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Revision as of 13:34, 4 April 2006
| First Italo-Abyssinian War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Italy | Ethiopia | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 20,000 | 100,000 (estimated) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 11,000 (killed or wounded) | 17,000 (killed or wounded) | ||||||
The First Italian–Abyssinian War was one of the very few instances of successful armed African resistance to European colonialism in the 19th century.
On March 25, 1889, the Shewa ruler Menelik II — having conquered Tigray and Amhara, and with the support of Italy — declared himself Emperor of Ethiopia (Abyssinia in the European parlance of the time). Barely a month later, on May 2, he signed a treaty of amity with the Italians, which gave them control over Eritrea, the Red Sea coast to the northeast of Ethiopia, in return for recognition of Menelik's rule. Or so it seemed.
In fact, the bilingual Treaty of Wuchale did not say the same thing in Italian and Amharic. The former text established an Italian protectorate over Ethiopia, which Menelik discovered soon afterwards.
Menelik repudiated the treaty in 1893, at which point the Italians ramped up the pressure in a variety of ways, including military expeditions into Tigray (on the border with Eritrea) in 1895.
By then, however, Menelik had spent much of the previous four years building up a supply of modern weapons and ammunition. In December of 1895, he himself moved large forces into Tigray. Heavily outnumbered, the Italian commander, Oreste Baritieri refused to engage, but the Italian government of Francesco Crispi was unable to accept being stymied by non-Europeans. The prime minister specifically ordered Baritieri to bring about a battle.
The result was the Battle of Adowa (or Adua) on March 1, 1896. Almost half of all the Italian forces in East Africa were concentrated and engaged the Ethiopians who defeated them decisively. The actual battle took place in mountainous county to the north of the town of Adowa. The Italian army comprised four brigades totalling approximately 20,000 troops, with fifty-six artillery pieces. One brigade under General Matteo Albertone was made up of Italian officered askari (native infantry) recruited from Eritrea. The remaining three brigades were Italian units under Generals Vittorio Dabormida, Giuseppe Ellena and Baratieri. The Ethiopian forces under Menelik outnumbered the Italians by an estimated five or six times. On the night of 29 February the four brigades advanced separately towards Adowa over narrow mountain tracks. Menlik's large forces were due to retire back into Ethiopia that same day as their food supplies ran low. Learning of the Italian advance Menlik rallied his four separate armies (those of Shoa, Harar, Gojjam and Wollo) and moved to meet them.
Disastrously, the three leading Italian brigades had become separated during their overnight march and at dawn on 1 March were spread across several miles of very difficult terrain. Albertone's askari brigade was the first to encounter large numbers of Ethiopians, near the hill called Enda Chidane Meret. The well-disciplined but heavily outnumbered askari, with artillery support, beat off attacks by Ethiopian forces for three hours until Menlik sent forward his reserve of 25,000 Shoans and swamped Albertone's brigade.
Dabormida's Italian brigade had moved to support Albertone but was unable to reach him in time. Cut off from the remainder of the Italian army, Dabormida executed a well-organised fighting retreat. However the numbers, courage and ferocity of the Shoan warriors opposing him led to Dabormida's death and the destruction of much of his brigade.
The remaining two brigades under Baratieri himself were outflanked and destroyed piecemeal on the slopes of Mount Belah. Baratieri escaped to be courtmartialed and condemned as unfit for his command. Italian dead and missing numbered 4,133 with a further 2,000 captured. In addition four thousand Eritrean askaris were killed or captured. The Ethiopians had lost about 7,000 dead and 10,000 wounded. Italian prisoners were treated as well as possible under difficult circumstances, but 800 captured askaris, regarded as traitors by the Ethiopians, had their right hands and left feet amputated.
Menelik retired in good order to his capital, Addis Ababa, and waited for the discredited Crispi government to fall. It did within two weeks, and Menelik secured the Treaty of Addis Ababa in October, strictly delimiting the borders of Eritrea and forcing Italy to recognize the independence of Ethiopia.