1936 — Italy Seizes Addis Ababa

On May 5, 1936, Marshal Pietro Badoglio rolled into Addis Ababa at the head of a motorized column, ending his March of the Iron Will. Three days earlier, Emperor Haile Selassie had fled into exile in Britain, leaving the capital open to the advancing Italian forces after months of war.

Four days later, Mussolini proclaimed Ethiopia annexed to the Italian Crown. The seven-month campaign had seen Italian planes rain mustard gas on villages, chemical warfare carried out in open defiance of international law. The fall of the capital was therefore more than a military victory. It showed how far an empire would go, and how little protection the law offered.