Abyssinia Crisis The Abyssinia Crisis was a crisis during the interwar period originating in the " Walwal incident . " This incident resulted from the ongoing conflict between the Kingdom of Italy ( " Regno d ' Italia " ) and the Empire of Ethiopia ( then commonly known as " Abyssinia " in Europe ) . Its effects were to undermine the credibility of the League of Nations and to encourage Fascist Italy to ally itself with Nazi Germany . The crisis brought an end to peace in Europe and it was clear by 1937 there were two defining sides in Europe . Background . Both Italy and Ethiopia were members of the League of Nations which was founded in 1919 . Italy was a founding member of the League . Ethiopia joined September 28 , 1923 seven years after Haile Selassie I was appointed Ras Tafarai Makonnen , head of state . The League had Article X , rules forbidding aggression among members . On August 6 , 1928 , in addition to abiding by Article X , Italy and Ethiopia signed the Italo – Ethiopian Treaty of Friendship . This treaty declared a 20 - year friendship between the two nations . On August 27 in the same year , both Italy and Ethiopia signed the Kellogg - Briand Pact , an international treaty " providing for the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy . " In 1930 , Italy built a fort at Walwal , an oasis in the Ogaden . The fort was in a boundary zone between the nations , which was not well defined ; today it is about 150 km inside Ethiopia . On September 29 , 1934 , Italy and Abyssinia released a joint statement renouncing any aggression against each other . The Walwal incident . On November 22 , 1934 , a force of 1 , 000 Ethiopian militia with three " fitaurari " ( Ethiopian military - political commanders ) arrived near Walwal and formally asked the Dubats garrison stationed there ( comprising about 60 soldiers ) to withdraw from the area . The Somali NCO leading the garrison refused to withdraw and alerted Captain Cimmaruta , commander of the garrison of Uarder , 20 km away , to what had happened . The next day , in the course of surveying the border between British Somaliland and Ethiopia , an Anglo – Ethiopian boundary commission arrived at Walwal . The commission was confronted by a newly arrived Italian force . The British members of the boundary commission protested , but withdrew to avoid an international incident . The Ethiopian members of the boundary commission , however , stayed at Walwal . Between 5 and 7 December , for reasons which have never been clearly determined , there was a skirmish between the garrison of Somalis , who were in Italian service , and a force of armed Ethiopians . According to the Italians , the Ethiopians attacked the Somalis with rifle and machine - gun fire . According to the Ethiopians , the Italians attacked them , supported by two tanks and three aircraft . In the end , approximately 107 Ethiopians and 50 Italians and Somalis were killed . Neither side did anything to avoid confrontation ; the Ethiopians repeatedly menaced the Italian garrison with the threat of an armed attack , and the Italians sent two planes over the Ethiopian camp with some machine - gun fire . International response and subsequent actions . On December 6 , 1934 , Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia protested Italian aggression at Walwal . On December 8 , Italy demanded an apology and , on December 11 , followed up this demand with another for financial and strategic compensation . On January 3 , 1935 , Ethiopia appealed to the League of Nations for arbitration of the dispute arising from the Walwal incident . But the League ' s response was inconclusive . A subsequent analysis by an Arbitration Committee of the League of Nations absolved both parties of any culpability for what had happened . Shortly after Ethiopia ' s initial appeal , Minister of Foreign Affairs Pierre Laval of France and Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare of the United Kingdom met with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in Rome . On January 7 , 1935 , a meeting between Laval and Mussolini resulted in the " Franco – Italian Agreement " . This treaty gave Italy parts of French Somaliland ( now Djibouti ) , redefined the official status of Italians in French - held Tunisia , and essentially gave the Italians a free hand in dealing with Ethiopia . In exchange , France hoped for Italian support against German aggression . On January 25 , five Italian askaris were killed by Ethiopian forces near Walwal . On February 10 , 1935 , Mussolini mobilized two divisions . On the 23rd , Mussolini began to send large numbers of troops to Eritrea and Italian Somaliland , which were the Italian colonies that bordered Ethiopia to the northeast and southeast , respectively . There was little international protest in response to this build - up . On March 8 , Ethiopia again requested arbitration and noted Italian military build - up . On March 13 , Italy and Ethiopia agreed on a neutral zone in the Ogaden . On March 17 , in response to continued Italian build - up , Ethiopia again appealed to the League for help . On March 22 , the Italians yielded to pressure from the League of Nations to submit to arbitration the dispute arising from the Walwal incident , but continued to mobilize its troops in the region . On May 11 , Ethiopia again protested the ongoing Italian mobilization . Between May 20 and 21 , the League of Nations held a special session to discuss the crisis in Ethiopia . On May 25 , a League council resolved that it would meet if no fifth arbitrator had been selected by June 25 , or if a settlement was not reached by August 25 . On June 19 , Ethiopia requested neutral observers . From June 23 to 24 , the United Kingdom tried to quell the crisis , sending Under - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Anthony Eden to try to broker a peace agreement . The attempt was unsuccessful , and it became clear that Mussolini was intent on conquest . On July 25 , Britain imposed an embargo on arms sales to both Italy and Ethiopia . Many historians believe that the embargo was a response to Italy ' s decree that it would view arms sales to Ethiopia as an act of unfriendliness toward Italy . Britain also cleared its warships from the Mediterranean , allowing Italy further unhindered access to eastern Africa . On June 25 , Italian and Ethiopian officials met in the Hague to discuss arbitration . By July 9 , these discussions had fallen apart . On July 26 , the League confirmed that no fifth member of the arbitration panel had been selected . On August 3 , the League limited arbitration talks to matters other than the sovereignty of Walwal . On August 12 , Ethiopia pleaded for the arms embargo to be lifted . On August 16 , France and Britain offered Italy large concessions in Ethiopia to try to avert war , but Italy rejected the offers . On August 22 , Britain reaffirmed its commitment to the arms embargo . On September 4 , the League met again and exonerated both Italy and Ethiopia of any culpability in the Walwal incident , on the ground that each nation had believed Walwal was within its own territorial borders . On September 10 , Pierre Laval , Anthony Eden , and even Sir Samuel Hoare agreed on limitations to sanctions against Italy . On September 25 , Ethiopia again asked for neutral observers . On September 27 , the British Parliament , led by Konni Zilliacus , unanimously authorized the imposition of sanctions against Italy should it continue its pursuit against Ethiopia . On September 28 , Ethiopia began to mobilize its large but poorly equipped army . The war and occupation . On October 3 , 1935 , shortly after the League exonerated both parties in the Walwal incident , Italian armed forces from Eritrea invaded Ethiopia without a declaration of war , prompting Ethiopia to declare war on Italy , thus beginning the Second Italo – Abyssinian War . On October 7 , the League of Nations declared Italy to be the aggressor , and started the slow process of imposing sanctions on Italy . The sanctions were limited , however . They did not prohibit the provision of several vital materials , such as oil , and were not carried out by all members of the League . International support for the sanctions was by this time at a low level . The USA , exasperated by the League of Nations ' failure to act , actually increased its exports to Italy , and the United Kingdom and France did not take any serious action against Italy ( such as blocking Italian access to the Suez Canal ) . Even Italy ' s use of chemical weapons and other actions that violated international norms did little to change the League ' s passive approach to the situation . In December 1935 , Hoare of Britain and Laval of France proposed the secret Hoare - Laval Plan , which would have ended the war but allowed Italy to control large areas of Ethiopia . Mussolini agreed to the plan , but it caused an outcry in Britain and France when the plan was leaked to the media . Hoare and Laval were accused of betraying the Abyssinians , and both resigned . Their plan was dropped , but the perception spread that Britain and France were not serious about the principles of the League . The war continued , and Mussolini turned to German dictator Adolf Hitler for alliance . All the sanctions that had been put in placed by the League were dropped after the Italian capture of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on May 5 , 1936 . Ethiopia was then merged with the other Italian colonies to become Italian East Africa ( " Africa Orientale Italiana " , or AOI ) . Ethiopia never officially surrendered , and Italian control of Ethiopia was never total , due to continued guerrilla activity ( which the British later used to their advantage during WWII ) . However , by 1940 Italy was in complete control of three - quarters of the country . Aftermath . The end of the AOI came quickly during World War II . In early 1941 , as part of the East African Campaign , Allied forces launched offensive actions against the isolated Italian colony . On May 5 , 1941 , five years after the Italians had captured his capital , Emperor Haile Selassie entered Addis Ababa in triumph . Italy would be defeated soon after .