Causes and Consequences Abyssinian crisis

The Abyssinian crisis of 1935 was an important historical event in the lead up to world war two. Some of the major factors leading to this event were a pre existing border dispute in 1896, Italy wanting colonies equal or greater to the other great powers and Italy’s desire for a larger empire, and the access Italy had to the Suez Canal. The crisis between Abyssinia and Italy affected the inhabitants of both countries, as well as those countries involved in the League of Nations (LON)

The first cause that leads to the Abyssinian crisis was the pre-existing border dispute in 1896 between Italy and Abyssinia. After the ‘Scramble for Africa’ in the 19th century, Italy was left with the unimportant country such as Eritrea and Somaliland. Italy wanted more land, so they looked to Abyssinia to expand and to get more land. After many battles Abyssinia heavily defeated Italy by having a stronger army and being more prepared. This battle was called the Battle of Adowa. This defeat of Italy had a massive impact on their pride of their country and Italy lost over 6000 men due to this battle in return for nothing. This lead to the Abyssinian crisis because Italy was eager to conquer Abyssinia, they wanted more land, and they were not going to stop after being defeated once before. This showed how much Italy was looking for control and wanted more power. Italy now was forced to rethink how they were going to attack Abyssinia, and this time, win the battle. As Abyssinia had already won a battle against Italy, Abyssinia had the upper hand, showing Italy tha

Another factor which led to the Abyssinian crisis was that Italy wanted a larger empire and to show the world how powerful they were. Italy also wanted a fascist country. This was the major motivation for Mussolini. He wanted to be an all powerful empire which had a lot of say and power in the world. Mussolini once said “It is better to live a day a s a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” Mussolini strongly