Collective Security and the Italo‐Ethiopian Dispute Before the League of Nations

Abstract

This article examines unofficial correspondence sent to the League of Nations during the Italo-Ethiopian Dispute (1934)(1935)(1936)(1937)(1938), which was one of a number of events in the interwar period that contributed to public concerns about collective security. The official record concerning the Italo-Ethiopian Dispute provides a sterile picture that belies the evidence in the documents considered in this article, which reveal the concern it generated around the globe. The examination of these archival documents shows that the concern for peace transcended ideological differences and changes the story of the interwar years, League historiography, and the Dispute by revealing how ordinary people understood the events. Much of League historiography has focused on its ultimate failure to maintain world peace. Exploration of world opinion as it related to the Dispute exposes how seriously global citizens took the event as a threat to international security and supplements existing historiography.