Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T02:50:25.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Sanctions and Security: The League of Nations and the Italian–Ethiopian War, 1935–1936

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

George W. Baer
Affiliation:
George W. Baer is associate professor of history at theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz, and this year a Peace Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford. Research for this study was aided by a Younger Scholar Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Get access

Extract

The imposition of limited sanctions against Italy was given fair prospect of success by members of the League. Sanctions were to have a twofold purpose. One was to uphold the Covenant and encourage collective security. The other was to end the war by putting pressure on the Italian government so as to make it amenable to a negotiated settlement. It was expected that economic and financial measures (as opposed to military means) would be sufficient, over a period of time, to achieve this. The timetable was upset by unexpected political events and by the collapse of Ethiopian military resistance. Policies are explained, events discussed, and to illuminate some dilemmas a distinction (not then well perceived) is made between politically important “consumatory” assumptions and diplomatically operative “instrumentalist” and reconciliationist practices.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Aron, Raymond, Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations, Howard, R. and Fox, A. B., trans. (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967), p. 16.Google Scholar

2 Article 16 of the Covenant specifies collective action to be taken should any member of the League resort to war.

3 Meeting on 10 September 1935. F.O. 401/35, part XXIV, no. 146, end.

4 Time, 6 January 1936.

5 Meeting on 10 September 1935. F.O. 401/35, part XXIV, no. 146, encl.

6 Cabinet Conclusion 43 (35), 1, of 24 September 1935 (Cab 23/82).

7 To Eden on 13 October 1935. F.O. 432/1, part IV, no. 36.

8 Meeting of senior military and naval officers at Gamelin's house on 8 March 1936. France, Ministère des affaires étrangèes, Commission de publication des documents relatifs aux origines de la guerre 1939–1945, Documents diplomatiques frangais, 1932–1939, 2e sér. (19361939), t. I (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1963), p. 445.Google Scholar

9 Gamelin, Maurice, Servir: Le Prologue du drome, 1930–aout 1939 (Paris: Plon, 1946), p. 175.Google Scholar

10 Meeting between Admirals Chatfield and Decoux, 30 October 1935. F.O. 432/1, Part IV, no. 58.

11 Minute of 12 November 1935. F.O. 371/19160, pp. 123–129.

12 Chiavarelli, Emilia, L'Opera della marina italiana nella guerra italo–etiopica (Milan: A. Giuffre, 1969), pp. 9294.Google Scholar

13 Interview with Chambrun on 16 October and Drummond on 18 October 1935. F.O. 401/35, part XXIV, nos. 79 and 87.

14 Haas, Ernst B., Collective Security and the Future International System (Denver: University of Denver, 1968) p. 11.Google Scholar

15 So spoke Francesco Coppola, editor of Politica, on 19 January 1936. Volpe, G. et al. , La ragioni dell’italia (Rome: Reale Accademica d’ltalia, 1936), pp. 45–7.Google Scholar

16 Haas, , Collective Security and the Future International System, pp. 1112.Google Scholar

17 See SirWilliams, John Fischer, “Sanctions under the Covenant,” British Year Book of International Law, 1936, pp. 130149.Google Scholar

18 Minute by Thompson and Scrivener of 2 December 1935. F.O. 371/19166, pp. 71–6.

19 To Eden on 9 October 1935. F.O. 371/19143, pp. 15–19.

20 Colvin, Ian, None So Blind (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965) pp. 74–5, 81.Google Scholar

21 SirEden, Anthony (Earl of Avon), Facing the Dictators (London: Cassell, 1962), p. 320.Google Scholar

22 (Cab. 23/82) Cabinet Conclusion 11 (36), 5, of 26 February 1936.

23 Chambrun to Flandin, 27 February 1936. Documents diplomatiques français, 1932–1939, 2e sér., t. I (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1963), pp. 336–7.Google Scholar

24 Cabinet Conclusion 9 (36) of 24 February 1936 (Cab. 23/83), Appendix. The documents are printed in Baer, George W., “Haile Selassie's Protectorate Appeal to King Edward VIII,” Cahiers d’etudes africaines,” 1969 (Vol. 9, No. 34), pp. 306–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 Documents diplomatiques français, 1932–1939, 2e sér., t. I, p. 367.

26 Eden, , Facing the Dictators, p. 311.Google Scholar

27 Ørvik, Nils, “From Collective Security to Neutrality. The Nordic Powers, The League of Nations, Britain and the Approach of War, 1935–1939,” in Bourne, K. and Watt, D. C. (eds.), Studies in International History (London: Longmans, Green, 1967), pp. 385401.Google Scholar

28 Speer, Albert, Inside the Third Reich, R., and Winston, C., trans. (New York: Macmillan, 1970), p. 72.Google Scholar

29 Eden, , Facing the Dictators, p. 311.Google Scholar

30 Guariglia, Raffaele, Ricordi, 1922–1946 (Naples: Edizioni scientifiche italiane, 1949), pp. 276277.Google Scholar