First Italo-Ethiopian War

1895 – 1896

Overview

Italy, united only in 1861, came late to the scramble for colonies in Africa. It took the Red Sea port of Assab in the 1880s and occupied Massawa in 1885. Its advance inland was checked at Dogali in January 1887, when forces of Ras Alula destroyed an Italian column of about 500 men. In 1889 Menelik II, the king of Shewa, became emperor of Ethiopia, and in May of that year he signed the Treaty of Wuchale with Italy. The following year Italy organized its coastal territories as the colony of Eritrea. The two texts of the treaty did not agree. The Italian version of Article 17 made Ethiopia an Italian protectorate in foreign affairs, while the Amharic version did not. Menelik protested, repaid an Italian loan and denounced the treaty in 1893.

Fighting began in early 1895, when Italian forces under General Oreste Baratieri defeated Ras Mengesha of Tigray and occupied much of the province. Menelik called up the armies of the whole empire. On 7 December 1895 an Italian force was destroyed at Amba Alagi, and in January 1896 the Italian garrison of Mekele surrendered after a siege and was allowed to march away. The main armies then met near Adwa. On 1 March 1896, at the Battle of Adwa, the Ethiopian army routed Baratieri's four brigades. Peace was made in the Treaty of Addis Ababa on 26 October 1896.

Arms of the War

Menelik had spent the years before the war building up an arsenal. His predecessor Yohannes IV had captured thousands of rifles from Egyptian armies at Gundet in 1875 and Gura in 1876, most of them the Remington Rolling Block. Menelik added large purchases from French, Italian and other traders, including French Gras rifles, a metallic-cartridge development of the Chassepot Rifle, and even Italian weapons supplied while relations were good. Estimates of the rifles in his army at Adwa vary, but they probably ran to many tens of thousands. Warriors still carried traditional arms, including spears, round hide shields and the curved Shotel, and the Oromo cavalry was a powerful mounted arm. Ethiopian artillery included quick-firing Hotchkiss guns and mountain guns. The Italian and Eritrean infantry carried the Vetterli Rifle, mostly converted to the M1870/87 Vetterli-Vitali magazine pattern, and the army was supported by batteries of light mountain guns. Weapons of both sides are also described under Ethiopian Arms & Weapons.

Why It Mattered

Adwa was the greatest defeat suffered by a European army in the colonial wars of the late nineteenth century. It forced Italy to recognize Ethiopia as a fully independent state, and European powers soon sent envoys and signed treaties with Menelik. Ethiopia was the only African state, apart from Liberia, to stay independent through the scramble for Africa. The victory became a symbol of African resistance and was celebrated across Africa and its diaspora. In Italy the humiliation brought down Crispi's government and left a desire for revenge that Mussolini exploited when he invaded Ethiopia in 1935.

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