Geneva, September 11, 1935
Italian troops under general De Bono had been advancing into Ethiopia for the past four days with very little resistance as the Ethiopians had decided to trade space for time before the League of Nations could come to session declaring Italy the aggressor. Imposing sanctions would take quite a bit longer and prove of dubious effect but for a few weeks it looked as if even war between Italy and the western powers was not out of the question. Greece would stand by the League but the level of unpreparedness shown by Britain and France was a shock to say the least. Britain had asked the Greeks for a an army corps of 50,000 men with 2 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry brigades to deploy to Egypt [1] while France had cited inability to handle urgent orders of artillery and aircraft the Greeks had tried to place when the crisis begun.
Sivas, October 10, 1935
If Italy had expected Turkey to meekly follow the Italian line in the invasion of Ethiopia it had been in for a shock. The Turkish public had not taken well to the invasion, considerable numbers of Turkish officers had even volunteered to go join the Ethiopian army. Kemal rather more pragmatically had seen the whole crisis as an opportunity. Within a week of the crisis Kemal had announced that Turkey would not abide any more by the military terms of the treaty of Fontainebleau, with Paris and London preoccupied the only reaction was verbal protestations from Greece that had no effect. Then he had signalled to Italy that Turkish support had a price, namely the return of Italy's Anatolian mandate to Turkey and for good measure had ordered 80,000 troops on the border of the mandate. The Italians had found themselves into something of a bind. From the very start back in 1922 Italy had been somewhat ambivalent about her newly minted colony in Anatolia as it could not quite make up its mind whether it preferred a Turkey firmly in the Italian sphere of influence or outright control of as much of Anatolia as possible. As long as Turkey remained relatively weak the Italians had tried having both, retaining the mandate and supporting the Turkish government in Sivas. But as Kemal was quick to realise this was not possible to continue doing any more. Italy had already committed 17 infantry divisions and a large number of aircraft in Ethiopia. Yet more divisions were in Libya and even more would be needed in the Italian mainland. Defending Caria would be problematic with Italy's other commitments. It was time for Italy to decide if it really wanted a friendly Turkey or not. Kemal had personally flown to Rome to negotiate with Mussolini in the start of October, taking advantage of the admiration of the Italian dictator for him and now was back in triumph as he announced Italy had agreed for the referendum on the future of Caria included in the provisions of the treaty of Fontainebleau to take place within a year. There was little doubt on what would be the result of the referendum. The other terms of the agreement need not bother the public...
Britain, November 1935
Back in June, Baldwin had taken the place of MacDonald as prime minister. Now the new election had returned another victory for the national government who elected 354 MPs, 341 of them Conservative for 190 Labour and 60 Liberal MPs. More and more the National government was nothing but the Conservatives, in the election out of the 49.6% of the popular vote for the national government nearly 48% had come from the Conservatives.
Ethiopia, December 1935
The Italian advance into Ethiopia had slowed into a crawl as De Bono wanted to rebuild his supply lines. Mussolini had promoted him to marshal then replaced him with marshal Badoglio, who had been ordered to expedite the conquest. France and Britain had actually made an attempt to end the war by offering Italy a large chunk Ethiopia with the rest becoming dependent on Italy. But the proposal when leaked to the press had created such an uproar in the French and British public to render it moot. On Christmas eve the Ethiopian army actually counterattacked hoping to surprise the Italians. In six weeks of fighting the Ethiopians would actually have some successes but superior Italian firepower, reinforcements from Italy and liberal use of phosgene and mustard gas would allow Badoglio to defeat the counterattack.
Athens, January 1936
Ελληνική Εταιρεία Οχημάτων, the Hellenic Vehicle Company or ELEO in short was created in cooperation between the Prodromos Athanasiadis Bodosakis and the Isigonis company in Smyrna, after Bodosakis bought out the Ford company's factory in Athens which had been faltering in the aftermath of the world economic crisis and Greece leaving the gold standard back in 1932. But Bodosakis could see that with the Greek economy turning upwards again, strong protectionist rules in place and the Greek army trying to rearm at an increasing pace and in need of thousands if not tens of thousands of cars the factory had every prospect of becoming a gold mine. Working with the Isigonis also made sense for its own reasons. Even though the Isigonis corporation could hardly match Bodosakis own commercial interests it was the largest industrial company in Asiatic Greece, producing machinery and engines and had start producing trucks initially for the army since the 1920s. The Isigonis also had a unique advantage as a member of the family Alexandros Isigonis had turned out to be a very talented car designer working in Britain who had just secured the cooperation with Morris Motors for his family's company.
Yugoslavia, December 1935
Milan Stojadinovic was installed as the new prime minister of Yugoslavia by the regency under prince Paul. Stojadinovic a noted economist who had stabilized the dinar back in the 1920s was very much needed at the moment given the trouble the Yugoslav economy was facing which was only made worse by the internal divisions of the country and the disaffection caused by king Alexander's royal dictatorship. But the new prime minister also had his own distinct policies, admiring Mussolini, seeking Yugoslav rapprochement with Germany, Italy and Bulgaria and a distancing from the French alliance system. Stojadinovic, even though he did not leave the Balkan Entente right away, was open to the idea of dividing up Greek Macedonia with Bulgaria as a means of solving Yugoslav-Bulgarian relations and gaining the port of Thessaloniki. Ominously the first international act of the new government would be a clearing agreement establishing trade with Germany.
Spain, February 1936
The Spanish government after struggling for two years had finally collapsed in December and new elections had been called. The new elections had been mainly contested between the National Block of right and the Popular Front of the left under conditions of massive polarization and accusations of electoral irregularities. The Popular Front had come slightly ahead with about 0.5% of the block thus gaining 285 seats in the Cortes to 131 seats of the National Block. A new Popular Front government would be formed and by April Manuel Azana would become president of the republic.
Belgrade, February 1936
King Boris III of Bulgaria made an official visit in Belgrade. While nothing tangible came out of the visit, it was certainly noted by the Greek foreign ministry and both Greek intelligence and diplomatic services were already getting troubling reports about the new prime minister. Since the previous year Greece had quietly begun fortifying her border with Bulgaria and improving fortifications in Asiatic Greece in anticipation of a two front war with Turkey and Bulgaria. The Greek army's engineering corps was secretly ordered to prepare fortification plans for the Greek-Yugoslav border as well. But the fortification of the Bulgarian border was already anticipated to cost at least 1.36 billion drachmas, nearly 4.8 million British pounds. Also fortifying the Yugoslav border could easily raise costs to nearly 2 billion...
Appendix: Treaty of Rome between Italy and Turkey
1. A referendum to take place in the Italian mandate of Anatolia over its future within 12 months of the treaty or 6 months of the end of the war in Ethiopia whatever is earliest.
2. Italian companies to retain their economic interests in the mandate territory.
3. Turkey to sign a new clearing agreement with Italy regulating trade between them. Turkish exports to Italy to be paid in lire, not freely convertible to gold or other currencies.
4. Italian nationals in Caria to remain.
5. Italy to retain the naval base of Marmaris and adjacent air bases. Turkey receives the right of using the Italian naval facilities in Marmaris.
6. Italy to diplomatically support Turkish efforts to recover Turkish populated areas in Syria and Iraq.
7. Turkey to sign a mutual defence treaty with Italy.
[1] Same as OTL.
) They still lose after all Italy took the world cup that year but it's less one sided.
