Ethiopia stands alone. The League of Nations votes to impose deliberately ineffective economic sanctions against Fascist Italy for invading Ethiopia. Measures that would have prevented the invasion, such as an oil embargo against Italy and the closure of the Suez Canal, were not adopted for fear of sparking hostility in Europe. Ethiopia thus lost its independence for the first time in its long history, and tens of thousands of Ethiopians were killed as a result of Italian occupation actions, which included the use of nerve gas and other modern atrocities. By the end of 1936, the Italian conquest of Ethiopia was complete. Ethiopian leader Emperor Haile Selassie went into exile but returned in 1941 when British and Ethiopian troops liberated the country. Ignoring the British occupation authorities, Selassie quickly organized his own government.
