The lessons of the previous war for the Italians were painful, and it also showed the world powers the true combat effectiveness of the Italian army.

Of course, Italy's performance in the First World War did not disgrace the contempt of the great powers, and their armies could not defeat any of the great powers, and even far inferior to those of the Balkans, which had a fierce people's customs.

Even the British army, which had always been criticized, fared much better than Italy in World War I.

Had it not been for the Balkan states and Russia holding back a large number of Austro-Hungarian forces, I am afraid that Italy would have been the first great power to be occupied.

Of course, since Mussolini came to power, the pain he had brought to the Kingdom of Italy had been forgotten by Mussolini's initiative.

As an ambitious ruler, Mussolini knew he had to make enough to live up to the dictatorship he had created in Italy.

Mussolini was ambitious, not only wanted to expand Italy's territory, but even wanted Italy to dominate the Mediterranean, become the sole hegemon of the Mediterranean, and carve up the British and French colonies in East and North Africa.

Well, such an ambition, if put it more properly, could also be said to be to recover the territory of the Roman Empire and re-establish a new Roman Empire in the 20th century.

After all, the Roman Empire was the hegemon of the Mediterranean, and it also had a large number of colonies in North and East Africa.

But it is clear that so far Mussolini's plans have not been implemented at all. His enemies, England and France, were too strong, and Italy was not their opponent for the time being.

However, in this long period of development, Mussolini was not completely without gains.

Mussolini believed that the weakness of the fighting power of the army of the Kingdom of Italy was entirely due to the backward training of the army and the low morale of the soldiers.

After Mussolini succeeded in taking control of the military and political power in Italy, he carried out a drastic reform of the army, and established a strategy centered on his own ideas, which strengthened the morale of the Italian soldiers.

Now, after a period of aggressive warfare, Mussolini decided that the time had come for Italy to expand because of the rebellion in the British Empire in India.

The Anglo-French rivalry and the Indian rebellion left the British with little room to pay attention to Italy, which was also a good opportunity for Italian expansion in East Africa.

What other areas of East Africa are there besides the British colonies? Ethiopia, of course, which Italy had coveted decades ago.

This is also the sorrow of backward countries in this era, which are often coveted by powerful countries, which cannot be escaped by any way.

Even without Italy, Britain and France would have infiltrated Ethiopia, and Ethiopia would have ended up as a colony.

In order to avoid risks like the one in the first battle, Mussolini mobilized more than 100,000 troops and decided to send all the navy to transport enough supplies for the army at the front.

Of course, before waging war against the Abyssinian Empire, Mussolini's first thing to do was to test the attitude of Britain and France.

In Africa, the two major powers that cannot be avoided are Britain and France. If there is a map of the world situation, it can be clearly seen that Britain and France occupy the east and west of Africa, respectively.

Of course, Britain and France occupy Africa differently depending on their geographical location.

France's colonies are generally located in West and Central Africa, which is closer to France, and France's influence is undoubtedly enormous.

The British colonies ran through the whole of Africa, from Egypt to South Africa, directly connecting the British colonies in Africa.

In particular, after the defeat of Germany in World War I, German East Africa was successfully taken over by the British, which also allowed the British to unite their colonies.

Although the French also annexed German Cameroon, the situation did not appear to be as large as the British colonies were combined.

The region of Ethiopia, where the Abyssinian Empire was located, was already surrounded by British and Italian colonies.

According to common sense, this is actually a colonial competition between Italy and Britain, and often whoever has the upper hand can get the encircled colony.

But the problem is that Italy and Britain are very different in strength. Although Italy had certain advantages in the salient areas of East Africa, namely Ethiopia and Somalia, the previous Italian kingdom did not dare to ignore the opinion of the British.

This, coupled with the fact that the Abyssinian Empire at that time did have the perseverance to resist colonial rule, made it difficult for Italy to establish complete colonial rule in this region.

In fact, the British did not want Italy to unite their colonies and pose a great threat to themselves in East Africa.

This led to a serious problem, as Italy was unable to expand in East Africa. The colony could not expand, which also limited Italy's power to a certain extent.

If you look at each of the world's powers, you can see that they either have vast colonies or have their own territories that are vast and rich in resources.

The most obvious examples of the former are Britain and France, and the most obvious examples of the latter are the extinct United States and now Australasia.

But Italy is different. Although Italy was also a European power, it did not have the vast colonies of Britain and France, nor did it have the large indigenous land and rich mineral resources of the United States and Australasia.

Moreover, the time of Italian unification was too late, and the country's mineral resources were relatively poor, so it was difficult to establish a huge industry.

Restrictions on the mainland make it difficult for Italy to become a superpower, much like the island nations of Asia.

However, the people of the island country have very crazy ambitions and ideas, and the combat power of the army of the island country is also worthy of recognition.

Italy is different. The combat capability of the Italian army directly led to the inability of Italy to compete with other powers. In such a situation, the best outcome for Italy was to retain its position as a Last-Class Power and seek help from other Powers.

In fact, Mussolini had tested the attitude of Britain and France towards Ethiopia long before.

The British were staunchly opposed, after all, British power was concentrated in East Africa, and they were very afraid of Italian expansion.

But the French are the opposite. First of all, the French colonies were concentrated in West and East Africa, which was very far away from Ethiopia.

Secondly, supporting Italy's annexation of Ethiopia was actually a stumbling block for the British.

It was the consistent policy of the French to give the British a headache, which also made the French choose to support Italy and support Italy's annexation of the Abyssinian Empire.

Despite the support of the French, Italy did not choose to launch a brazen invasion of Ethiopia.

After all, the French had no plan to help Italy against the British, and if they didn't pay attention to the opinions of the British, did it mean that Mussolini wanted to go head-to-head with the British?

But now is a good opportunity.

After the rebellion in India, the attention of the British was almost entirely focused on India. In order to ensure that Europe would not have problems during this time, the British relaxed their guard against a number of countries, including Italy, of course.

After Mussolini's repeated attempts to determine that the British would not oppose the Italian invasion of the Abyssinian Empire, Mussolini relented and ordered his army to begin studying the plan of attack on the Abyssinian Empire.

On April 17, 1930, Italy and France concluded an agreement on the East African region.

The treaty stipulated that France would diplomatically support Italy's colonization of East Africa and promised not to oppose it in any way, including diplomatic, economic, and military, during the Italian war.

In return, Italy and France signed a non-aggression pact and renounced their claims to all of North Africa.

This agreement, known as the Italian-French Agreement, also meant that Italy had sufficient confidence to invade the Abyssinian Empire.

In order to ensure that the British would not interfere in his war, Mussolini chose to promise the British that he would not cause chaos when the British put down the rebellion against India, and would not join the alliance with France against the British, obtaining British consent to the Italian invasion of the Abyssinian Empire.

After all diplomatic preparations had been made, on 15 May 1930, the Italian government demanded that troops be sent into the Abyssinian Empire to search for it, citing the disappearance of two Italian Eritrean colonial soldiers on the border with the Abyssinian Empire.

Originally, this was just a normal diplomatic discussion, but when the Abyssinian Empire learned of the number of troops Italy wanted to send, it angrily refused.

Even if Italy really lost two soldiers, there would be no need to send a division of soldiers to find them, right?

Moreover, Italian soldiers had never been seen at the border, and such an excuse was nothing more than an attempt to add to the crime.

After being firmly rejected by the Abyssinian Empire, the Kingdom of Italy did not pretend, saying that it was forced to start a war with the Abyssinian Empire for the safety of the two missing soldiers.

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

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

In order to achieve shame, 100,000 Italian troops rushed to Abyssinia.

In fact, if you count the Italian troops in the two colonies, the number of soldiers dispatched this time has exceeded 120,000, which is nearly eight times that of the previous invasion of Ethiopia by the Kingdom of Italy.

The use of such a large number of soldiers is also a testament to Mussolini's determination to invade the Abyssinian Empire.

For Mussolini, only by completely mastering the Abyssinian Empire and building a contiguous Italian colony in East Africa could Italy hope to become stronger, and he could hope to build the vast empire of his ambitions.

3000 words for the second update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)