(This extract takes 2¾ minutes to read.)

In an article by Mussolini published in Il Popolo d’Italia, Mussolini shares that Italy has viewed Ethiopia as a threat since 1928. He writes that “In 1928, Italy signed a treaty of friendship with the Ethiopian government. Almost immediately thereafter, under the protection of this treaty, Ethiopia began reorganizing its army. To whom did it entrust its reorganization?” (Mussolini 1935, 111).

There is a disconnect between Mussolini’s political speech and reality here. Ethiopia did not pose a threat to Italy, but Mussolini created the narrative that it was to indicate that Italy had to invade and take over. In his 8 October 1935 speech, five days into the [Fascist] invasion, Mussolini states that “Italy and Ethiopia are two distinctly different entities. The first is a great nation, the cradle of three civilizations. The other is a conglomerate of barbaric tribes” (Mussolini 1935, 164). […] In “Sino A Quando?,” Mussolini also describes Ethiopia as “the country of social slavery and barbarism” (Mussolini 1935, 150).

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Mussolini described Ethiopia as “barbaric” (Mussolini 1935, 163). The word “barbaric” as a describer for Ethiopia signals that Mussolini views the people of Ethiopia as uncivilized and in need of rescuing from themselves. By creating this contrast between Italy and Ethiopia, Mussolini appeals to the people of Italy that they are the ones who can help bring Ethiopia into the future because of their superior civilization-building. He claims that Ethiopians have “over the last fifty years […] subjugated, plundered, despoiled, and oppressed the surrounding territories” (Mussolini 1935, 164).

Mussolini uses the word “barbaric” in this speech when he states that “Italy and Ethiopia are two distinctly different entities. The first is a great nation, the cradle of three civilizations. The other is a conglomerate of barbaric tribes” (Mussolini 1935, 164). The dehumanization of Ethiopians by Mussolini’s words would be compounded by the dehumanizing violence of the [Fascist] invasion.

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By stating in his “Proclamation of the Empire” speech that the King of Italy is now the leader of Ethiopia, Mussolini advances the narrative that Italy has saved Ethiopia from its “barbaric” past. […] Mussolini’s Proclamation of the Empire, when victory over Ethiopia was declared, and Mussolini’s speech from the beginning of hostilities in October 1935 both ground themselves in the past, again showing Mussolini and Fascist Italy’s attachment to restoring the glory of the Roman Empire. Mussolini describes Ethiopians as barbarians and positions Italians as superior.

An article from the newspaper Mussolini established and oversaw, Il Popolo d’Italia, references the Proclamazione dell’Impero (Proclamation of the Empire) speech [that] Mussolini gave on 9 May 1936. The fascist-run media attached on to Mussolini’s narrative that the Fascist Régime should be seen as the rebirth of a new Roman Empire after [the Fascist] invasion of Ethiopia. The article states that the “Proclamation of the Empire” was a “decree establishing the empire” and claimed that “the empire of Rome” was “now reborn after fifteen centuries of interruption” (Il Popolo d’Italia, № 131, 10 May 1936, XXIII).

Mussolini says that “Ethiopia is Italian de facto because it was conquered by our winning troops. It is Italian by right because the civilization brought by the Roman sword triumphed over the barbarians” (Zocchi 14).

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An article published 8 December 1936, from Mussolini’s newspaper, Il Popolo d’Italia, states that “A people of daring pioneers and intelligent farmers, the Italians embark upon the first year of the Ethiopian era. Few other peoples in the world would have possessed the vital drive to undertake the immense toil of carving out—by sheer force of arm—thousands of kilometers of roads beneath the tropical sun, and of breaking the soil of barbaric lands situated four thousand to eight thousand kilometers from the motherland. This vital drive constitutes a claim to pre-eminence, a patent of youthfulness, and a source of pride for the race” (Mussolini 1936, 88).

By describing Italians as “breaking the soil of barbaric lands” and a place where Italians can use their “vital drive” as “a source of pride for the race,” Mussolini reinforces the contrast he wants to create between the how “civilized” Italians are compared to Ethiopians.