Abyssinia Crisis Abyssinia to Mussolini, so his troops were able to continue their war relatively unchallenged by the rest of Europe. Haile Selassie was forced into exile on 2 May. All the sanctions that had been put in place by the League were dropped after the Italian capture of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on the 5th of May 1936. Ethiopia was then merged with the other Italian colonies to become Italian East Africa ("Africa Orientale Italiana", or AOI). Ethiopia never officially surrendered, and pleaded for help from foreign nations, such as Haile Selassie's . As a result, there were six
SS Abyssinia SS Abyssinia Abyssinia (1870) was a British mail liner originally operated by the Cunard Line on the Liverpool–New York route. She later served the Guion Line on the same route and the Canadian Pacific Line in the Pacific. In December 1891, "Abyssinia" was destroyed mid-Atlantic without loss of life by a fire that started in her cargo of cotton, further highlighting the danger in carrying both cotton and passengers on the same ship. With the success of , Cunard ordered a new fleet of iron express liners for the New York mail route. "Abyssinia" was the fourth of the five