when benito mussolini took power in italy, he ended the deals he made with the bigger somali sultanates and invaded them conquering all the area that was to be the colony of italian somalia. then he invaded and took over ethiopia, using poison gas on the ethiopians. shortly afterwards, world war 2 broke out and he invaded british somaliland, but two years later the british returned and liberated british somaliland and ethiopia as well as taking over italian somaliland.