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Encyclopedia of Invasions & Conquests, Fourth Edition

Ethiopia, Italian Invasion of

Italy established a trading post at the Red Sea port of Assab, along the coast of Eritrea, in 1882. Three years later, the Italians occupied Massawa, Ethiopia’s outlet on the Red Sea. In 1888, Italy claimed a protectorate over the area now known as Somalia. In the 1890s, Italy demanded the right to annex large parts of Eritrea, a region that Ethiopia had always claimed. When the Ethiopians resisted Italian demands, war followed in 1896. Lacking maps and good communications among the three attacking columns, Italian failure was inevitable. At Adowa, Italy lost over 4,000 men, and the remainder of their force was captured. The greatest disaster in European colonial history, it would play a major psychological role in Italy’s future goals in the area.

When Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922, he dreamed of reestablishing the Roman Empire, and Ethiopia looked like an easy conquest. Though Mussolini sponsored Ethiopia’s membership in the League of Nations and concluded a friendship treaty with the country in 1928, he continued to stockpile arms and build up troop concentrations in Eritrea and Somalia. Inside Ethiopia, the domestic situation was unstable. Emperor Haile Selassie had succeeded to the throne after a series of factional battles and the mysterious death of the previous empress. In the mid-1930s, Mussolini suggested to the League of Nations that Ethiopia be expelled because of the lack of unity within the country. Italy seemed primed for intervention, and the other European powers did not care to stop the Italians. Britain and France rebuffed U.S. President Roosevelt’s attempt at mediation, hoping to court Italy’s support against the rising power of Adolf Hitler in Germany.

Before Italy could begin a war with Ethiopia, it was necessary to create an “incident.” This took place at Walwal, an oasis of a few dozen acres in the middle of a scrub-covered desert. Contemporary maps were sketchy concerning the borders in this area, but all agreed that it was well within Ethiopian territory. When an Anglo- Ethiopian commission studying grazing rights found Italian troops at the oasis in December 1934, the Ethiopian government demanded Italian withdrawal and ordered up their own army. Shots were fired on 5 December; more than 200 Ethiopians died, while the Italians and Somalis lost 30. Mussolini’s invasion came before the end of the month; tanks and aircraft were ordered into action to halt an Ethiopian “counterattack.” Selassie appealed to the League, which debated into the following year.

The Italian expeditionary force numbered over 200,000 officers and men armed with thousands of machine guns, 700 artillery pieces, 150 tanks, and an air force of 150 bombers and fighters. The Ethiopian army was basically a tribal assemblage with personal loyalty to a chief. The regular army numbered about 100,000 men, but only the Imperial Guard, a few thousand strong, was well trained. They were armed with a mixture of old and new rifles, a few hundred old machine guns, and an air force of 12 planes, all transports. Local levies were often armed with little more than spears, and female soldiers carrying swords were seen riding mules into combat.

Wanting to prove that Italy was the aggressor, Haile Selassie ordered his people not to resist. Some League sanctions were imposed on Italy, but none were seriously enforced. The League failed to embargo oil, which Italy was obliged to ship via the Suez Canal to fuel its military. Since members of the League were split over how to respond, little happened, except that they managed to offend Italy by allowing Haile Selassie to address the League in Geneva, an action that, coupled with the mild embargo, provoked Italy’s resignation.

Gaining no support from the international community, Ethiopia went on the offensive. They were occasionally successful, using their superior knowledge of the terrain to ambush Italian forces. Ultimately, however, Italy’s modern weaponry, including poison gas, was too much to overcome. Ethiopian generals lost too many troops trying to fight the Italians directly. Though successful at ambush, whenever large numbers of Ethiopian troops gathered to fight, they were badly hurt by Italian airpower. After losing a series of hard- fought battles, Haile Selassie was forced to admit defeat and flee from the capital at Addis Ababa in early May 1936. Organized resistance was broken, but local leaders continued to operate independently with guerrilla tactics. Ethiopians often controlled the countryside, allowing the Italians to own the cities.

Italian success was short-lived, not lasting much longer than the outbreak of World War II. When Mussolini declared war on Britain and France in June 1940, he had 91,000 troops in East Africa, along with 200,000 local troops. With these forces, Italy went on the offensive against the British in the Sudan, Kenya, and British Somaliland. After a poor beginning under General William Slim, British forces under General Archibald Wavell prepared to remove Italy from the Horn of Africa. Three columns, including one comprising Ethiopian troops under British officers, invaded in November 1940. By January 1941, Haile Selassie was back in his own country, and by 5 May, the fifth anniversary of the fall of Addis Ababa to Italian forces, he was back in the capital. British forces were able to occupy the country fairly easily; the Italian forces surrendered quickly upon hearing reports of atrocities committed on Italian women by Ethiopian irregulars. Ultimately, the British took 230,000 Italian and Somali prisoners.

Italy occupied Ethiopia for five years and left behind a positive legacy. Despite the bloodshed inflicted in the invasion and consolidation, Italian authorities began a program of internal improvements the likes of which the natives had never seen. Roads, bridges, buildings, hospitals, and schools were built all over the country, though the Italians did not have enough time to institute a broad educational program. The country was unified and developed at a faster pace than ever before, and the people began to gain a respect for law and order. The Italians laid the physical foundations for Haile Selassie’s modern Ethiopia, but the people did not embrace the negative aspects of the occupation, such as fascism or racism.

References:

1 

Barker, A. J., The Civilizing Mission (New York: Dial Press, 1968); Schwab, Peter, Haile Selassie: Ethiopia’s Lion of Judah (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979).

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MLA 9th
, . "Ethiopia, Italian Invasion Of." Encyclopedia of Invasions & Conquests, Fourth Edition, edited by Paul K. Davis, Salem Press, 2023. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GHInv4e_0205.
APA 7th
, . (2023). Ethiopia, Italian Invasion of. In P. K. Davis (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Invasions & Conquests, Fourth Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
,. "Ethiopia, Italian Invasion Of." Edited by Paul K. Davis. Encyclopedia of Invasions & Conquests, Fourth Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2023. Accessed October 15, 2025. online.salempress.com.