Chapter 79: Chapter 79
Early in December 24, there was a conflict between the armies of Italy and Ethiopia in the Eritrean border region, resulting in hundreds of casualties.
As fellow European powers, France and Britain did not support Italy's military actions against Ethiopia. In fact, during the League of Nations conference, the sovereign nations passed a resolution with a majority of 50 to 1 to take collective measures against Italy.
Mussolini made a clear statement that Italy would face the sanctions with discipline, thrift, and sacrifice. Although he didn't explicitly mention using war to respond to the sanctions, the implication was clear.
Due to the modifications of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany started a massive military buildup, expanding its armed forces. Britain perceived Germany as a potential and dangerous competitor. However, Italy's strength was considered inferior to Germany, and Britain did not see Italy as a fatal threat. Moreover, Italy's alignment with Germany was not entirely consistent, making Mussolini slightly more favorable in Britain's eyes compared to Wilhelm.
France and Italy had their conflicts, but to counterbalance Germany, France had no choice but to "let bygones be bygones" with Italy.
In January of 25, French Foreign Minister Laval visited Italy and made several concessions, including turning a blind eye to Italy's occupation of Ethiopia. Laval flattered Mussolini and asked him if he was satisfied with the "gift" of Ethiopia.
France engaged in covert dealings with Italy, which annoyed Britain. Britain criticized France for disregarding public opinion while making deals behind closed doors.
Four months after Laval's visit to Rome, British Minister for League of Nations Affairs, Eden, also came to Rome. Britain brought gifts for both Italy and Ethiopia. Italy received some territories in southern Ethiopia, and Ethiopia received the port of Zeila from Italian Somaliland to resolve its lack of access to the sea. This move angered Italy and France. France scolded Britain for being unfaithful, and Italy remarked that it could have annexed Ethiopia on its own without caring about the "chicken wing" Britain threw.
Britain and France played a game of sacrificing Ethiopia's interests, differing only in the extent. Before the British and French made their positions clear, Mussolini hesitated to attack Ethiopia. However, their compromise allowed Mussolini to start the aggressive invasion of Ethiopia. Mussolini boasted everywhere that Italy would conquer Ethiopia like a mighty lion conquering a lamb. Finally, on October 3rd, the Italian forces sandwiched Ethiopia from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea.
The appeasement show by Britain and France towards Italy had just begun.
At the League of Nations conference, Britain and France hypocritically denounced Italy's aggressive actions and declared their intention to implement an arms embargo against Italy and Ethiopia.
The Allied Council, responsible for formulating the sanctions, carefully excluded anything that could provoke Italy to wage war against the League members. A comprehensive list of embargoed items was drafted.
Transporting aluminum ore to Italy was strictly prohibited, but aluminum was the only metal ore in Italy that exceeded its domestic demand. As Italy's metallurgical industry could only process a small amount of scrap iron and iron ore, shipments of iron ore and scrap iron to Italy were banned, but steel plates and pig iron were not restricted. Oil, which was necessary for Italy's war effort, continued to flow into the country, as everyone understood that an oil embargo meant war.
This was simply a trap for Ethiopia. As one of the rare non-colonized countries in Africa at that time, Ethiopia was surrounded by Italian-controlled Eritrea, French Somaliland, and further east, British Somaliland (later northwest Somalia) and Italian Somaliland to the southeast. On the western side, Ethiopia was surrounded by British colonies (Sudan, Uganda, Kenya).
Under these circumstances, even if Ethiopia was rich with resources, due to the so-called arms embargo, it had no place to spend its money on weaponry. This embargo, in reality, was a godsend for Italy, Britain and France. After all, Italy's weapons were already more advanced than Ethiopia's, and Italy could buy from non-League members like Germany and the United States.
In October, the Italian forces launched a war against Ethiopia with nearly 200,000 troops. They were equipped extravagantly: 126 aircraft, 112 tanks, 586 modern artillery pieces, 4,200 machine guns, 3,700 vehicles, and 35,000 mules and camels.
Although it seemed that Italy had a winning hand in this war, there was a twist!
Indeed, they hadn't won a single battle!
The Italian forces suffered multiple defeats, and even after changing commanders, they still faced defeat.
Mussolini was even facing the danger of being overthrown, so he violated the Geneva Convention and instructed the Italian troops to use poison gas on the battlefield. Although Wilhelm secretly sent gas masks to Ethiopia, due to time and transportation constraints, only enough gas masks arrived to equip a few divisions.
As a result, the Ethiopian army continued to retreat, and the Italian forces led with gas attacks, achieving a string of victories.
During this time, Britain and France also did something despicable. In December, without Ethiopia's knowledge, they signed the Hoare-Laval Pact. The secret agreement handed over 160,000 square kilometers of southern Ethiopian territory to Italy for "effective administration," and it also condoned Italy's occupation of another 160,000 square kilometers of land adjacent to Italian Somaliland and Eritrea.
Only Britain, France, and Italy were aware of this agreement. With the support of Britain and France, Italy intensified its aggression against Ethiopia and eventually annexed it in 1936. Since Britain and France appeased Germany's occupation of the Sudetenland later, and then condoned Italy's occupation of Ethiopia, one could say that the Hoare-Laval Pact was a rehearsal of the Munich Agreement.
Here's an interesting fact: Although Wilhelm assisted Ethiopia purely to provoke Mussolini, in the original timeline of the Ethiopian War, the Germans also set a trap for the Italians and secretly aided Ethiopia, causing Italy considerable trouble.
This was because in 1934, when Germany was preparing to annex Austria, Italy firmly stood on Austria's side (at that time, Germany and Italy were not yet allies) and even amassed troops on the border, putting pressure on Germany and causing their initial annexation plan to fail.
The Italians thwarted the Germans' plans, so naturally, the Germans wouldn't let it go easily. Therefore, in the following year's Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the Germans secretly transported a large number of weapons to Ethiopia, including three aircraft, over 60 heavy cannons, 10,000 Mauser rifles, and 10 million rounds of ammunition.
And so, after seven months of arduous warfare, with a cost of 10,000 soldiers killed and 44,000 wounded, the Italian forces finally occupied Ethiopia in May 1936.
This outcome surprised the German military high command, who had been very optimistic about Italy's strength, and they were even more impressed with Your Highness's foresight.
As for Wilhelm, he didn't pay much attention to this war; otherwise, he would have set up a plan years ago to ensure that Italy would stumble significantly here. Instead, he took advantage of Italy's use of poison gas in Ethiopia, which caused international condemnation, and swiftly occupied Austria, making it the Eastern Province of the German Reich.
Regarding this, Britain, France, and the United States only condemned it verbally but then acknowledged Germany's annexation of Austria and changed their embassies in Austria to consulates in Vienna. As for Mussolini, he was left in utter disbelief, with no means to counter the situation he found himself in, after being bogged down in the war with Ethiopia.
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