1896-1935 1944-1974







Stamps issued for Ethiopia under Italian administration, featuring King Umberto.



Ethiopia, 1935-1944



In 1935, Italian troops invaded Ethiopia. The League of Nations called on it's members to economically boycott Italy, and many responded, especially France, Italy's most important trading partner. Yet this did not affect the military situation. The Ethiopians put up tough resistance, but were defeated, among others by poison gas used by the Italians. Addis Ababa fell in 1936; Negus HAILE SELASSIE fled to London into exile.
Ethiopia's Ogaden province was merged with the colony of Somalia. ETIOPIA was to form a province, next to Eritrea and Somalia, of the new colony of ITALIAN EAST AFRICA.
In 1940, Mussolini's Italy declared war on France and Britain. After initial Italian successes - they occupied British Somaliland in 1940 - a British/South African corps took entire Italian East Africa in 1941; Ethiopia found itself under a short British military administration.
Negus Haile Selassie returned, to find out that the British wanted to use the situation for their advantage. Only after tough negotiations were the treaties of 1942 and 1944 signed. Ethiopia retained full independence. Yet the Ogaden remained, for the time being, under British military occupation.


Stamps issued for Italian East Africa (Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia)







EXTERNAL
FILES 		Library of Congress, Country Studies Ethiopia
Imperial Ethiopia Home Page, Dynasty in Exile website
The Solomonic Kings of Ethiopia, from Iyassu's Homepage
Post World War II Agreements with the British, by Richard Pankhurst; The Italian departure and the Arrival of the British, by Richard Pankhurst; The Liberation Campaign : Mussolini's 1941 Entry into the European War, by Richard Pankhurst
WW II in Ethiopia Timeline, from World War II Timeline
DOCUMENTS Lion Flag, from FOTW
The 1st South African Light Tank Company : Personal Reminiscences of the Campaign in East Africa, by M. Centner, from South African Military History Society (WW II)
Haile Selassie's Appeal to the League of Nations, 1936, from Mt. Holyoke College
Haile Selassie, from Time Trail, a number of historical Time Magazine articles on H.S.
REFERENCES Article : Abyssinia, in : Statesman's Yearbook 1937 pp.667-672, 1943 pp.675-680 [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1936 pp.262-266, 1937 pp.258-262, 1938 pp.252-254, 1944 p.250 [G]
Article : Italo-Ethiopian War, in : Americana Annual 1936 pp.377-381 [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual (on events of 1943) [G]
Article : Italian East Africa, in : Americana Annual 1938 p.349, 1939 pp.386-388, 1940 p.399, 1943 pp.392-394 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on August 27th 2007

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