Explanation: In 1935, Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini decided to invade Ethiopia, the only native polity of Africa which had never succumbed to European imperialism. As Ethiopia was still a very poor country, and one led by an administration which was more interested in economic and social reform than war, Mussolini considered that his ‘superior’ Italian forces would overrun the country in short order.
It was a disaster.
Despite Ethiopia lacking a substantial standing army, armored vehicles, an air force, anti-air weapons, modern artillery, electronic communications equipment, and, in the case of many of the militiamen who were called up in a desperate defence of the country, guns, Italy’s offensive almost immediately stalled and sputtered. What was supposed to be a quick and victorious campaign bogged down into a bloody ~2 year struggle, with repeated setbacks and counteroffensives by Ethiopian forces - including one notable incident wherein a unit of Italian tanks were captured by Ethiopian infantry with sabres. Italy would resort to illegal chemical weapons warfare - which the Ethiopian forces had no protective equipment against - to achieve any sort of offensive success.
Italy eventually acquired ‘victory’ insofar as it drove the government of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie out of the country and occupied the land, but at great cost and with an enduring cost of guerilla warfare from Ethiopian partisans in the country. Italy’s prestige would be severely damaged by this ‘victory’, and its own foreign policy independence neutered from that point on.
In addition, Emperor Haile Selassie remained diplomatically active in contributing to the diplomatic and economic isolation of fascist Italy, and planning on retaking the country from occupying forces, an endeavor which was achieved during WW2 a few years later.
This just shows that fascists tend to overestimate their own abilities and underestimate everyone else’s. In other words, they are pretty stupid. Too bad, that makes them pretty dangerous to everyone. I mean look Donald “Idiot” Trump.
