Italian forces have crossed the Mareb River

This morning at 5 local time, Italian troops in Eritrea crossed the Mareb River into Abyssinia. There was no declaration of war from either nation. More as this story develops.

Abyssinia mobilizes

The Abyssinian Empire made the decision to mobilize after exhausting many avenues to peace at its disposal. Emperor Selassie has little to give his army but they will have to make do with what they have. The Abyssinian Army has about 500.000 new recruits with spears and bows as weapons.

Abyssinia does have military weaponry but these are antiquated. They have 200 pieces of artillery mounted on rigid gun carriages. They also posses 50 anti-aircraft guns ranging from 20mm Oerlikons, 75mm Schneiders and Vickers. For tanks, they have some Fiat models and Ford Trucks with armor. For air support, they have three Potez-25 biplanes.

There are 400,000 rifles of many types in all conditions for the men to use.

The Bottom Line: Abyssinia is very ill-equipped for war with Italy.

Abyssinia pleads again

The Italians continue to threaten the Empire of Abyssinia from across the border. Abyssinia pleads today for neutral observers in attempts to use whatever international bodies as possible.

League exonerates both beligerents

Both Abyssinia and Italy have been exonerated of the Walwal incident. The reasoning is that they both believed it was within their borders.

What this actually does remains to be seen.

Update on Abyssinian Crisis

The League of Nations continues to do nothing to avert a looming war. When a deadline they selected came they noted that no fifth power had been selected to join in the talks with Italy and Abyssinia. Then the body limited talks between Italy and Abyssinia to anything except the sovereignty of Walwal.

Abyssinia has pled for a lifting on the arms embargo and officially did so today. They, unlike Italy, are poorly equipped for war with a European power.

Great Britain steps in

As the Abyssinian Crisis continues, Abyssinia asks for neutral observers on June 19th and Great Britain moves in to stop a possible war. They sent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Anthony Eden to negotiate peace in late June.

However, Mussolini is bent only on conquest of Abyssinia. Eden returned to Britain with nothing accomplished.

The response from Great Britain is that the Royal Navy will be clearing all of its ships from the Mediterranean Sea in the event war breaks out.

The League of Nations has also imposed a ban on armaments to both nations.

Italian-Abyssinian talks crumble

The two states have been talking in the Hague since June 25th. But the past weeks have been for naught: the talks have dissolved as of today. Both countries are exactly where they were when they started the talks.

Abyssinia and Italy meet

The two nations have quarreled now for months. Today they are meeting in the Hague to come to some agreement that will not being them to outright war.

League of Nations resolves to do nothing much

The League of Nations met during a special session from May 21-22 to discuss the Abyssinian Crisis. Though much was said, nothing is being done.

At this time, the League has resolved to meet if no fifth arbitrator has been selected by June 25, or if a settlement was not reached by August 25. They can offer little hope to Abyssinia which finds itself with a knife to its throat.

Abyssinian protests

Though it seemed the crisis was subduing, the Italians are unwilling to stop the military buildup in their colonies bordering the Empire of Abyssinia. Abyssinia is protesting the buildup considering the mixed message it sends.

Italians yield

After three and half months of appeals by the Abyssinian Empire to the League of Nations, something has finally happened. Italy has finally yielded to the League of Nations on arbitration of the Walwal Incident that occurred December 5th.

Abyssinia makes another appeal

The Abyssinian Crisis continues. On February 23rd, the Italians began to increase the troop level in the neighboring colonies of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. With little international protest to these actions, Mussolini continued undeterred.

On March 8, Abyssinia again requests arbitration and notes Italian military build-up that no one seems to care about.

On March 13, Italy and Abyssinia agree on a neutral zone in the Ogaden. Yesterday, Abyssinia again appealed to the League due to continued Italian build-up that shows no sign of decreasing.

Abyssinia makes second appeal

The Government of Abyssinia makes a second appeal to the League of Nations for arbitration in the Walwal incident. This was a skirmish between Abyssinian and Italian troops in Abyssinian territory that took place on December 5th.

The League of Nations has done nothing at this point prompting the Abyssinians to ask again for arbitration.

Italy Abyssinian relations get heated

Six days ago on December 5th, there was a skirmish at Walwal between between Abyssinian troops and Somali troops in service to Italy. The reasons for Italy's alleged aggressive activity are unknown. However, Italy claims that the Abyssinians were armed with machine guns. The Abyssinians claim that the Italians had two tanks and three aircraft. They also claim that the Italians attacked them.

The ratio of casualties was 3:1 with 150 Abyssinians and 50 Italians dead.

On December 6th, the Emperor of Abyssinia, Haile Selassie, protested against aggression that occurred at the border town of Walwal the day before.

Italy demanded an apology two days later. Furthermore, today, the Italians demanded financial and strategic compensation.