Italian-Ethiopian friendship treaty

The Italian-Ethiopian friendship treaty was concluded on August 2, 1928 between the Kingdom of Italy under Mussolini and the Empire of Ethiopia under the Empress Zauditu for a period of 20 years. Among other things, he provided for a free zone in Assab on the Red Sea for Ethiopia and for Italy the construction of a road from Assab to Dese . Both parties committed themselves to economic cooperation and to peaceful settlement of differences before the League of Nations . In fact, with the treaty Italy wanted to maintain economic supremacy in Ethiopia and a potential military route of incursion without wanting to accept decisions of the League of Nations and thus saw Ethiopia as its singular sphere of influence. Ethiopia wanted the contractual safeguarding of its borders without the construction of the access road. The unspoken contrasts led to distrust and frustration.

Mussolini began with war preparations and after the border incident of whale-whale in 1934, Italy attacked Ethiopia on October 3, 1935 in the Abyssinian War .

Individual evidence

^ Oswalt von Nostitz-Wallwitz: The diplomatic history of the conflict in Abyssinia , Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, 1935, p. 796 f.
↑ Harold G. Marcus: A History of Ethiopia . University of California Press 1994, ISBN 0-520-08121-8 , p. 126.
↑ Joseph Calvitt Clarke: Alliance of the Colored Peoples: Ethiopia and Japan Before World War II . James Currey 2011, ISBN 978-1-84701-043-8 , p. 34 ff.

[1] Oswalt von Nostitz-Wallwitz: The diplomatic history of the conflict in Abyssinia , Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, 1935, p. 796 f.

[2] Harold G. Marcus: A History of Ethiopia . University of California Press 1994, ISBN 0-520-08121-8 , p. 126.

[3] Joseph Calvitt Clarke: Alliance of the Colored Peoples: Ethiopia and Japan Before World War II . James Currey 2011, ISBN 978-1-84701-043-8 , p. 34 ff.