Test Case: Italy, Ethiopia, and the League of Nations

This book shows how Mussolini's African imperialism became the "test case" of the collective security provisions of the League of Nations. Mussolini thought neither Britain or France would stop an Italian conquest of Ethiopia. Either had a vital interest in maintaining Ethiopia's independence. Both wanted good relations with Italy. Mussolini tried, halfheartedly, to get them to treat the war as a colonial affair, separate from European considerations. This was impossible, because the invasion violated the terms of international order prescribed in the Covenant of the League of Nations and because it was not a simple colonial campaign but rather a war of modern means and European magnitude against a backward people for whom there was much popular sympathy. Not that Mussolini cared about the League. But there it was, established precisely to prevent the success of aggression against its members, of which Ethiopia, to the regret of many officials, was one. That fact could not easily be ignored, and Ethiopian diplomats made sure it was not. A contract was a contract.