In January 1935, French Foreign Minister Laval went to Rome and signed an agreement with Mussolini to strengthen cooperation and eliminate differences. Italy promised to give up its claim to French Tunisia and agreed to take care of France's settlement in Abyssini.
Asia’s special interests.
France agreed to amend the dividing line between Italian Libya and French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa, ceding 110,000 square kilometers of the Sahara Desert to Italy; it also revised the border between French Somaliland and Eritrea.
Italy gained another 800 square kilometers of coastal land, which is close to the Strait of Mandeb and has great strategic value.
In addition, France also agreed to Italy acquiring 20% of the shares of the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway and using the port of Djibouti, opening the door for Italy to invade Abyssinia.
Britain has always adopted a conniving attitude toward Italy's invasion of Abyssinia. According to Eden, who served as Secretary of State for the League of Nations in the British government at the time, Mussolini brought a message to His Majesty's Government through his ambassador in early May 1935.
According to the description of British Foreign Secretary Simon, the content of the oral message was to call on Britain to adopt the most friendly and helpful attitude toward Italy's actions in Abyssinia. Simon told the ambassador: "It has always been friendly to Italy and helping Italy.
This is the goal of the British government, and many of our actions can serve as proof."
It can be seen that the British government supported the Italian fascist aggression.
As for the United States, just as Italy was sending troops to the Abyssinian border and preparing to launch a war of aggression, the United States was falling into a new economic crisis and had no time to care about Italy or Abyssinia's problems.
The appeasement policy of Britain, France and the United States greatly encouraged the Italian fascist's aggressive arrogance, and Mussolini became even more unscrupulous.
On October 3, 1935, 300,000 Italian invaders launched a surprise attack, crossed the Mareb River border, and invaded Abyssinia on a large scale.
The people of Abyssinia shared the same hatred of the enemy and rose up in resistance. Regarding the future of the war and the mood of the people, the royal spokesperson told the foreign reporters who came to interview: "For self-defense, the king is reorganizing his army. You are already in the city.
Armed men were seen in the streets and countryside, children as young as twelve already carried rifles on their frail shoulders, and old men hung sabers on their right waists, as was already a custom among the Abyssinians.
.We Abyssinians love weapons, not because we are warlike, let alone because we are cruel; we are a peace-loving country, and we fight for independence and freedom. In order to defend the country, none of us
, even a woman will stay at home. If we are shot, we will only bleed to death. Even so, none of us wants to be left behind! We believe that the just cause will surely win."
On the second day of the national mobilization, the king reviewed the capital guard force composed of 4,000 infantry, cavalry, and artillery. They were all majestic and high-spirited, wearing neat military uniforms and military caps decorated with lion's manes.
There are more than 200,000 people serving in the army in Abyssinia, and their ages are only between 12 and 20 years old.
This age is the most appropriate age for military service in this country, because Abyssinians are the most capable and willing to learn in their early years. This hard primitive life turns those lively teenagers into
They have become strong and brave warriors. A group of young officers are being trained in the officer school in Auleta. They only undergo short-term training for six months before going to the front line to command operations. Most of them are around fifteen or sixteen years old.
.Whenever people talk about their youth, they proudly reply:
"When our fathers defeated the Italian invaders in Adua, they were no older than us!"
Abyssinia has the youngest army in the world, but they are an army of sharpshooters who are always accurate. Among the hundreds of thousands of troops that have been mobilized across the country, less than 50,000 have modern weapons, and the rest are mostly
Sabers and spears. Among the Somali and Danakil tribes, spears are coated with poison. Using these weapons in hand-to-hand combat is very lethal.
Some tribes that used to fight each other are now united under the slogan "Defend the Abyssinian Empire."
In the holy war to defend the motherland, the people of all ethnic groups in Abyssinia united and took advantage of the favorable mountainous terrain to tenaciously resist the Italian invading army. They organized ambush battles, cut off the invading army's lines of communication, and went deep into the enemy's rear to defend everyone.
The Italian invaders suffered many major defeats as they fought bravely for thousands of kilometers of land.
Debono was dismissed and General Badoglio succeeded him as executioner of the Abyssinian people.
The just war of the Abyssinian people against aggression has not only won the support of the people across the country, but also won the solidarity of progressive people all over the world. The people of Egypt and other countries formed a committee to support the Abyssinian Communist Party and held demonstrations to express their support for Abyssinia.
The struggle of the people of Bithynia.
Not only many countries in Africa, but also many countries in Asia, Europe, and America also sympathize with and support the just struggle of the Abyssinian people.
When the Italian invading army entered Abyssinia, black people took various ways to protest. They believed that Abyssinia was a black country, and destroying it would symbolize their final victory over black people.
Funds were raised in many places to support the African kingdom, and elaborate organizations were established in some big cities. Under the strong demands of people and progressive public opinion around the world, the League of Nations controlled by Britain and France was forced to pass a resolution declaring Italy an aggressor.
, and impose economic sanctions on it.
However, these resolutions were nothing more than a piece of paper that deceived world public opinion and did not hinder Italy's aggressive actions in the slightest.
Under the guise of "neutrality", Britain and France declared an arms embargo on both warring parties. In this way, Abyssinia, which had underdeveloped industry, was completely deprived of arms supplies. However, the Italian fascists had already made preparations for aggression and had no plans to do so.
There is a lack of weapons. The oil and other strategic materials that Italy urgently needs are not included in the embargo. In this way, Italy can continuously obtain a large amount of oil from Western countries, especially from Western countries, to launch a war machine and massacre Abyssinia.
people.
Without a large amount of oil, Italy would not be able to carry out this aggressive war.
In addition, the British-controlled Suez Canal did not block the invaders, and Italian ships could transport troops and weapons unimpeded to suppress the Abyssinian people.
What's more, British Foreign Secretary Hall secretly colluded with French Prime Minister Laval in Paris to concoct a plan to hand over most of the land in Abyssinia to Italy. However, due to Mussolini's demanding price,
This conspiracy did not succeed due to strong opposition from higher authorities and world public opinion.
With the connivance of the appeasement policy of Britain, France and the United States, Mussolini was emboldened to massacre the Abyssinian people even more unscrupulously.
The Italian invaders further intensified their offensive, and the fascist air force bombed the cities and villages of Abyssinia indiscriminately. The fascist gangsters also trampled on international public law, carried out inhumane chemical warfare, and blatantly used large amounts of poison gas, causing Abyssinia to be devastated.
275,000 soldiers and civilians were gassed to death, and more than 400,000 innocent residents were brutally murdered.
When the Abyssinian People's War against Italy was at its peak, King Haile Selassie asked for help from the League of Nations and Western powers, but Britain, France, the United States and the League of Nations did not take any measures to oppose the Italian invaders.
In this way, Italian fascism captured
The capital of Abyssinia is Addis Ababa. Haile Selassie lives in exile in the United Kingdom.
Mussolini officially announced the annexation of Abyssinia. Mussolini invaded Abyssinia in order to occupy this strategic hub in the Horn of Africa, plunder the country's rich mineral deposits and fertile land, and expand his aggression in Africa.
Get the base...
On the other hand, Italy also received support from Germany in its war of aggression against Afghanistan. Hitler was regarding Mussolini as a future aggressive partner, and he also wanted to divert Italy's attention from Austria and the Balkans so that Nazi Germany could expand its presence in these areas.
Establish your own sphere of influence.
This promoted the closeness of the two fascist countries, Germany and Italy.
The fascist aggressive forces further united to intervene in Spain with arms. Not long after Mussolini invaded and occupied Abyssinia, he extended his black hand to Spain. Together with Hitler, he carried out armed intervention in the Spanish Civil War.
Spain is located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwest Europe, bordering Portugal to the west, the Bay of Biscay to the north, France and Andorra to the northeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the east and southeast, and facing Morocco in Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar to the south, straddling the Mediterranean Sea and Morocco in Africa.
The strategic position of the throat of the Atlantic sea route is very important.
Britain, France, and the United States have large investments in Spain and have their own spheres of influence.
Spain is rich in resources and has long been coveted by Mussolini. Spain was originally a kingdom. In the early 1930s, the bourgeois revolution broke out, a republic was established, and democratic forces gradually grew.
In February 1932, the Popular Front government with Communist participation came to power, which greatly alarmed the international fascist forces and caused serious concern among major Western countries!
Under the secret planning of Mussolini and Hitler, Franco, the leader of the Spanish garrison in Spanish Morocco, launched an armed rebellion.
Germany and Italy immediately provided public support, first airlifting rebels from the Spanish North Africa region to various parts of Spain, and then openly dispatching troops to fight in a naked armed intervention.
On Spanish soil, a war that shocked the world began.
The fascist armed rebellion first began in the Spanish-administered region of Morocco. After defeating some individual resistance, the rebels occupied the cities of Melilla, Ceuta and Tetouan.
Officers who insisted on being loyal to the Republic were shot on the spot.
Immediately afterwards, armed rebellions also broke out in some cities and major police areas in Spain. The leader of the rebellion was originally General San Juljo, but when he was flying back to Spain from Portugal, under extremely unusual circumstances, he was killed by the plane.
Died in an accident.
In order to lead an armed rebel group in Morocco, General Franco flew from the Canary Islands to Tetouan on a British plane. After San Juljo's death, he became the leader of the rebellion!