected Ethiopia though technology and education.

The Italians concentrated on a program of public works, especially on highways and on agricultural and industrial development.

Also, Italians forced Ethiopians to learn about fascism in school, because Mussolini was a fascist.

However, resistance to the occupation continued. Italians dominated cities towns and major caravan routes, while Ethiopian patriots protested the army and defended themselves with large garrisons. (C)

When Italy joined the European war in June 1940, the United Kingdom recognized Haile Selassie(emperor of Ethiopia) as a full ally. Due to World War I from 1914 to 1918, United Kingdom did not like ltaly at all. Soon, the emperor went to Khartoum, Sudan, to help train a British-led Ethiopian Army. This joint force entered Gojam on January 20, 1941. And the enemy soon surrendered. (D)

On May 5, the emperor triumphantly returned to Addis Ababa. He defied the British occupation authorities, and quickly organized his own government. This independence was easy compared to other countries dominated by European powers. Without Great Britain, Ethiopia might be still part of Italy until this day.(C)

Italy said, "Let's devour that big chunk of pie called Ethiopia!"

In December 1934, the Ethiopian patrol clashed with an Italian garrison at the Welwel oasis in the Ogaden, an oasis clearly within Ethiopian territory. "Italians used the attack as proof of Ethiopian perfidy and began to strengthen their forces in their East African colonies." (A)While Rome was seriously planning for the war, Haile Selassie got frightened and appealed to the League of Nations(April, 1936), which in turn, caused alarm in Great Britain and France.

League of Nations pondered. If they did not help, it would destroy the League as a viable institution. (Ethiopia brought the affair before the Council on September 4th) At the end, the European strong powers did not help for few reasons. If they helped Ethiopia, it would have resulted  in bad relationship with Italy, and further incur Italian wrath; it would have threatened the recently created united front against Germany(against Adolf Hitler).

As the result, Ethiopians persuaded to discuss the Walwal incident with Italy according to 1928 Treaty. However, Mussolini used delay tactics to prevent any meaningful discussion.

Despite the uncertainty of what Great Britain's role would be, Mussolini decided to move ahead. His army positioned, and on October 3, 1935, it moved into Ethiopia. With this act, the League branded Italy the aggressor, and voted to impose economic sanctions. Unfortunately, Britain was still unsure about their actions and France was afraid to get Italy's wrath. They could not do anything as a whole, and at the end, oil and food was continuously supplied to Mussolini's army. League of Nations fell apart later, because they could not do anything together.

On October 2^nd, 1935, Italian army crossed the frontier. Then, Haile Selassie ordered the army to prepare.

On May 5th, Pietro Badoglio(commander of Italian forces in Ethiopia) entered Addis Ababa, the capital. Four days later, the nation was proclaimed as new Italian empire. (B)

The Beginning of everything

Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy after 1922, eventually looked toward Ethiopia since the opening of Suez Canal in 1869, to purse an active Mediterranean policy. At the time, Italy already conquered Eritrea and Somalia. Ethiopia was the perfect land to adjoin the already existing Italian colonies. Besides, it was the last piece of Africa that was outside the European domination. It had a lot of potential value.

At the time, Haile Selassie’s success in Ethiopia was quite amazing. This persuaded Benito Mussolini to undertake a strike before Ethiopia grew too strong to opposed Italian ambitions in the Horn of Africa.

(picture of signing the Treaty of Friendship)

So first, he signed the Treaty of Friendship in 1928, for two reasons.

First, this treaty granted economic concessions to Italy from Haile Selassie. He was afraid of aggressive Italians and did not live up to his agreements. Second, Adolf Hitler’s power was arising in Germany. Mussolini had to act quickly to stand up to the big power.