History isn't always about the winners. Sometimes, it’s about the moment the world decided to look the other way. When people talk about the lead-up to World War II, they usually point to the annexation of Austria or the invasion of Poland. But if you really want to see where the wheels fell off the bus for global peace, you’ve got to look at the invasion of Ethiopia 1935.
It was messy. It was brutal. Honestly, it was the definitive proof that the League of Nations was basically a paper tiger. Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator with a massive ego and a desperate need to recreate the Roman Empire, decided that a sovereign African nation was his ticket to glory. He didn’t just want a colony; he wanted revenge for the humiliating defeat Italy suffered at Adwa back in 1896.
The world watched. Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, stood before the League of Nations and warned them that "it is us today, it will be you tomorrow." He was right. Nobody listened.
The Grudge Match Nobody Asked For
Mussolini wasn't a subtle guy. By the mid-1930s, his "Fascist" experiment in Italy needed a win. He looked across the Mediterranean and saw Ethiopia (then often called Abyssinia) as the only piece of the African "cake" not yet devoured by European powers, excluding Liberia. But there was a catch: Italy had tried this before and failed miserably. The invasion of Ethiopia 1935 was, at its core, a delayed retaliation for a 40-year-old bruise to Italian pride.
The spark—or the excuse, really—was the Walwal incident in late 1934. It was a skirmish at an obscure fort in the Ogaden desert. Both sides blamed each other. Italy demanded an apology and reparations. Ethiopia suggested arbitration. Mussolini responded by sending hundreds of thousands of troops, tanks, and planes to Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.
It wasn't a fair fight. Not even close.
Technology vs. Tradition
Imagine a conflict where one side has modern bombers and the other is literally carrying swords and 19th-century rifles. That was the reality on the ground. When the invasion of Ethiopia 1935 officially kicked off in October, General Emilio De Bono led the Italian forces across the Mareb River.
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The Italians didn't just bring guns. They brought mustard gas.
Using chemical weapons was a direct violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which Italy had signed. They didn't care. They sprayed the stuff from airplanes, contaminating crops, water sources, and livestock. It wasn't just about killing soldiers; it was about breaking the spirit of the Ethiopian people.
The Ethiopian army, under commanders like Ras Kassa and Ras Seyoum, tried to fight a traditional war at first. They mobilized the "Mahel Sefari"—the central imperial army. But how do you fight a tank with a horse? You don't. Or you do, and you die. Eventually, they shifted to guerrilla tactics, but by then, the technological gap was just too wide to bridge.
Why the League of Nations Failed
This is where the story gets frustrating. Ethiopia was a member of the League of Nations. They did everything by the book. They appealed for help. They asked for sanctions.
What did they get?
The League issued some half-hearted economic sanctions on Italy. They banned the sale of weapons to both sides—which actually hurt Ethiopia more since Italy already had a massive arms industry. Crucially, they didn't ban oil. Italy's war machine ran on oil. If the League had cut off the fuel, Mussolini’s tanks would have stopped in their tracks within weeks.
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British and French leadership was, frankly, terrified of pushing Mussolini into the arms of Adolf Hitler. They tried to play both sides with the Hoare-Laval Pact, a secret deal that would have basically handed most of Ethiopia to Italy on a silver platter. When the press leaked the plan, the public was outraged. The deal collapsed, but the damage was done. Ethiopia was abandoned.
The Fall of Addis Ababa
By May 1936, the end was in sight. Marshal Pietro Badoglio replaced De Bono and ramped up the brutality. The Italian "Blackshirts" moved toward the capital.
Haile Selassie fled. Some criticize him for this, but he argued that he could do more for his country as a voice in exile than as a prisoner in a cage. On May 5, 1936, Italian troops entered Addis Ababa. Mussolini stood on his balcony in Rome and declared that "Italy finally has her Empire."
But the "empire" was a house of cards.
The Italians never truly controlled the countryside. Ethiopian "Patriots" (the Arbegnoch) kept up a relentless resistance for five years. They hid in the mountains, ambushed convoys, and made life a living hell for the occupiers. It was a precursor to the resistance movements we’d see all over Europe a few years later.
What Most People Get Wrong About 1935
There’s this misconception that the invasion of Ethiopia 1935 was just a minor colonial skirmish. It wasn't. It changed everything.
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- It killed the League of Nations. After Ethiopia, no one took the League seriously. It was the "green light" for Hitler to remilitarize the Rhineland.
- It was a testing ground. Much like the Spanish Civil War, the Italians used Ethiopia to test new military doctrines, though they learned the wrong lessons. They thought sheer brutality and air power could replace sound logistics.
- It shifted the "Color Line." This wasn't just a war between nations; it was seen by many in the African Diaspora as a war against the Black race. It sparked massive protests in New York, London, and the Caribbean. It was a catalyst for the Pan-African movement.
The Long-Term Fallout
Italy’s "victory" was short-lived. When WWII broke out, the British finally decided that an Italian presence in East Africa was a threat to their shipping lanes. In 1941, during the East African Campaign, British and Commonwealth forces joined the Ethiopian Patriots to kick the Italians out.
Haile Selassie returned to his throne exactly five years to the day after he left.
But the scars remained. The use of chemical weapons left a legacy of environmental damage and trauma. The failure of collective security in 1935 is why the UN Charter was written the way it was in 1945—with a "Security Council" that actually had teeth (at least in theory).
How to Dig Deeper into This History
If you're looking to really understand the nuances of the invasion of Ethiopia 1935, you can't just look at Western textbooks. You need to look at the primary accounts.
- Read the Speech: Find the transcript of Haile Selassie’s 1936 address to the League of Nations. It’s hauntingly prophetic.
- Study the Arbegnoch: Look into the lives of leaders like Ras Abebe Aregai or the female fighters like Sylvia Pankhurst’s associates who documented the struggle.
- Check the Italian Archives: Historians like Angelo Del Boca have done incredible work exposing the extent of Italian war crimes that were covered up for decades.
The reality is that Ethiopia didn't just "lose" in 1935. They were betrayed by a global system that promised protection but delivered nothing but empty words. It serves as a stark reminder that international law is only as strong as the will of the people supposed to enforce it.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs and Students
If you’re researching this period or just want to be better informed about how these historical echoes affect today's world, here is what you should do next:
- Analyze the "Walwal Incident" as a case study in false-flag operations. See how border disputes are often manufactured to justify pre-planned aggression.
- Track the "Oil Sanctions" debate. Compare the 1935 League of Nations' hesitation to sanction Italian oil with modern-day debates over energy sanctions in current global conflicts. The parallels are almost scary.
- Visit the Memorials. If you’re ever in Addis Ababa, the "Yekatit 12" monument is a somber tribute to the thousands of Ethiopians killed by Italian occupiers in a single three-day massacre in 1937. It puts a human face on the statistics.
The invasion of Ethiopia 1935 isn't just a chapter in a dusty book. It's a lesson in what happens when the world chooses "peace in our time" over doing what is actually right.