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In the lead-up to World War two many countries were less than shocked to [Newspaper article appears]

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discover that they were on Germany's hit list we said hit list people but Italy

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had a burning desire to invade too and Mussolini was determined to put some

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benadryl cream on that itch or die trying' he did as we've mentioned

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before Mussolini looked at his country and thought it could be bigger a lot

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bigger like as big as the Roman Empire once was yeah nobody would be able to [Mussolini stood beside Roman Empire]

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laugh at Italy then because it would be both powerful and awesome because you

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see people have been laughing at Italy for a while during the 19th century when

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the nations of Europe were scrambling around the world to colonize everything

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in sight the italians had tried to keep up with the big boys in Africa and

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failed we're sure the african people sent them a sympathy card or something [Sympathy card from Africa appears]

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but the italians lost tunisia which they had long considered to be theirs to

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France in 1881 and an Italian invasion of Ethiopia failed miserably a few years

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later... In 1895 the Italians went back to Ethiopia and got their butts handed

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to them again you can see why Ethiopia might have become a bit of a fixation

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for Italy you read about the Treaty of London in a previous lesson well this [Man discussing Treaty of London on stage]

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agreement between Italy and the Allied powers was made in 1915 basically the

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Allies promised Italy oodles and oodles of territory

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if only the Italians would come and fight with them instead of Germany and

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Austria-Hungary well unfortunately the Allies didn't deliver at least they [Man delivering noodles on a truck]

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didn't deliver what the Italians wanted land... by the late 1920s Mussolini was

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nattering on and on about how he was gonna stick it to Great Britain and

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France by taking over the entire Mediterranean well El Duche wanted

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access to the Indian and Atlantic oceans he also wanted Albania Croatia bits of

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Greece Egypt and well you get the idea Mussolini was hungry and the [Mussolini stood with the Earth beside Stalin]

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Mediterranean was his Golden Corral and remember Ethiopia the country that

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successfully held off Italy twice during the 19th century well by the 1930s

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Mussolini was ready to try invading yet again third time's a charm

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right? well everybody knew what Italy was up to but the nations of Europe threw

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their hands in the air like they just didn't care so much for the League of

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Nations well in 1935 the Italians moved on Ethiopia the war lasted from October

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through about May of the next year and this time Ethiopia lost the fight was [Ethiopian soldiers running]

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not precisely fair Mussolini nutcase that he was used mustard gas on

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multiple occasions against the Ethiopian soldiers and civilians as well as the [People clutching their face as mustard gas appears]

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International Red Cross yeah mustard gas what that stuff does to you well the Red

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Cross promptly went to the press not that this stopped the Italians from

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popping open the Prosecco they had an empire at last and a leader who sure

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could deliver on his promises of glory no matter what the price yeah check out

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the mustard gas here yeah look at that little did they know that their

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occupation of Ethiopia would not go well Ethiopian resistance to Italian rule

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resulted in the massacre of tens of thousands of Ethiopians additionally it

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cost more money than Italy had to maintain their rule oh and while some [Mussolini stood beside an empty vault]

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people might have been impressed at first at Italy's accomplishment well

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that impression didn't last by the late 1930s very few countries had anything

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nice to say about Mussolini in the end the Italian occupation of Ethiopia only

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lasted five years, third times the charm yeah well we kind of like three strikes

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and you're out better see a moose [Mussolini strikes out playing baseball]

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