The Rise Of Australasia

The previous war had taught the Italians a painful lesson and also showed the world powers the true combat strength of the Italian military.

Of course, Italy’s performance in World War I did not disgrace the contempt of the powers; their military was unable to defeat any of the powerful nations and was even vastly inferior to the Balkan countries, known for their fierce national temperament.

Even the British military, which had always been criticized, performed much better in World War I than Italy did.

If it had not been for the Balkan nations and Russia Nation tying up a large number of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s troops, Italy probably would have been the first of the powerful nations to be occupied.

Of course, since Mussolini came to power, the previous wounds inflicted on the Kingdom of Italy had been actively forgotten by Mussolini himself.

As an ambitious ruler, Mussolini understood that he must create sufficient achievements to justify the dictatorial regime he had established in Italy.

Mussolini’s ambitions were grand; he not only wished to expand Italy’s territory but also aspired to dominate the Mediterranean and become its sole hegemon, as well as carve up the British and French colonies in East Africa and North Africa.

Well, such ambition, if put modestly, could also be described as the restoration of the territory of the Roman Empire, establishing a new Roman Empire in the 20th century.

After all, the original Roman Empire was the master of the Mediterranean and had a multitude of colonies in North Africa and East Africa.

However, it was clear that so far, not a single step of Mussolini’s plan had been implemented. His enemies, Britain and France, were too powerful, and Italy was not yet their match.

Nevertheless, over this lengthy period of development, Mussolini had not been entirely without gains.

Mussolini believed that the reason for the military’s weakness in the previous Kingdom of Italy was entirely due to outdated training and the low morale of its soldiers.

After successfully seizing control over Italy’s military and political power, he initiated radical reforms of the military and established strategy centered on his own ideology, significantly boosting the morale of Italian soldiers.

Now, after a period of rigorous military preparation, the Indian rebellion against the British Empire had led Mussolini to believe that the time for Italian expansion had arrived.

The competition between Britain and France and the rebellion in India left the British no spare energy to pay attention to Italy, which presented a great opportunity for Italy to expand its influence in East Africa.

Besides the British colonies in the East African region, what other areas are there? Of course, it was Ethiopia, which Italy had coveted decades before.

This is the tragic reality of backward countries, often coveted by strong nations, an inescapable fate.

Even without Italy, Britain and France would have penetrated Ethiopia, and the eventual fate of Ethiopia would have been as a colony.

To avoid the risks of the first campaign, Mussolini mobilized over a hundred thousand troops and decided to deploy the entire navy to transport sufficient supplies for the army at the front line.

Of course, before launching the war against the Abyssinian Empire, the first thing Mussolini had to do was to test the attitudes of Britain and France.

In Africa, the two major powers one cannot bypass are Britain and France. If one had a map of the global situation, it would become quite clear that Britain and France occupied the eastern and western parts of Africa, respectively.

Of course, due to their different geographical locations, Britain and France had distinct holdings in Africa.

France’s colonies were generally distributed in West Africa and Central Africa, closer to France, where its influence was undoubtedly considerable.

Meanwhile, the British colonies stretched across the entire African continent, from Egypt to South Africa, directly connecting Britain’s African colonies.

Especially after Germany’s defeat in World War I, German East Africa was successfully taken over by the British, which allowed them to link up their colonies.

Although France also annexed German Cameroon, the situation did not appear as expansive as the British colonies being connected.

The territory of the Abyssinian Empire in Ethiopia was already surrounded by British and Italian colonies.

Logically, this situation should have translated into colonial competition between Italy and Britain, where the first to gain the upper hand would capture this encircled territory.

But the problem was the vast gap between the strength of Italy and Britain. Although Italy had a certain advantage in the prominent regions of East Africa, namely Ethiopia and Somalia, the previous Kingdom of Italy dared not overlook the opinions of the British.

Add to this the fact that the Abyssinian Empire indeed had the perseverance to resist colonial rule, making it difficult for Italy to establish complete colonial domination in the region.

In fact, the British were not willing to let Italy connect its colonies and thus pose a great threat to them in East Africa.

This led to a severe issue: Italy could not achieve expansion in East Africa. The inability to expand the colony also restricted Italy’s strength to a certain extent.

If one closely observed the world powers, either they possessed vast colonies, or their native land was expansive and rich in resources.

The most obvious example of the former is the British and French, and of the latter, the now-extinct United States and the current Australasia.

But Italy was different. Although Italy was also a European power, it neither had the vast colonies of Britain and France nor the enormous native land and rich mineral resources like the United States and Australasia.

Moreover, the unification of Italy came too late, coupled with the country’s scarce domestic mineral resources, making it difficult to establish a vast industry.

The limitations of its native land made it hard for Italy to become a superpower, a situation very similar to that of the island nation in Asia.

However, Islanders had incredibly wild ambitions and ideas, and the combat power of the Island Nation Army was commendable.

Italy was different, though. The Italian Army’s combat capabilities were so lacking that Italy couldn’t compete with the other powers. In such a scenario, the best Italy could do was to preserve its status as the least of the great powers and seek help from others.

In fact, Mussolini had earlier probed the British and French attitudes toward Ethiopia.

The British were firmly opposed, as their influence was concentrated in East Africa, and they were wary of Italy’s expansion.

But the French took the opposite stance. First, the French colonies were concentrated in West Africa and East Africa, quite a distance from Ethiopia.

Second, supporting Italy’s annexation of Ethiopia was actually a way to trip up the British.

Causing trouble for the British had always been a French policy, which led them to support Italy, backing Italy’s annexation of the Abyssinian Empire.

Despite the French support, Italy did not choose to brazenly launch an invasion of Ethiopia.

After all, the French had no plans to help Italy confront Britain, and disregarding the British opinion would mean Mussolini would have to single-handedly take on the British?

But now there was an opportunity.

After the rebellion in India, the British attention was almost entirely focused there. To ensure that Europe would stay calm during this time, the British relaxed their vigilance toward certain countries, including Italy.

After Mussolini’s multiple probes confirmed that the British would not oppose an Italian invasion of the Abyssinian Empire, Mussolini finally made up his mind and ordered the military to start drafting plans for the attack on the Abyssinian Empire.

On April 17, 1930, Italy and France reached an agreement regarding the East African region.

This treaty stipulated that France would support Italy diplomatically in its colonial venture in East Africa and promised not to oppose Italy in any way, including diplomatically, economically, and militarily, during the war.

In return, Italy signed a non-aggression pact with France and renounced all sovereignty claims over the entire North Africa.

This agreement, known as the Italo-French agreement, also signaled that Italy now had enough confidence to invade the Abyssinian Empire.

To ensure that the British would not interfere with its war, Mussolini chose to promise the British not to cause trouble during their pacification of India and not to join an alliance with France against Britain, garnering British consent for Italy’s invasion of the Abyssinian Empire.

After all diplomatic preparations were in place, on May 15, 1930, the Italian Government used the disappearance of two colonial soldiers on the border with the Abyssinian Empire as an excuse, requesting to dispatch troops into the Empire for a search.

This was initially just a standard diplomatic negotiation. However, when the Abyssinian Empire learned of the number of troops Italy wanted to dispatch, they flatly refused in anger.

Even if Italy had truly lost two soldiers, did it warrant deploying a division’s worth of soldiers to search?

Moreover, no Italian soldiers had ever been seen at the border, so such an excuse was nothing but a pretext for blame.

After being firmly denied by the Abyssinian Empire, the Kingdom of Italy dropped the pretense and declared that for the safety of the missing soldiers, they were forced to wage war against the Abyssinian Empire.

On May 16th, Italy officially declared war on the Abyssinian Empire.

On May 17th, the Abyssinian Empire declared war on Italy, and the second Italo-Ethiopian War began.

To avenge past humiliations, a grand Italian Army consisting of one hundred thousand soldiers marched towards Ethiopia.

Actually, if one counted the Italian soldiers from the two colonies, the number of troops mobilized had already surpassed 120,000, close to eight times the amount the Kingdom of Italy had sent in its previous invasion of Ethiopia.

The mobilization of such an enormous number of soldiers also precisely demonstrated Mussolini’s determination to invade the Abyssinian Empire.

For Mussolini, only by fully seizing control of the Abyssinian Empire and creating a contiguous Italian East African colony could Italy hope to become stronger, and he could hope to build the vast empire he envisioned in his ambitions.