The Second Italo-Abyssinian War (1935–36), ordered by the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, was the last colonial war (that is, intended to colonise a country, as opposed to wars of national liberation), occupying Ethiopia – which had remained the last independent African territory, apart from Liberia. Italian Ethiopia was occupied by Fascist Italian forces in World War II as part of Italian East Africa. The occupation is an example of the expansionist policy that characterized the Axis powers as opposed to the Scramble for Africa.