s how they handled the delicate situation of the Italians invading Ethiopia. Prior to the fascist takeover in 1922, Italy looked upon the league with Skepticism. This is because Italy was a resource poor country and was hoping to get equal distribution of goods within the League. Since Italy’s desires of the League were not fulfilled and they were suffering economically at home this country turned to Benito Mussolini. This fascist leader disliked the League but remained within it until the mid 1930s. From Hitler’s rearmament, Mussolini realized that Britain and France were willing to appease him in order to avoid conflict and to prevent him from siding with Hitler. With this knowledge Mussolini sent his troops into Ethiopia on December 5, 1934 . Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia notified the League council of this tragedy and asked for arbitration. The League then looked to Britain and France for help in this issue. However, Britain and France saw a problem in the future that seemed much larger than the current one. Britain and France wanted to stop Mussolini from allying with Hitler at all costs. Therefore, the Italian dictator was appeased at the expense of Ethiopia. It was not until November 18, 1935 that the League began economic sanctions against Italy. These Sanctions were not as extreme as the League believed though; this is because the private corporations in the United States were still trading with Italy . As pointed out earlier, a key problem “was the refusal of the American people to accept any international obligations and the consequent failure of the United States to provide any effective co-operation with the League to check or deter Mussolini.” Also, these sanctions were too little too late because in the spring of 1936, Mussolini’s conquest of Ethiopia was complete. The sanctions continued on Italy in hopes of collapsing them economically and letting Ethiopia go. Britain feared this happ...
