ABSTRACT
Italy had two east African colonies, Italian Somaliland and Eritrea, which bordered Abyssinia. Even before the Stresa Conference of April 1935, there were indications that the Italian government had some sort of designs on Abyssinia or, as it is now known, Ethiopia. From the point of view of Britain and France, the Italo-Abyssinian war was in every sense a disaster. The American cartoon, which appeared at the beginning of the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, shows the World War lesson as a scrap of paper which lies torn and neglected by the roadside, close to a war cemetery, while detonations of the Ethiopian war are seen in the distance. International agreements, the world's foreign policies and the world's armaments are all in the melting pot again, heated by the flames of the Abyssinian capital. Addis Ababa was occupied by the Italians early in May 1936, but was not as the cartoon rather suggests put to the flames.
