Italy Invades Ethiopia
- Date
- 1935–1936
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia)
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
The Italian invasion of Ethiopia was a war of colonial aggression that exposed the impotence of the League of Nations and hardened the road to global war.
On 3 October 1935, some 200,000 troops of Mussolini's Regio Esercito crossed from Italian Eritrea without a declaration of war, commanded by Marshal Emilio De Bono. Facing Emperor Haile Selassie's poorly equipped forces, Italy deployed aircraft, tanks, and outlawed mustard gas sprayed from planes onto soldiers and civilians alike. Addis Ababa fell in May 1936 and Ethiopia was absorbed into Italian East Africa. The League condemned the aggression and imposed limited economic sanctions, but pointedly excluded oil and never closed the Suez Canal, rendering them toothless. Haile Selassie's dignified appeal to the League in Geneva—"It is us today. It will be you tomorrow"—became one of the century's defining warnings. The war shattered confidence in collective security, pushed Italy toward alliance with Nazi Germany, and inflamed anti-colonial and Pan-African sentiment worldwide, making Ethiopia a rallying symbol for Black activists from Harlem to Lagos.
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Empires active in 1935–1936
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- Empire of Japan1868 CE – 1947 CE
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
Related military & conflict events
- Second Sino-Japanese War and the Nanjing Massacre7 July 1937 – 2 September 1945
- German invasion of Poland and outbreak of World War II1 September 1939
- Attack on Pearl Harbor7 December 1941
- Operation Barbarossa: German invasion of the Soviet Union22 June 1941
- Battle of Stalingrad23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943
- D-Day: the Normandy landings6 June 1944
Also relevant
Further reading
The wider story
The Ethiopians: A History
Standard general history of Ethiopia and its dynasties.
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