Italian East Africa was a colonial possession of Fascist Italy from 1936 to 1941 in the Horn of Africa. It was established following the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, which led to the military occupation of the Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia). It encompassed Italian Somaliland, Italian Eritrea and the acquired Ethiopian territories, all governed by a single administrative unit, the Governo Generale dell'Africa Orientale Italiana. Its establishment contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War by exposing the weaknesses of the League of Nations.