Chapter 869: Invasion of Abyssinia

The war, which was waged in advance by Italy.

When the United States was in an economic crisis and Britain and France had to face the challenge of Germany's strong rise, Italy's great dictator Mussolini finally couldn't bear it anymore and started a war first.

After Mussolini ascended the throne of Italy's "new Caesar", his imperialist ambitions swelled even more, threatening to rebuild the "new Roman Empire" and turn the Mediterranean Sea into an Italian lake; He coveted the Danube Valley and the Balkans, and was bent on invading Africa, and Abyssinia (Ethiopia) became his primary target.

Abyssinia is a landlocked country located in northeastern Africa. The country covers an area of about 1.22 million square kilometers, of which the plateau area accounts for 2/3 of the total area of the country, with an average height of 2,500 meters to 3,000 meters. There are deserts and semi-deserts in the north, northeast and south, accounting for 28% of the total area of the country. There is a Great Rift Valley, which is more than 100 kilometers wide and more than 2 kilometers deep, which runs through the whole territory from northeast to southwest, and is part of the Great Rift Valley.

Although Abyssinia is located in the tropics, it has a mild climate due to its high terrain, with an average annual temperature of 11 degrees Celsius to 27 degrees Celsius

The average annual temperature of Addis Ababa is 13 degrees Celsius, but the valleys and lowlands are hotter, the dry season is from October to April of the following year, and the rainy season is from May to September, and the annual rainfall in the plateau area is about 1000-1500 mm. There are many rivers and lakes in the territory, the largest lake is Lake Tana, and the main rivers are the Avash, Abbe, and Shabelle rivers. The highest mountain is Las Yida Xiangshan.

Abyssinia is an ancient country with a history of 3,000 years. In 975 BC, Menelik I became king. In the 13th and 16th centuries AD, the Amharas founded a new state, Abyssinia.

Due to its tropical location, cash crops are relatively developed, rich in coffee, cotton and tobacco. Abyssinia is one of the world's major coffee producers and exporters, with a relatively developed livestock industry, and the main livestock are cattle, sheep, horses, camels, etc. Leather is another important export of Abyssinia, and it is also rich in mineral resources, such as platinum, gold, manganese, copper, oil, etc. However, due to the backward economy, it cannot be exploited. The people live in extreme poverty. As a result, from the 16th century onwards, it was the object of plunder by the European powers.

In 1543, the Portuguese began to invade. In the middle of the 19th century, the British invaded. At the end of the 19th century, the Italian colonial powers crowded out the British and occupied the Red Sea coast. In February 1890, Italy annexed the region into the Ergitrian colony and unilaterally declared Abyssinia under its "protection".

From 1895 to 1896, Abyssinia fought an anti-Italian war. Started on March 1, 1896

In the Battle of Adwa, the Italian invading army suffered a crushing defeat. In this battle, the Italian army suffered 6,500 casualties and 2,500 prisoners, while the Argentine army lost only 3,000 men. Abyssinia has written a glorious page in the history of the resistance of the African peoples to aggression.

After Mussolini seized power, he stepped up his arms expansion and war, threatening to "shame the snow adwa," and was determined to seize Abyssinia, an ancient civilized country, for himself.

Driven by this aim, the Italian fascists carried out a variety of activities with both soft and hard measures.

First of all, under the cover of diplomacy, Italian consulates are located all over the country, but in fact, there is no Italian cause to protect in those places. Usually those consuls were the only Italians in the area. They do not do ordinary consular work, but gather information according to the tasks given to them by Mussolini, grasp the movements of the host country, and wait for opportunities to incite and create civil strife. There are many spies and spies in Abyssiniab, who operate in secret, buy people's hearts, sow discord between the Foot tribes, and make them break away from the Emperor and return to Italy, they are almost pervasive, infiltrating all areas, in order to obtain information in a timely manner, each consulate has a radio station, and they can exchange information with the capital Addis Ababa at any time. Therefore, Italy knows everything that is happening in this ancient country in a better time and with more accuracy than the Abyssinian government. …,

In order to meet the needs of future wars, the Italian Embassy opened a communications school in the capital of the country, which trained the telegraph personnel of the consulates, and after a short period of training, they were sent to serve in various intelligence stations.

In order to buy hearts and minds and cultivate pro-Italian forces, they also set up hospitals, schools and clubs in various places. In Italian schools, Abyssinian children are treated like Italian children!

They dressed the children in beautiful and clean clothes, and set up a variety of toys in some large playgrounds. After a few weeks, the students saluted in the fascist way, shouting in their own language: "Long live Mussolini!" ”

What did Italy want in Abyssinia? It was only on December 5, 1934, when several Italian soldiers were killed in a skirmish in Varval, that the Italian and Arab quarrels were heard.

In fact, this conflict has a long history, continuing after the Adwa War. In 1906 and 1928, Italy had concluded two treaties with Abyssinia pledging to maintain its original borders, so that after the Varvar incident, Mussolini's fanatical aggression suddenly took the peace-loving country by surprise.

Here's how it happened: as early as the autumn of 1934, Italy was sending planes and tanks to its colonies of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, building airfields; On 5 December, a provocation was carried out in the Oasis of Val-Var in the province of Ogaden, on the border between Abyssinia and Italian Somaliland, in preparation for a large-scale armed invasion of Abyssinia. The invasion of the Italian army was countered by the local garrison of Abyssinia, and thus a deliberate war of aggression and a war of counter-aggression thus began.

After the war began, both sides successively increased their troops, and Italian planes, artillery, and tanks carried out a wanton and barbaric massacre of the innocent Abyssinian people. However, in this mountainous jungle area, the Italian tanks could not exert their power. The Abyssinians, who rarely used rifles, drew their sabers to attack the Italians, and in one battle they completely incapacitated a tank, and the Abyssinian warriors threw their spears and sabers into the tracks of the tank, destroying its machines.

The Italian artillery could not destroy anything, they could not find a real target for the attack. The Abyssinians were hiding in the bushes, so the Italians bombed aimlessly, and when the two sides fought hand-to-hand, they were afraid of blowing up their own people, so the Italian planes were useless. After fierce competition, the two sides won and lost each other. When the Abyssinians organized a second counterattack, the Askarans of the Italian army rebelled against their white officers, and one of the Italian officers was killed by his Somali soldiers, at which point the Italian army withdrew.

In this exchange of fire, Italy killed and wounded more than 2,300 people. According to the situation at that time, the situation of the Italian army was very bad. If the Abyssinians continued to attack, they would be powerless to resist.

However, the Abyssinian government, which was worried about the further expansion of the war, put forward a proposal to stop the war and achieve peace. The Italian fascist government not only rejected this reasonable proposal, but further made unreasonable demands for land reparations and for the Abyssinians to go to Val and Var to salute the Italian flag, and at the same time, Mussolini transferred the 1911 and 1912 divisions of the Black Shirts to the war zone. It is clear that this fascist leader dreamed of a great empire. He hoped not only to conquer Abyssinia, but also to get British Somaliland, dreaming of a colony five times the size of his homeland. …,

The Italian aggression naturally created an intuition of war in Abyssinia, and when the Italian made unreasonable demands, they angrily rejected them, and the mobilization for war on both sides escalated.

In order to further expand the war of aggression, in January 1935, Mussolini appointed General de Bono as commander-in-chief of the Italian army in East Africa and went to Eritrea to carry out the deployment of the war of aggression. Beginning in February, the army was redeployed to Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.

By the autumn of 1935, 300,000 Italian troops had been amassed on the northern and southeastern borders of Abyssinia.

In the face of Italian aggression, Abyssinian Haier. Emperor Selassie issued a mobilization for war to the people of the whole country. He said: "The constant aggression of the Italian army against Abyssinia has made it impossible for us to turn a blind eye any longer. It's time for us to rise up and defend our country,"

Despite this, he advocated a peaceful settlement of the dispute between the two countries. He further said: "What we want at the moment is to return to us those areas that were illegally occupied by the Italian army. The Italian aggression and expansion in Africa posed a real threat to us, and when the border treaty of 1906 was concluded, Italy had already expressed an intention to unite its two colonies, Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, which naturally undermined the integrity of the Abyssinian land, and the Italian aggression not only threatened the security of an independent State, but also trampled on the Charter of the League of Nations! ”

He demanded that the League of Nations impose sanctions on Italy's aggression and called on international public opinion to support the Abyssinian people in their struggle to preserve the independence of their homeland.

However, this aggressive activity of Italy was not opposed by the League of Nations and the governments of Western countries, but was instigated and supported by them.

After Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933, the fascists frantically expanded their armaments and the contradictions between Germany and Britain and France became increasingly acute. France approached Italy in an attempt to establish a united front of Britain, France, and Italy to deal with the German threat.

Hence the pandering attitude to the Italian ambitions of aggression against Abyssinia!

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