Background
Both Italy and Ethiopia were members of the League of Nations which was founded in 1919. Italy was a founding member of the League. Ethiopia joined September 28, 1923 seven years after Haile Selassie I was appointed Ras Tafarai Makonnen, head of state. The League had Article X, rules forbidding aggression among members.
On August 6, 1928, in addition to abiding by Article X, Italy and Ethiopia signed the Italo–Ethiopian Treaty of Friendship. This treaty declared a 20-year friendship between the two nations. On August 27 in the same year, both Italy and Ethiopia signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, an international treaty "providing for the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy."
In 1930, Italy built a fort at Walwal, an oasis in the Ogaden. The fort was in a boundary zone between the nations, which was not well defined, even if nowadays is about 150 km inside Ethiopia. On September 29, 1934, Italy and Abyssinia released a joint statement renouncing any aggression against each other.
Read more about this topic: Abyssinia Crisis
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