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Legacy of Bitterness Ethiopia and Fascist Italy, 1935-1941

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In my opinion, the Italian invasion and conquest of Ethiopia is a war that has not received enough emphasis. While the Italians were victorious after a fashion and King Victor Emanuel III of Italy was now considered an Emperor, the consequences for Europe and the world were enormous. Before the war, Italy was a significant power in Europe and while not specifically anti-German, Mussolini was opposed to any territorial realignment in Europe that did not involve Italy gaining territory. At that time, even though they possessed similar ideologies, Italy and Germany were still at odds. It seems to be forgotten now that it was Mussolini's forceful military response that prevented the German Anschluss with Austria from taking place in 1934. Until the Italian adventure in Ethiopia, it was Italian military power that was checking the southern expansion of the German Reich. Mussolini openly described Hitler as a "little clown" and he entered into agreements with the smaller nations, where he pledged to defend them against German expansion. Germany and Italy were also natural territorial rivals, as Mussolini clearly understood that a German seizure of Austria would reopen the Tyrol issue. An alliance between Britain, France and Italy standing against German expansion would have kept it from happening. If those three had aligned against Germany, it would have been fighting on three fronts, a southern, western and on the seas.
However, Britain and France tried to play both sides of the fence during the war between Italy and Ethiopia. In the guise of collective security, they tried to punish Italy, imposing rather weak sanctions. At the same time, they were reaching an accommodation with Mussolini, awarding him de facto recognition of the conquest, although they were not to the point where they were willing to make it de jure. The policy of trying to punish a nation while simultaneously attempting to form a stronger alliance with it projected weakness.
As this was happening, Hitler did not join the sanctions, supplying Italy with essential materials, which led to an understanding between Hitler and Mussolini. Germany would acquiesce in the Italian conquest of Ethiopia, and then Italy would do the same when Germany tried to annex Austria. The cost of carrying out a colonial war so far away from the home country served to weaken Italy, making it far less formidable in the power structure of Europe. It was at this point that the British and French decided that there was no point in making any additional concessions in an attempt to draw Italy into an anti-German alliance.
All of the above is covered in detail in this book, but there is also a great deal of attention paid to the actions of the Italians in Ethiopia. That war was the last one where poison gas was extensively used. Even though it had been banned as a weapon, the Italians made effective use of several different types, a fact well known to the European powers. In their focus on trying to keep Italy an ally, a great deal of effort was made to cover it up. There is little doubt that the fact that those being asphyxiated were Africans had something to do with this effort. Another point brought out, something that I have never read in any other book, was the Italian policy of execution as a means of controlling the country. In several instances, they lured Ethiopian leaders by promises of safety, only to have them killed.
At the end of the war, Italy emerged weak, estranged from her natural ally of Great Britain and somewhat reliant on the rising power of Germany. Britain and France tried to sacrifice Ethiopia for security in Europe. It did not work, although in their defense, there was little public support for any forceful action of any kind. I enjoyed this book; it should be read and studied as a chronicle of one of the prelude events to the Second World War.

I bought this book because I was writing a research paper on the Italo-Ethiopian War, and seeing as this humongous volume was written all about it, I was thrilled.. and I wasn't disappointed. It has lots of information about the war and was a great help in helping me narrow down my topic; it also covers background to the war, etc. However, I only found about half of the book at all relevant to what I was trying to find. Nevertheless, this fault does not affect the usefulness of the book, except that it just makes it a whole lot heavier. Not my choice for a light afternoon read, but very good for research.

Be careful with this book: I bought it for use in a history essay, expecting it to be a single work. Instead, Alberto Sbacchi, the noted Italian scholar and critic of imperialism, who is listed as the author, compiled a series of essays ranging from the 1970s to the present about the history of Italy in Ethiopia. There is a special concentration on Italian generals' use of poison gas against the Ethiopians, which is a little-adressed subject. Essentially, it is useful as a general reference, but be aware of bias and don't depend on it as a serious piece of historography.

The author presented how the mighty European powers sacrificed Ethiopian independence in a clear and unambigous manner. All the relevant facts and supporting documents were apppropriate.

But I am NOT sure why, Mr. Sbacchi failed to mention that The Pope's tacit support of the camapaign. In fact to set an example,he donated the Papal ring to help finace the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. This act by the Pope infuriated a number of Eritreans, who then not only converted to The Ethiopian Orhtodox faith in protest, but also deserted Italy, and joined the Ethiopian patriots. The Pope's act left one of more Legacy of bitterness, since most thought that a Christian can not be cruel to another Christian. And they found out that European Christians are never meant to be equal with African Christians. Overall, it is a comendable work and I hope to see more like it.

Extremely interesting and fascinating book. This book would be even more interesting if juxtaposed with the later struggles between Ethiopia and the emerging state of Eritrea. Italy's actions (and later Britain and the UN) in this region of Northeast Africa reverberates until today with the Ethiopian-Eritrean border 1998-2000 War. I'd like to make one point about the atrocities committed against the Ehiopians by the Italians. Although the Italians did terrible acts of murder, rape, and genocide against the Ehiopians, their actions and appetite for murder, rape, and genocide were surpassed by the Ethiopians, who in later years committed even more terrible atrocities against the Eritreans(in their struggle for independence). Of course, actions taken by Haile Selassie later on in his regime, and Menginstu Haile Mariam led to millions of Ethiopians starving to death. So, what is my point? Well, I guess that the actions of the Italians should not be made ominous at that time in history because they are "Italians" or "whites". What the Italians did is what they did, and the Ethiopians, later, did far more terrible things to the Eritreans and to themselves.