Italy's Finland: Ethiopian Victory over Italy

Redcoat

Banned
Could Mussolini become more desperate in his struggle to establish an Italian Empire? Perhaps he invades Albania and/or Yugoslavia earlier which sees the Anglo-French alliance being distracted as Hitler is given a chance to whatever he pleases?
Mussolini é sempre vero! È impossibile che puo sbagliato! /s

Mussolini is always right! It's impossible that he could be wrong!
 
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Me too heh. He made plenty of mistakes.
It seems to me earlier Italian invasions of Albania and Yugoslavia could prove to be successful whereas Ethiopia and Greece are much more difficult. Could Ethiopia force the Italians into a favorable stalemate and into peace talks if their colonial empire is threatened?
 
Hitler may become more careful and uncertain when regarding certain choices but he could simply blame the Italian people for not being strong enough in the aftermath of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.

It's harder to do an Anschluss without an Italian blank check...

Could Mussolini become more desperate in his struggle to establish an Italian Empire? Perhaps he invades Albania and/or Yugoslavia earlier which sees the Anglo-French alliance being distracted as Hitler is given a chance to whatever he pleases?

I wonder what would've happened if that was truly the case.

Me too heh. He made plenty of mistakes.

It seems to me earlier Italian invasions of Albania and Yugoslavia could prove to be successful whereas Ethiopia and Greece are much more difficult. Could Ethiopia force the Italians into a favorable stalemate and into peace talks if their colonial empire is threatened?

Mussolini was a bag of hot air he ruined Italy promises of being a major power with the failure of modernizing the military and the lukewarm support he and the Fascists had by the time World War 2 came along. (Allowing Hitler to carry out Anschluss.) The only thing he got right was becoming the first Fascist leader, but that's it.

In the face of defeat in Ethiopia, and allowing Italy to be beaten AGAIN by the Ethiopians, I doubt he could survive long enough to carry out an invasion of Albania, or Yugoslavia. Italy for me just stay out of everything, and wait out the War. Whole Fascist government could be kick out of power. Even if he survived, I doubt he would be able to carry out any more invasions in the face of him wasting Italian lives in a failed war in the Horn of Africa.

(It would also become a safe haven. Before 1938, there was a number of Italian Jews were sympathetic to the regime and occupied significant offices and positions in politics and economy. Mussolini had hope to use Zionism to gain influence in the Middle East and mess with the British Empire. Even founding the Betar Naval Academy, an Jewish naval training school, that would be the foundation to the future Israeli Navy. And the Italians in fact favor the Ethiopian Jews when they invaded and conquer Ethiopia in OTL.

It was only in 1938, under Nazi influence, that Rome pass the Italian Racial Laws.)
 











Mussolini was a bag of hot air he ruined Italy promises of being a major power with the failure of modernizing the military and the lukewarm support he and the Fascists had by the time World War 2 came along. (Allowing Hitler to carry out Anschluss.) The only thing he got right was becoming the first Fascist leader, but that's it.

In the face of defeat in Ethiopia, and allowing Italy to be beaten AGAIN by the Ethiopians, I doubt he could survive long enough to carry out an invasion of Albania, or Yugoslavia. Italy for me just stay out of everything, and wait out the War. Whole Fascist government could be kick out of power. Even if he survived, I doubt he would be able to carry out any more invasions in the face of him wasting Italian lives in a failed war in the Horn of Africa.

(It would also become a safe haven. Before 1938, there was a number of Italian Jews were sympathetic to the regime and occupied significant offices and positions in politics and economy. Mussolini had hope to use Zionism to gain influence in the Middle East and mess with the British Empire. Even founding the Betar Naval Academy, an Jewish naval training school, that would be the foundation to the future Israeli Navy. And the Italians in fact favor the Ethiopian Jews when they invaded and conquer Ethiopia in OTL.

It was only in 1938, under Nazi influence, that Rome pass the Italian Racial Laws.)
I agree with most of what you've said.

Would the Italians really not annex Albania whilst World War 2 rages on? Albania couldn't offer much resistance to the Italian forces OTL so I don't see why that wouldn't be any different.

The Italians did not favor the Ethiopian Jews and I doubt the Italians paid much attention to them or separate them from the average Ethiopian in terms of discrimination and whatnot. I can see more Italian Jews and European Jews being resettled in the Italian colonial empire as a means of escaping the Nazis and increasing the number of European settlers in the Italian Empire.
 

Redcoat

Banned











Mussolini was a bag of hot air he ruined Italy promises of being a major power with the failure of modernizing the military and the lukewarm support he and the Fascists had by the time World War 2 came along. (Allowing Hitler to carry out Anschluss.) The only thing he got right was becoming the first Fascist leader, but that's it.

In the face of defeat in Ethiopia, and allowing Italy to be beaten AGAIN by the Ethiopians, I doubt he could survive long enough to carry out an invasion of Albania, or Yugoslavia. Italy for me just stay out of everything, and wait out the War. Whole Fascist government could be kick out of power. Even if he survived, I doubt he would be able to carry out any more invasions in the face of him wasting Italian lives in a failed war in the Horn of Africa.

(It would also become a safe haven. Before 1938, there was a number of Italian Jews were sympathetic to the regime and occupied significant offices and positions in politics and economy. Mussolini had hope to use Zionism to gain influence in the Middle East and mess with the British Empire. Even founding the Betar Naval Academy, an Jewish naval training school, that would be the foundation to the future Israeli Navy. And the Italians in fact favor the Ethiopian Jews when they invaded and conquer Ethiopia in OTL.

It was only in 1938, under Nazi influence, that Rome pass the Italian Racial Laws.)
Ye he's a fucking idiot and a lackey of Hitler which for some reason he simultaneously trusted and saw as a role model....somehow
 
Anyway, how can we allow for Ethiopia to remain mostly intact and independent? As I said earlier, better successes on the northern front (i.e. more successful Christmas Offensive) would definitely help and perhaps an offensive on the bat on the southern front would catch the Italians off-guard as Mussolini wished to keep Italian Somaliland a secondary theatre, giving General Graziani and Nasi only a division to work with (even if it did make up for this with superior firepower).

As for outside help, it's plausible to allow for the UK to provide the Ethiopians with financial and material support - just have Colonel EHM Clifford of the Anglo-Ethiopian Boundary Commission die during the 1934 Wal-Wal border clash from the errant shot of a Somali soldier. London soon finds out, demanding compensation for his death as Rome refuses which leads to the cooling of Anglo-Italian relations. London begins to support the Ethiopian Empire, providing the Ethiopians with money and weapons (mainly from the Great War) after the death of Clifford as the Second Italo-Ethiopian War where British military advisors train the nucleus of an Ethiopian Army. Whether or not, Ethiopia will win is up to you.
 
Yup, definitely! I do wonder if they would be able to keep epace with Ogaden and nto screw up there
Depends, if the southern Ethiopian armies can keep General Graziani and Nasi from pushing too much into the Ogaden - perhaps pushing them further into Italian Somaliland - then Haile Selassie can exploit this in attempting to unite Ethiopia behind him.
 
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