Second Italo-Ethiopian War

Follow the story · Four stages

1. 01

   Background

   Italy's defeat at Adwa in 1896 remained a grievance for colonial ambitions. The Fascist regime's plans for conquest and the crisis over the 1934 Walwal incident led toward invasion.

   • In 1896 Ethiopia defeated Italy at Adwa and preserved its independence. That defeat remained a grievance for Italian colonialism and later for the Fascist regime.
   • Mussolini's government treated expansion in East Africa as a project joining domestic prestige to empire. Colonial bases in Eritrea and Somaliland became the invasion's launching points.
   • A confrontation at Walwal in December 1934 widened into a crisis over the border and security. While diplomacy continued, Italy used the delay to assemble forces.

   
2. 02

   Course

   In October 1935 Italian forces invaded from Eritrea and Somaliland. Against less well-equipped Ethiopian armies and civilians, they used air attack and chemical weapons including mustard gas.

   • In October 1935 Italian forces invaded Ethiopia from Eritrea in the north and Somaliland in the southeast. Ethiopian armies resisted across a wide country but faced a major gap in equipment and air power.
   • Italian forces combined air attacks, artillery, and armored vehicles against troops, settlements, roads, and supply lines. Chemical weapons including mustard gas caused severe harm to civilians as well as soldiers.
   • The Ethiopian government appealed to the League of Nations, and Emperor Haile Selassie requested help before the Assembly in June 1936. On the ground, however, Italian advances continued and protest did not stop the invasion.

   
3. 03

   Outcome

   Italian troops occupied Addis Ababa in May 1936 and annexed Ethiopia into Italian East Africa, but armed resistance continued and Ethiopian sovereignty was restored in 1941.

   • Italian forces occupied Addis Ababa in May 1936 and incorporated Ethiopia with Eritrea and Italian Somaliland into Italian East Africa. The occupation was not the result of legitimate international recognition.
   • Armed resistance and underground activity continued after the capital fell. Fighting over roads and highlands, reprisals, and detention showed that colonial rule was not a simple administrative transfer.
   • During the East African campaign of the Second World War, British and Ethiopian forces turned the tide and Italian forces were driven out in 1941. Ethiopian sovereignty returned, but the occupation left lasting wounds.

   
4. 04

   Historical significance

   The League of Nations identified aggression and imposed sanctions but failed to stop the war. The limits of collective security and civilian harm from chemical warfare exposed the breakdown of the interwar order.

   • The League of Nations identified Italian aggression and imposed sanctions, but it did not include measures such as an oil embargo or closure of the Suez Canal. Collective security was weakened by member-state interests.
   • The war exposed how the sovereignty of a colonized country was treated within a European-centered order. Ethiopia's appeals made visible the contradiction between international law and racialized power.
   • Civilian harm from chemical weapons and air attacks, inadequate sanctions, and continuing resistance make the conflict a key case for understanding the breakdown of the interwar order before the Second World War.