diff --git a/lib/easy.c b/lib/easy.c
index 4c4e271f6..d1e7ef442 100644
--- a/lib/easy.c
+++ b/lib/easy.c
@@ -198,8 +198,12 @@ CURL *curl_easy_init(void)
   struct SessionHandle *data;
 
   /* Make sure we inited the global SSL stuff */
-  if (!initialized)
-    curl_global_init(CURL_GLOBAL_DEFAULT);
+  if (!initialized) {
+    res = curl_global_init(CURL_GLOBAL_DEFAULT);
+    if(res)
+      /* something in the global init failed, return nothing */
+      return NULL;
+  }
 
   /* We use curl_open() with undefined URL so far */
   res = Curl_open(&data);