They didn’t really, and the incident is seen as one of the many failures of the League of Nations. The leader of Ethiopia (then Abyssinia) Haile Selassie spoke at the league demanding action but nothing more than economic sanctions were imposed, after his defeat he was forced into exile. Though the conflict added to the laundry list of issues the western powers had with fascists governments no one wanted to risk a greater conflict over a African state. During his appeal Selassie was even heckled by Italian journalists who had to be forcibly removed. Due to their aversion to another European war the league denied the Ethiopian resolution not to recognize Italy’s in-term government of the state and even denied him a loan to mount a resistance. In fact only a handful of nations refused to recognize Italian rule in the region. The international community in essence did nothing, a common theme for the era of appeasement.