7. Italian Military Against Ethiopian Soldiers, 1935-1936: 15,000 Casualties
In 1925, Italy became a signatory to the Geneva Protocol, a convention adopted by the League of Nations to ban the use of biological and chemical agents in war. Still, ten years later, Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini used mustard gas to decimate the Ethiopian military.
Italy and Germany were in a race to bring as much of Africa as possible under their control, as part of their bid for world domination. Chemical weapons would become part and parcel of their means of accomplishing this ultimate goal. In the attack on the Ethiopian military, an estimated 15,000 soldiers died.
