At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the major capitalist countries in Europe entered the stage of imperialism, and they pursued a policy of foreign expansion, almost dividing up the territory of the world, and many countries and regions in Africa and Asia were reduced to colonies or semi-colonies. Although Lenin said that Russia was "the weakest link in the chain of imperialism", there was a country that was more instigated than Russia, not only beaten by small African countries, but even the Qing Dynasty was not afraid of it.
First, the dream of the Roman Empire
This country is the sixth-ranked Kingdom of Italy in Europe! In 1861, the Kingdom of Sardinia was renamed the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1871 the unification of the country was finally achieved. Italy's rulers dreamed of restoring the glory of the ancient Roman Empire and thus embarked on the path of external expansion. At that time, Europe had no territory to occupy, so Italy set its sights on the African continent, taking Eritrea, Italian Somalia and Libya.
But these territories could not satisfy the ambitions of the Italians, and they extended the claws of aggression to Ethiopia, because once Ethiopia was occupied, Italy could connect several colonies together. In this way, it was able to gain a fulcrum of expansion in East Africa while limiting the expansion of Britain and France. In addition, Italy is also full of yearning for the mysterious East, and they also want to gain some benefits from the weak and incompetent Qing Dynasty.
Second, the loss of soldiers will be reduced, and the compensation will be summed
In 1889, Italy forced Ethiopia to sign the Treaty of Uzhiari, "buying" a piece of territory in northern Ethiopia for cabbage prices. In 1894, italy provoked the First Italian-Egyptian War, and their expeditionary commanders even boasted that they would "transport back to Rome in cages" the Ethiopian emperor Menelik. In March 1896, 14,000 Italian expeditionary forces suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Adua, killing 7,000 men, wounding 1,500 and capturing 3,000.
When the news reached Europe, German Chancellor Bismarck said: "The Italians came to the African continent with a mouth full of tooth decay and a great appetite. Western public opinion exclaimed even more: "I dare not imagine that the army of a civilized European country will suffer such a great disaster at the hands of an African chief and soldier." "After the war, Italy was forced to sign a peace treaty with Ethiopia, recognizing Ethiopia's sovereign and independent status, paying 10 million lira and returning the encroached land to Ethiopia.
Third, provoke the Qing Dynasty, the cabinet collapsed
After Italy suffered losses in Africa, they wanted to find some bargains in Asia, and they found that Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and even Japan had "concessions" in the Qing Dynasty and divided their spheres of influence, so they also moved their minds. In February 1899, the Italian minister to China, Martine, proposed to the Qing Dynasty to "lease" Sanmen Bay as a naval base, and designated Zhejiang Province as Italy's sphere of influence. The weak Qing Dynasty was very tough this time, and the note was not read and directly returned. When Italy saw that this trick did not work, it wanted to use force to intimidate.
Italy then sent three warships to China and sailed into the lion's mouth of Sanmen Bay. The Qing Dynasty was not afraid, and Liu Shutang, the inspector of Zhejiang, believed that "Italy is not enough to worry about." Italy saw that it was not enough, and directly issued an ultimatum, ordering the Qing Dynasty to agree to its request within four days, otherwise it would immediately go to war. However, the Qing Dynasty believed that it was better to force and argue than to tolerate it at every turn." Italy also frightened the Qing Dynasty, not only retracting the ultimatum, but also leading to the forced resignation of the prime minister and the collapse of the cabinet government.
References: 1. Historical Materials of Qing Dynasty Diplomacy; 2. History of Italy