Mussolini's 1935 invasion crushed Ethiopia with poison gas
On 3 October 1935, without declaring war, roughly two hundred thousand Italian troops under Marshal Emilio De Bono crossed from Eritrea while a smaller column under Rodolfo Graziani struck from Somalia. Adwa fell within days—revenge for the 1896 defeat—yet fascist victory exacted a chemical and diplomatic price.
Italy had failed to hold Ethiopia after Menelik II's army smashed Italian forces at Adwa on 1 March 1896. Fascist governors later nudged frontiers outward; a 1925 secret understanding with Britain and the 1928 Italo-Ethiopian Treaty did not prevent a fort at Walwal oasis in the Ogaden from becoming a flashpoint. Britain and France, hoping to keep Italy as a counterweight to Germany, hesitated to block the military buildup.
De Bono's cautious advance frustrated Benito Mussolini, who swapped him for Pietro Badoglio. An Ethiopian counterstroke in December 1935 briefly stalled the Italians. Mussolini then authorised mustard gas; the Regia Aeronautica dropped it on fighters and civilians, violating the Geneva Protocol, and reports alleged deliberate strikes on Red Cross ambulances and hospitals. Estimates put Ethiopian civilian deaths in the hundreds of thousands.
Militarily the campaign looked like a swift fascist triumph with propaganda value, yet it strained an already unbalanced budget and weakened Italy's longer economic position. Internationally the aggression isolated Rome and helped unravel the collective-security hopes of the League of Nations era. Occupation followed the May 1936 capture of Addis Ababa, but resistance and outrage outlived the parade through the rest of the decade.
The collapse unfolded in stages. Nine days after Adwa, Italian soldiers entered Aksum and shipped its celebrated obelisk to Rome, where it was set up outside the Ministry of Colonies. Resuming the push in February 1936, Badoglio's army beat the Ethiopians at Amba Aradam, Tembien and Shire, then broke organised opposition at Maychew on 31 March. Haile Selassie went into exile on 2 May; Italian columns reached the capital three days later, and on 9 May Mussolini proclaimed annexation and a new colony, Italian East Africa. Guerrilla fighting against the occupiers carried on until liberation in 1941.
Source: Second Italo-Ethiopian War
