During the First Italo-Abyssinian War (1895–1896), the Royal Italian Army () had been defeated by the forces of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia at the Battle of Adowa. During the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in October 1935, the Italians invaded Ethiopia from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. On 9 May 1936, the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, proclaimed Italian East Africa (, AOI), formed from the newly conquered Ethiopia and the colonies of Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. On 10 June 1940, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France, making the AOI a threat to the British supply route along the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The Kingdom of Egypt remained neutral during the war but the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 allowed the British to occupy Egypt to defend the Suez Canal. Egypt included the Sudan as a condominium known as Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Egypt, the Suez Canal, French Somaliland and British Somaliland were vulnerable to an Italian invasion but Mussolini looked forward to propaganda triumphs in the Sudan and British East Africa (Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda). (the Italian General Staff) had planned for a war after 1942 and in the summer of 1940 was not prepared for a long war or the occupation large parts of Africa.