historian today's how did Italy lose against Ethiopia during the Scramble for Africa every an indigenous nation that was invaded by European powers felt within a matter of decades all except one the ancient empire of Ethiopia also known as Abyssinia as the world watched the supposedly primitive Ethiopians were able to repel a modern European army this defeat was grave and humiliating and many were puzzled as to how it could have occurred before we start analyzing this defeat let's get some background on the cause of the invasion in 1869 not long after Italy was unified into one Kingdom the Italians who felt that they were falling behind in the Scramble for Africa purchased a small port on the The Red Sea from the local Eritreans and began expanding outwards in approximately 20 years they controlled a a significant portion of East Africa and as this was occurring the nearby Ethiopian Empire which had existed in the region for over 600 years suddenly found itself cut off from the scene and by 1887 skirmishes were occurring between the
Italians and local Ethiopian Orleans, this culminated in the Battle of Doge Ali in which an Italian column was ambushed and destroyed by the Ethiopians after this, the Italians were determined to pacify Ethiopia and they saw their chance when its Emperor died and the the throne was claimed by the Italian supported Menelik's second Italy signed a treaty with men a link that promised backing to his claim as well as financial and military aid in exchange for recognition of Italy's colonial territories however there were two versions of the treaty one were written in Italian and the other Amharic the language of Ethiopia and each had different terms the contentious clause which eventually would lead to the the outbreak of war was in the Italian a version of the treaty which stated that Ethiopia was effectively a colonial protectorate of Italy a provision that did not exist in the Amharic draft after Menelik tried to establish diplomatic relations with other European countries it was only a matter of time before the Italians accused him of breaching the treating although all other European nations refused to recognize Ethiopia's independence Russia was supportive of Menelik's ambitions as they were both Orthodox Christian countries war finally came in December of 1894 when a group of Ethiopian insurgents under the leadership of a local king attacked an Italian Court in the colony of Victoria in response to this the Italian sent expeditions into Ethiopia an act that served as a declaration of war the leader of this expedition general arrest aburrá Thierry had previous military experience in the Wars of Italian unification and in Eritrea barity Ares expedition of 20,000 men were composed to both Italian soldiers and local Eritrean auxiliaries who are mostly equipped with the nearly? the outdated rifle which used a black powder cartridge although barity areas expedition encountered initial success against some of the local kings things would change after men alike assembled a massive army of 200,000 men in September of 1895 though they were armed with spears and swords about half of them were armed with modern rifles which had been purchased from the Russians interestingly the Ethiopians all things considered, were better equipped than their Italian counterparts who were unaware of this due to Menelik's scumming he led the Italians to believe that Ethiopia was a completely primitive country on the brink of collapse the Italian government therefore ordered Barrett Thierry to make a drive straight for Addis Ababa the Ethiopian capital although the Italians were successful in their initial movements the first omen of what would come of their ambitions in Ethiopia came at the Battle of Amba a doggedly on December the 7th 1895 only a few months into the new year the Italian campaign abruptly ended when Barrett Thierry finally encountered man Alex army in the mountains near the town of ADWA general Barrett Thierry's the expedition was already beginning to run low on water munitions and morale and when the huge Ethiopian army of approximately 120,000 men were spotted he was understandably planning to retrieve but this was not an option as he was ordered by Italian Prime Minister crispy no I'm not making that name up to attackman Alex force on the night of February 29th Barrett Thierry divided his expedition into three prongs and began marching into the mountains near met Alex encampment when Sun rose the three Italian brigades stood miles away from each other due to outdated maps to make matters worse for Barrett Thierry
his men had been spotted by the enemy and were in no position to create the crossfire situation that they had originally planned rather the left rig aid found itself under heavy rifle and artillery fire and the Ethiopians had positioned themselves at a higher elevation than the other brigades did not arrive in time to support and the Italian left was annihilated in a series of charges similarly the center Brigade which was now dangerously isolated was consumed by mass infantry assaults and when the final Italian Brigade attempted to retreat
it was funneled into a narrow ravine and was utterly destroyed it's blurry during all of this, the Ethiopians lost 10% of their men while the Italians lost nearly 60% after this decisive defeat Barrett Thierry retreated into Eritrea but was not pursued by Menelik who wanted to preserve his strength when news of the disaster at Adwa reached Italy there were mass riots and protests against crispies administration Italy was forced to sue for peace and after some negotiation, the two nations signed the Treaty of Addis Ababa demanded little from the Italians except the recognition of Ethiopian independence in the conclusion we can see that the Italians lost due to a combination of factors the biggest being that they were unprepared for a remote war especially against a state as well organized and well-equipped as
Ethiopia the Battle of ADWA serves as a perfect microcosm through which to view the first Italo Ethiopian war ADWA was a feisty the ill-conceived operation was undertaken by a force with inadequate planning against a numerically superior enemy that was incorrectly perceived at least by the Italian government a secondary reason for the Ethiopian victory was men Alixe foresight as he had been stockpiling modern weaponry for years after Ethiopia had been devastated by a British invasion and 1868 in the long term Ethiopian hegemony would not last as the rise of fascism and revanchist rhetoric after the first world war made it clear that Italian affairs in East Africa were not over King Menelik ii has gone down in history as one of the most innovative leaders in Africa his methodical approach to solving strategic and bureaucratic issues allowed him to conduct the war against Italy successfully and develop Ethiopia into a modern state with electricity infrastructure and financial institutions
0 Comments