One of the many tragedies
fascism in
Europe was responsible for. By
1932 Emperor Haile Selassie had, through his incredible
management and
political astuteness, managed to
bootstrap Ethiopia from a
third world nation into a formidable
economic power, with valuable
exports. At the time, they were also forming a
modern army, with the aid of several
European powers, but purchased with their own
money. This military was small by European standards, but nonetheless greatly distressed the Italians, due to their holdings in
Somalia.
France, seeking to have the Italians harmlessly expend their
aggressive energy, gave the
green light to an attack on Ethiopia in 1935, in exchange for
concessions regarding
Tunisia.
The initial probing attacks by the Italians began in 1932, though it had obviously been planned for some time. They gradually seized territory along the border which belonged to the Ethiopians. The British were present as observers at the time, but were wary of interfering, not wanting to provoke war with Italy. All the Europeans assumed Ethiopia would fold and make concessions, rather than fight a
war they couldn't win against the Italians. They were wrong. The
fiercely independent Ethiopians were not about to surrender the nation they had raised up from
squalor to economic
prosperity. They fought with
swords and primitive
firearms against modern
weapons, such as
poison gas and
tank columns, and Haile Sellassie was forced to
flee the country to avoid
capture.
He continued to plead before the
League of Nations for aid, but
Italy only received a slap on the wrist, in the form of a trade
embargo (
oil, the only product that might have made a difference, was not impeded, as France protested that oil constituted a military, not economic embargo). This is the incident which eventually broke the League of Nations, and thus contributed greatly to the causes of
World War II.