Scarmble for Africa and Battle of Adowa

In the 19C Italy joined “Scramble for Africa”. Italy had unimportant areas like Eritrea and Somaliland. Italians wanted to expand what they had by adding Abyssinia as one of their conquest. However in 1896, the Abyssinians, in the battle of Adowa, defeated the Italians. In the battle 6000 men were killed. Nonetheless this did not stop Italians to make new plans and new attempts to take over Abyssinia. Mussolini got motivated by the desire that Italy had, to show the world how powerful they could become. Mussolini saw himself as a new and better version of Julius Cesar.

Cartoon of Abyssinia. Right at the bottom of the picture Abyssinia says "I sometimes wonder whether it was worth my while joining this European League" Then there s this man carrying all these problems and all these things that the league brought, and Abyssinia is the one carrying all the problems and is wondering why Abyssinia joined if all it brought was problems.

( http://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I0000nUsHn_73En8)

Troops of Emperor Haile Selassie

(http://socialistworker.co.uk/art/8527/The+fascist+invasion+of+Abyssinia)

Cartoon of the Abyssinia crisis
(http://www.cartoons.ac.uk/group/league-nations-italy-and-abyssinia/fullview)

Italo-Ethiopian Treaty Of Friendship and the Kellogg-Briand Pact

In the 2^nd of August 1922, Italy decided to sign a treaty of friendship with the leader of Abyssinia, Haile Selassie. The treaty was a 20-year friendship between the two nations. One month after they signed this treaty Italians and Ethiopians both signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which consisted of them promising that, they would not use war as a method to achieve what they wanted. However neither of the two countries intended to fulfill their side of the treaty. This was because Mussolini saw this treaty as a way to get the Abyssinian economy. Haile Selassie never trusted Italy; this was because he saw the Treaty as a way in which the Italians could open up a way in order to attempt to invade Abyssinia again.

The Walwal Incident

An army of around 1000 Ethiopians approached the Italian Dubats [I] garrison, on the 22^nd of November 1934. The Ethiopians offered the Dubats a chance to withdraw from their fortress in Walwal. These fortresses were a violation of the treaty of friendship that was signed between the two countries. The British members were scared to cause an international incident and decided to leave. However the Ethiopians didn’t care and decided to stay on Walwal. After they decided to stay a series of fights with weapons occurred between Italy and Ethiopia and both of the sided claimed that the other was the one that started. 



[I] Dubats are Somalilands that were employed by the Italians to work for them and fight for them. Dubat means white turban. This was also because they wore white turbans.

Map of Abyssinia in 1935
 (http://www.johndclare.net/league_of_nations6b.htm)

Invasion of Abyssinia

During the December of 1934 Mussolini accused Abyssinians of aggression and he ordered Italian troops that were situated in Somaliland and Eritrea to attack Abyssinia. In 1935 Italian troops invaded Abyssinia. Italians used modern army and the Abyssinians could not fight against these modern weapons. Italians used modern weapons like armored vehicles and also mustard gas. In 1936 the capital of Abyssinia, Addis Ababa fell and Haile Selassie was removed from the throne and the replacement was Victor Emmanuel.

A page of a newspaper that was published a few days after the Abyssinia crisis.

(http://www.brushtail.com.au/july_06_on/under_lino.html)

What the League of Nations did

When Italy attacked in 1935, Abyssinia asked the League of Nation for their help. 

The League of Nations ordered to charge economic sanctions on Italy. The sanctions took around six weeks to be organized. The League banned weapons sales and decided also to put sanctions on rubber and metal. In order to end this war, Samuel Hoare, a British Foreign Secretary and Pierre Lava, the French Prime Minister, met together in December 1935. They worked together and came about a plan called the Hoare-Laval Plan. The plan was to give two large areas of Abyssinia to Italy and the gap in the middle of the country, also known as the “corridor of camels”, to the Abyssinians. In order to receive this land, the Italians had to stop the war. Mussolini decided to accept the plan. However rumors were going around that a British government Minister had betrayed the people that lived in Abyssinia. This caused Hoare to resign and once he did the plan was not used. Mussolini then decided to continue with his invasion of Abyssinia. Since the plan failed and in the plan there were two European League Members, the sanctions also failed. The Abyssinia crisis was one of the Failures of the League of Nations.

Bibliography

"The British Cartoon Archive." Group Page (full View): League of Nations. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. <http://www.cartoons.ac.uk/group/league-nations-italy-and-abyssinia/fullview>.

"Success and Failure." Success and Failure. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. <http://irmunchkins.wikispaces.com/Success+and+Failures>.

"The League in Abyssinia." The League's Failures in the 1930s. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. <http://www.johndclare.net/league_of_nations6b.htm>.

"Abyssinia." Abyssinia. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/aby1.htm>.

"From under the Linoleum: Old Newspapers Show 1930s Imperialism Looked a Lot like Today's." From under the Linoleum: Old Newspapers Show 1930s Imperialism Looked a Lot like Today's. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. <http://www.brushtail.com.au/july_06_on/under_lino.html>.

"The Fascist Invasion of Abyssinia." Socialist Worker (Britain). N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. <http://socialistworker.co.uk/art/8527/The+fascist+invasion+of+Abyssinia>

"Punch Cartoons on WW2, The Second World War | PUNCH Magazine Cartoons." Punch Cartoons on WW2, The Second World War | PUNCH Magazine Cartoons. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. <http://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I0000nUsHn_73En8>.