ON THIS DAY ·
Wal Wal incident
5 Dec 1934 — Italian and Ethiopian troops clash at a watering hole deep inside Ethiopia’s Ogaden. Italy had quietly built a fort there. The clash gives Mussolini a pretext a year before he needs it.
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The moment in context
The clash at Wal Wal in December 1934 gave Mussolini the occasion he wanted. Italian and Ethiopian forces fought at a post well inside territory claimed by Ethiopia. Mussolini used the incident to justify an invasion already being prepared, while Emperor Haile Selassie appealed to the League of Nations. Italian troops and supplies continued to pass through Suez in full view. In October 1935 armies entered Ethiopia from Eritrea and Somaliland, facing forces with far fewer modern weapons.
From Italian invasion of Abyssinia, chapter 4 of The Road to War, 1931–1941 (1935).
The place: Wal Wal incident — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — A regime that needed a triumph. Fascism had promised greatness after what Italian nationalists called the “mutilated victory” of 1918. By 1934 the corporate economy was stagnant,…
- The turn — Paris, December 1935. The Hoare–Laval leak in December 1935 showed two policies operating at once. Britain and France led sanctions against Italy, while their foreign…
- What it changed — The Stresa Front becomes the Axis. The invasion and sanctions strained Mussolini’s relations with his Stresa partners. Germany remained sympathetic and kept buying Italian goods, and…
Then ask the room: Britain and France neither closed Suez nor embargoed oil. Were limited sanctions worse than no sanctions? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
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