The Government of Italian East Africa

On May 4, 1936, the Emperor Haile Selassie departed from Djibuti aboard the British cruiser Enterprise, en route to Geneva by way of Palestine and England. On May 5, the victorious legions of the Second Roman Empire, commanded by Marshal Pietro Badoglio, entered Addis Ababa after what appears to have been a week of looting and pillaging in the Ethiopian capital. A few hours later in Rome, Benito Mussolini thunderously declared to a hastily-summoned Adunata: “Ethiopia is Italian! Italian in fact, because occupied by our victorious armies; Italian in law, because with the gladiators of Rome, civilization triumphs over barbarity, justice over arbitrary cruelty.†At the behest of its Duce, a grateful Italy surrendered itself, between May 5 and May 9, to the most riotous celebration in the annals of Fascism. To climax the memorable jubilee, Mussolini appeared on the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia, after consulting successively and rapidly with the Fascist Grand Council and the Council of Ministers in the late evening of May 9, to read to the second Adunata of the week the substantive provisions of a new royal decree-law. Therein (1) Ethiopia was declared to be under the full and complete sovereignty of Italy; (2) the assumption by the king of Italy of the additional title, emperor of Ethiopia, was proclaimed; and (3) announcement was made that Ethiopia would be governed in the future by a governor-general, with the title of viceroy of Ethiopia.