By Mengistu Asfaw
After their defeat at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, the Italians were plagued with humiliation and filled with rage and a desire for revenge. Additionally, the Versailles Treaty of 1919, which allowed Britain and France to assert their economic and political interests, heightened Italy’s desire for a colony.
With these political grievances, Mussolini came to power, pledging to make Italy one of the major powers in Europe. In his regular rhetoric, he presented fascism as a force to counteract the status quo. However, in reality, In the 1930s Italy was suffering from overpopulation, leading to severe land hunger and economic inflation. Previously, many Italians sought better fortune abroad, mainly in the United States and other European countries. But when these countries closed their borders to further Italian immigrants, Italy plunged into economic and financial chaos. By January 1935, the unemployment rate was 50,000 per month, with a total of 1,101,711 unemployed.
Failing to manage the situation, Mussolini deliberately promoted the ideas of activism, militarism, and combative nationalism among the Italian majority. Italy, under the pretext of agreements with Britain and France that confirmed her right to a sphere of influence in Ethiopia, saw the strategic importance of Ethiopia for its colonial expansion in the Horn of Africa.
This, combined with the need to settle Italy’s surplus population in the fertile regions of the south and the south-west of Ethiopia had accelerated Italy’s colonial preparations.
The Italian invasion of Ethiopia was finally triggered by the Wal-Wal incident in the Ogden region, leading to open warfare on several fronts and causing heavy Ethiopian losses. Despite the apparent Italian victories, the invaders also suffered many casualties. The Italians owed much of their success to their air force, which delivered an average of 20 tons of bombs and poison gas daily on the poorly armed Ethiopian defenders. Such acts seemed like deliberate inhumane actions to devastate Ethiopian villages. Dr. John Melly, a resident of Addis Ababa during the Italian occupation, witnessed the atrocities and stated, “This isn’t even a slaughter, it is the torture of tens of thousands of defenseless men, women, and children, with bombs and poison gas. They are using gas incessantly, and we have treated hundreds of cases, including infants.”
With their military superiority, the Italians captured Addis Ababa on May 6, 1936, under Marshal Badoglio’s command. Thirteen days later, the Italian colonial Empire was proclaimed throughout Ethiopia.
To be continued:
Graziani’s Tyrannic Rule (1936-37)
Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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