Causes, events and consequences of the Abyssinian crisis Flashcards
What is Fascism?
- Far right
- Anti Democratic
What was Fascism against?
- Democracy
- Socialism
- Communism
Fascism for?
- Strong nation state
- Racial purity
- Imperialism
- Dictatorship
- Para-military organisation
What did fascism favour?
- One party state and rule by a dictator or small elite
- No elections or one choice only
- Judicial decisions conforming to party ideology
- Censorship, Secret Police and limits to freedom
What was Mussolini’s Rise to Dictator?
1921: Mussolini Transformed movement into right wing National Fascist Party, black shirts, Mussolini as Il Duce (the leader), Roman salutes- talk of a new Roman Empire, Fasces symbol
1922: Threatened “March on Rome”, political crisis, King Victor Emmanuel III forced to choose between Republicans and Fascists – appointed Mussolini PM
1923: Acerbo election law- ended proportional representation, automatic majority to the largest party in the election, Fascists win
1924: Socialist Matteotti murdered for denouncing the election, Socialists walk out of parliament, body discovered in 1925
1926: Mussolini takes dictatorial powers
1928: all other parties banned, elections just a referendum on a single list from the Fascist Grand Council
1929: Mussolini secures recognition of the Pope Pius XI by signing the Lateran Treaty which set up the Vatican city state
What was the Italian Foreign Policy?
1923: Corfu : Italian General was murdered, demanded compensation from Greece and received it
1924: Fiume : Italy seized Fiume (an independent free state between 1920-1924. Now part of Croatia.). In January 1924, the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes signed the Treaty of Rome (27 January 1924), agreeing to the annexation of Fiume by Italy. Took effect on 16 March. The government-in-exile of the Free State considered this act invalid and non-binding under international law and continued its activities
1925: Locarno: with Britain a guarantor of the Locarno Pact
By 1926: Albania: Mussolini gained political and economic dominance over Albania by 1926.
1932: Libya: it took the Italians 10 years (1922-1932) to brutally supress a rebellion by a small force.
1934: Austria : Although Hitler was inspired by Mussolini, saw Hitler as a rival. When Nazis engineered a coup in Austria (murder of Chancellor Dollfuss) Mussolini sent troops to Brenner Pass to frighten Hitler off (bluff that worked).
By 1935: Mussolini seen as a counterweight to Hitler by many in Britain. This led to the Stresa Front, but this
all went wrong with his invasion of Abyssinia in 1935, his involvement in Spanish Civil War in 1936 and he begun to ally himself with Hitler, with the 1936 Rome-Berlin Axis.
What was the Stresa Pact?
an agreement made in Stresa, a town on the banks of Lake Maggiore in Italy on 14th April 1935.
between French foreign minister Pierre Laval, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini
It was a formal statement against Germany’s rearmament
They did not bring up Abyssina at all during the agreement - Mussolini believed that Britain and France had turned a blind eye to the conflict in Abyssinia in return for joining the Stresa pact
- Aim: to reaffirm the Locarno Treaties and to declare that the independence of Austria ‘would continue to inspire their common policy’.
- For Mussolini: it was an attempt to cover the Italian masses in Fascist propaganda as he was portrayed as the elder statesman and keeper of European peace.
- Discussions within the conference: dominated by the German declaration of its intention to build up an air force, to increase the size of its army to 36 divisions of 750,000 men.
- Outside the conference but never within it: Mussolini took the opportunity to discuss with the Allies his plans to invade Abyssinia.
- Abyssinia: Italian plans for the invasion of Abyssinia were not discussed formally at Stresa which Mussolini interpreted as tacit approval for his planned invasion which took place in October 1935.
What was the background on the attack on Abyssinia?
- Italian fascist leader, Benito Mussolini used a dispute between Abyssinian and Italian soldiers as an excuse to begin preparing for an invasion of Abyssinia.
- He wanted revenge for Italy’s embarrassing defeat against Abyssinia in 1896 (the Battle of Adowa) and wanted mineral wealth and fertile farmland.
- Most importantly he wanted glory and conquest, promising Italians a new Roman Empire.
What was Phase 1 of the attack?
January - October 1935
- Mussolini was supposedly negotiating with the League to settle the dispute at the same time he was shipping his army to Africa
- The British and the French were desperate to keep good relations with Italy and Mussolini as he was their biggest ally against Hitler
What was the League of nations Union in Berlin?
- It was a ballot - It showed the majority of British people that supported the use of military force to defend Abyssinia
- Hoare (the British foreign minister) he made a grand speech about the value of collective security
- The League did nothing to discourage Mussolini
- On 4th September the committee reported to the league that neither side could be held responsible for the Wal-Wal incident.
- The league had a plan to give Mussolini some of Abyssinia - Mussolini rejected it
What was Phase 2 of the attack?
October 1935 invasion
- Mussolini launched a full scale invasion of Abyssinia.
- Even though the Abyssian’s tried to resist the Italians had a lot of modern weapons - tanks, airplanes and poison gas
- The League was designed to solve disputes such as these - it was ideally placed to act
- Haile-Selassie appealed to the league of Nations for help which kick started the whole process
What were the sanctions that were made by the League of nations?
- The Covenant said that sanctions will be introduced against the aggressor - a committee was set up to agree what sanctions should be imposed
- The sanctions would have to be imposed quickly otherwise they would be useless - every week a decision was delayed that would allow Mussolini to collect more raw materials
- The league banned arm sales to Italy, banned loans to Italy, banned imports from Italy and banned the exports to Italy of rubber, tin and metals
- The league delayed the decision on whether to ban oil exports to Italy by 2 months
- The league feared that Americans would not support the sanctions - it also feared that the league’s members economic interests would be damaged even more
- In Britain around 30000 coal miners were told that they were about the lose their jobs because of the ban on coal exports to Italy
What was the Suez Canal?
- The Suez Canal was owned by Britain and France was not closed to Mussolini’s supply ships to Abyssinia
- The Canal was the Italian’s main supply route to Abyssina and by closing it it would’ve ended the invasion of Abyssinia imminently
- Both Britain and France were afraid of closing the canal would’ve caused war with Italy
- Not closing the canal was fatal for Abyssina
What was Phase 3 of the attack?
December 1935 - The Hoare-Laval Pact
There was a secret dealing going on behind the scenes between Britain and France
- In December 1935, when sanctions were still being discussed the British and French foreign ministers (Hoare and Laval) began to form a plan
- The plan was aimed to give Mussolini two-thirds of Abyssinia if he called off the invasion
- Laval said that he would give the plan to Mussolini first before informing the League or Haile-Selassie
- Laval told the British that if they did not agree with this plan, the French would then no longer support sanctions against Italy
What did the French Press do?
- The details of the Hoare-Laval Pact were leaked to the French press.
- This was quite disastrous for the League
- Haile-Selassie demanded an immediate debate about the pact
- In both Britain and France what both foreign ministers did was seen as an act of treachery to the league - Hoare and Laval were both sacked
- The real damage however was done to the sanctions discussions - they lost momentum
How did the US respond?
- In February 1936, the committee concluded that if they stopped oil sales to Italy, the Italian’s supplies would run out after 2 months
- Mussolini had already taken over large parts of Abyssinia
Americans were unhappy with the indecisiveness of the French and - British than they were before so they blocked a move to support the league’s sanctions - Americans actually increased the amount of exports to Italy after this
What does Abyssinia reveal about the effectiveness of the League of Nations?
The crisis in Abyssinia revealed significant flaws in the league of nations, especially its indecisiveness and its inability to make decisions, it also showed the lack of unity among the countries in the league and its failure to prevent aggression. The league was ineffective in maintaining peace and security - which was one of its top aims when it was first established. Abyssinia revealed that the League was slowly falling apart and it was drifting away from the aims it hoped to achieve when it was first formed.
What were the results of the Abyssinian Crisis?
Collective security was damaged, perhaps fatally. The League of Nations and the system of sanctions were discredited. In June 1936, sanctions were ended.
The small powers of Eastern Europe announced that they would not be bound by Article 16 of the Covenant. 4 Scandinavian states proclaimed their neutrality.
Austria was now in danger and Mussolini was being propelled into the arms of Hitler. Hitler advanced his plans for the re-occupation of the Rhineland from spring 1937 to March 1936.
The Rome-Berlin Axis of November 1936 and the Anti-Comintern Pact of November 1937 provide further evidence of the two dictators coming together.
Importantly for Britain and France, they became estranged at a crucial time in European history. Britain blamed the French fear of an aggressive Mussolini for weakness of reaction.
Some politician, such as Churchill, believed that failure to stop Mussolini was an important step on the way to war but it can be argued that Britain not ready for a war and a war against Italy would have just created another embittered enemy. The incident indicated British policy was weak and inept
