Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia (now known as Ethiopia) is a clear demonstration of the mindset of Europeans on imperialism during the late nineteenth century into the early twentieth century. Beginning with the assumption that they were racially superior to the people of Africa and Abyssinia, Italy believed that it had a right to colonize Abyssinia. They used whatever means necessary, including extreme violence, to win the war against the Abyssinians. Originally, in 1896, Italy had tried to invade Abyssinia, but had been defeated at the Battle of Adowa. However, they maintained their territory around Abyssinia. In October of 1935, just seven years after the 1928 peace treaty between the two countries, Italy began to organize on the Border of …show more content…
The obvious similarities are the aspects of the ideas of racial superiority, but also the idea that colonizers had a right to take whatever they wanted with little concern for the native peoples. The violence that resulted from this is also a parallel that can be drawn between Abyssinia and other examples. In Abyssinia, there were concentration camps and mass executions in addition to the war casualties. This is comparable to the deaths that resulted from raids on towns for rubber in the Congo, or to the violence that ensued in India when the sepoys began fighting. In addition, in order to ‘control’ the Abyssinians, the Italians attempted to stunt their education, only allowing for them to receive basic schooling. This is comparable to the pass system, as they both restricted the Africans freedoms in an attempt to ‘control’ them. Likewise, when Europeans began colonizing Africa, they created the concept of a ‘tribe’. This actually helped created a sense of unity among the different tribes. This idea of unity can also be seen in Abyssinia when the coronation of Selassie encouraged solidarity towards Abyssinia of anyone who identified as African (this correlated with the “back to Africa” movement going on at the time). Another similarity can be seen in the reaction of other European countries. While there was more of an effort made to stop the unjust invasion of Abyssinia, the fact that not much more than mild economic sanctions were imposed on Italy shows that there was still a disconnect between Europeans and the situation in Africa. In addition, when Britain and France attempted to negotiate with Italy, they did not include Selassie, or any Abyssinian representatives. This is similar to the Berlin Conference in which Europeans debated over territories in Africa, but did not actually include any Africans. Europeans had not taken into