10 Astounding World War 2 Facts You Didn't Know

10. Britain Could Have Prevented Italy's Invasion Of Ethiopia

In 1935 as a precursor to the war in Europe, Italy invaded Ethiopia. Through a campaign of violations of the Geneva convention including using aerial bombardments and mustard gas on Ethiopian civilians to dissuade from them resisting, Italy eventually managed to conquer the country. Keep in mind this was their second attempt, having failed in 1896 to conquer the African nation.

After being ousted from his capital, Addis Ababa, the ruler of Ethiopia Emperor Haile Selassie went to the League of Nations to seek aid. This would really only go on to prove how useless the League was. As ineffective as one might view the current United Nations, the original League - founded after the first World War, was little more than a group with the power to wag fingers at each other.

Britain, one of the founding members of the league, could have aided Ethiopia by simply closing the Suez canal to Italy which the Italian military had to pass through to supply their invading army. But in the end, the UK was more interested in courting Italy as a potential ally for the upcoming war they were expecting, agreeing only to trade sanctions against the aggressor.