Everything about Battle Of Adwa totally explained
The
Battle of Adwa (also known as
Adowa or sometimes by the Italian name
Adua) was fought on
1 March,
1896 between
Ethiopia and
Italy near the town of
Adwa, Ethiopia, in
Tigray. It was the climactic battle of the
First Italo–Ethiopian War.
Background
As the twentieth century approached,
Africa had been carved up between the various
European powers, with the exception of the tiny republic of
Liberia on the west coast of the continent and the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia in the strategic
Horn of Africa. A relative newcomer to the
colonial scramble for Africa and having been left with only two impoverished territories on the Horn (
Eritrea and
Somalia), Italy sought to improve its position in Africa by conquering Ethiopia, which would join its two territories. Italy and Ethiopia faced off in the First Italo-Ethiopian War. After advancing deep into Ethiopian territory, the Italians were forced to withdraw to defensible positions in
Tigray, where the two armies faced each other.
By late February 1896, supplies on both sides were running low. General
Oreste Baratieri, commander of the Italian forces, knew the Ethiopian forces had been living off the land, and once the supplies of the local peasants were exhausted, Emperor
Menelik's army would begin to melt away. However, the Italian government insisted that General Baratieri act. On the evening of
29 February, Baratieri met with his
brigadiers Matteo Albertone,
Giuseppe Arimondi,
Vittorio Dabormida, and
Giuseppe Ellena, concerning their next steps. He opened the meeting on a negative note, revealing to his brigadiers that provisions would be exhausted in less than five days, and suggested retreating, perhaps as far back as
Asmara. His subordinates argued forcefully for an attack, insisting that to retreat at this point would only worsen the poor morale. Dabormida exclaiming, "Italy would prefer the loss of two or three thousand men to a dishonorable retreat." Baratieri delayed making a decision for a few more hours, claiming that he needed to wait for some last-minute intelligence, but in the end announced that the attack would start the next morning at 9:00. His troops began their march to their starting positions shortly after midnight.
The battle
The Italian army comprised four brigades totalling 17,700 troops, with fifty-six artillery pieces. However, it's likely that even fewer men were on the Italian side: Harold Marcus notes that "several thousand" soldiers were needed for support and to guard the lines of communication to the rear, so he estimates the Italian army to have consisted of 14,500 effectives. One brigade under General Albertone was made up of
Eritrean
askari led by Italian officers. The remaining three brigades were Italian units under Brigadiers Dabormida, Ellena and Arimondi. While these included elite
Bersaglieri,
Alpini and
Cacciatori units, a large proportion of the troops were inexperienced conscripts recently drafted from metropolitan regiments in Italy into newly formed battalions for service in Africa.
As Chris Prouty describes:
They [theItalians] had inadequate maps, old model guns, poor communication equipment and inferior footgear for the rocky ground. (The newer Remingtons were not issued because Baratieri, under constraints to be economical, wanted to use up the old cartridges.) Morale was low as the veterans were homesick and the newcomers, too inexperienced to have any esprit de corps. There was a shortage of mules and saddles.
Estimates for the Ethiopian forces under Menelik range from a low of 80,000 to a high of 150,000, outnumbering the Italians by an estimated five or six times. The forces were divided among Emperor Menelik, Empress
Taytu,
Ras Wale, Ras
Mengesha Atikem,
Ras Mengesha Yohannes and Ras
Alula Engida, Ras
Mikael of Wollo,
Ras Makonnen,
Fitawrari Gebeyyehu, and
Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam. In addition, the armies were followed by a similar number of traditional peasant followers who supplied the army, as had been done for centuries. David Levering Lewis states that the Italian battle plan
called for three columns to march in parallel formation to the crests of three mountains — Dabormida commanding on the right, Albertone on the left, and Arimondi in the center – with a reserve under Ellena following behind Arimondi. The supporting crossfire each column could give the others made the… soldiers as deadly as razored shears. Albertone's brigade was to set the pace for the others. He was to position himself on the summit known as Kidane Meret, which would give the Italians the high ground from which to meet the Ethiopians.
However, the three leading Italian brigades had become separated during their overnight march and at dawn were spread across several miles of very difficult terrain. Their sketchy maps caused Albertone to mistake one mountain for Kidane Meret, and when a scout pointed out his mistake, Albertone advanced directly into Ras Alula's position.
Unbeknownst to General Baratieri, Emperor Menelik knew his troops had exhausted the ability of the local peasants to support them and had planned to break camp the next day (2 March). The Emperor had risen early to begin prayers for divine guidance when spies from Ras Alula, his chief military advisor, brought him news that the Italians were advancing. The Emperor summoned the separate armies of his nobles and with the Empress Taytu beside him, ordered his forces forward. Negus Tekle Haymanot commanded the right wing, Ras Alula the left, and Rasses Makonnen and Mengesha the center, with Ras Mikael at the head of the
Oromo cavalry; the Emperor and his consort remained with the reserve.
The remaining two brigades under Baratieri himself were outflanked and destroyed piecemeal on the slopes of
Mount Belah. By noon, the survivors of the Italian army were in full retreat and the battle was over.
Aftermath
The Italians suffered about 7,000 killed and 1,500 wounded in the battle and subsequent retreat back into Eritrea, with 3,000 taken prisoner; Ethiopian losses have been estimated around 4,000-5,000, but with 8,000 wounded. In their flight to
Eritrea, the Italians left behind all of their artillery and 11,000 rifles, as well as most of their transport. The 3,000 Italian prisoners, who included General Albertone, appear to have been treated as well as could be expected under difficult circumstances, though about 200 died of their wounds in captivity. However, 800 captured askaris, regarded as traitors by the Ethiopians, had their right hands and left feet amputated. There doesn't appear to be any foundation for reports that some Italians were castrated and these may reflect confusion with the atrocious treatment of the askari prisoners.
Baratieri was relieved of his command and later charged with preparing an "inexcusable" plan of attack and for abandoning his troops in the field. He was acquitted on these charges but was described by the court martial judges as being "entirely unfitted" for his command. Chris Prouty offers a panoramic overview of the response in Italy to the news:
» When news of the calamity reached Italy there were street demonstrations in most major cities. In Rome, to prevent these violent protests, the universities and theatres were closed. Police were called out to disperse rock-throwers in front of Prime Minister
Crispi's residence. Crispi resigned on
9 March. Troops were called out to quell demonstrations in Naples. In Pavia, crowds built barricades on the railroad tracks to prevent a troop train from leaving the station. The Association of Women of Rome, Turin, Milan and Pavia called for the return of all military forces in Africa. Funeral masses were intoned for the known and unknown dead. Families began sending to the newspapers letters they'd received before Adwa in which their menfolk described their poor living conditions and their fears at the size of the army they were going to face. King Umberto declared his birthday (14 March) a day of mourning. Italian communities in St. Petersburg, London, New York, Chicago, Buenos Aires and Jerusalem collected money for the families of the dead and for the Italian Red Cross.
One question much asked – both then and long afterwards – is why did Emperor Menelik fail to follow up his victory and drive the routed Italians out of their colony? The victorious Emperor limited his demands to little more than the abrogation of the deceptive
Treaty of Wuchale. In the context of the prevailing balance of power, the emperor's crucial goal was to preserve Ethiopian independence. In addition, Ethiopia had just begun to emerge from a long and brutal
famine; Harold Marcus reminds us that the army was restive over its long service in the field, short of rations, and the short rains which would bring all travel to a crawl would soon start to fall. At the time, Menelik claimed a shortage of cavalry horses with which to harry the fleeing soldiers. Chris Proutky observes that "a failure of nerve on the part of Menelik has been alleged by both Italian and Ethiopian sources." Lewis believes that it "was his farsighted certainty that total annihilation of Baratieri and a sweep into Eritrea would force the Italian people to turn a bungled colonial war into a national crusade" that stayed his hand.
As a direct result of the battle, Italy signed the
Treaty of Addis Ababa, recognizing Ethiopia as an independent state. Almost forty years later, on October 3rd, 1935, after the
League of Nations weak response to the
Abyssinia Crisis, in a new military campaign endorsed by
Benito Mussolini, the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the Italians soundly defeated the Ethiopian forces. Following the war, Italy occupied Ethiopia for a number of years (1936-41), before eventually being driven out during
World War II by
British Empire forces, aided by Ethiopian patriots, in the
East African Campaign.
Significance
"The confrontation between Italy and Ethiopia at Adwa was a fundamental turning point in Ethiopian history," writes Henze, who compares this victory to Japan's naval victory over Russia at
Tsushima. "Though apparent to very few historians at the time, these defeats were the beginning of the decline of Europe as the center of world politics."
On a similar note, the Ethiopian historian
Bahru Zewde observed that "few events in the modern period have brought Ethiopia to the attention of the world as has the victory at Adwa;" however, Bahru Zewde puts his emphasis on other elements of this triumph: "The racial dimension was what lent Adwa particular significance. It was a victory of blacks over whites. Adwa thus anticipated by almost a decade the equally shattering experience to the whites of the Japanese victory over Russia in 1905."
This defeat of a colonial power and the ensuing recognition of African sovereignty became rallying points for later African nationalists during their struggle for decolonization, as well as activists and leaders of the Pan-African movement. As the Afrocentric scholar Molefe Asante explains, "After the victory over Italy in 1896, Ethiopia acquired a special importance in the eyes of Africans as the only surviving African State. After Adowa, Ethiopia became emblematic of African valour and resistance, the bastion of prestige and hope to thousands of Africans who were experiencing the full shock of European conquest and were beginning to search for an answer to the myth of African inferiority."
Notes and references
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