Hoare-Laval Pact

The Hoare-Laval Pact was a December 1935 plan concocted by the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Hoare and the French Prime Minister, Pierre Laval for the partitioning of Ethiopia, as a means of ending the Italo-Ethiopian War. It aimed to satisfy the demands of Italy's Benito Mussolini to make the independent nation of Abyssinia (as Ethiopia was then called) an Italian colony.

According to the Pact, the old kingdom of Abyssinia was to remain independent but most of the country would belong to Italy. Mussolini was ready to agree with this, but the plan was leaked and denounced as a sell-out of the Abyssinians. The British government dissociated itself from the Pact and both Hoare and Laval were forced to resign.

This event was significant in the build up to World War Two as it showed the weakness of Britain and France in combatting agressive fascist actions.