Adwa 1896: How Ethiopia Crushed a European Army

Adwa 1896: how Ethiopia crushed a European army in a single morning. At the height of the Scramble for Africa, the Kingdom of Italy pushed inland from Massawa and its new Red Sea colony of Eritrea, and tried to turn the Ethiopian Empire into a protectorate through one disputed clause, Article 17 of the Treaty of Wuchale. Emperor Menelik II rejected it, bought modern rifles and artillery, and in September 1895 called up the armies of Shewa, Harar, Wollo, Gojjam and Tigray. After Amba Alagi and the siege of Mekele, General Oreste Baratieri sat hungry at Sauria while Prime Minister Francesco Crispi demanded action from Rome. On the night of 29 February 1896 he sent about 17,700 men and 56 guns forward in separate columns, through mountains he had no reliable map of. Albertone's askari brigade marched miles past its position, Arimondi and Dabormida were left to fight alone, and Empress Taytu Betul, Ras Alula, Ras Makonnen and Ras Mikael's Oromo cavalry closed in. This animated battle map documentary follows the First Italo-Ethiopian War from that treaty to the Treaty of Addis Ababa, and gives the range wherever historians disagree on the numbers. 0:00 The Map Is Wrong 0:56 Italy Eyes Ethiopia 2:25 A Treaty With Two Meanings 6:07 Menelik Calls His Army 7:49 Amba Alagi and Mekele 9:28 Stalemate at Sauria 11:48 The Night March 14:30 Albertone Stands Alone 19:21 Counting the Cost 22:15 Ethiopia Stays Independent Sources: G. F.-H. Berkeley, The Campaign of Adowa and the Rise of Menelik (London, 1902): https://dspace.gipe.ac.in/xmlui/handle/109... Enciclopedia Italiana (Treccani), "Adua": https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/adua_... 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Abyssinia": https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encycl... John Davis, "It should have ended with Verdi", review of Raymond Jonas, The Battle of Adwa (London Review of Books): https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v34/n10/jo... Origins (Ohio State University), "When Ethiopia Stunned the World": https://origins.osu.edu/review/when-ethiop... Michigan War Studies Review 2012-047, review of Jonas: https://michiganwarstudiesreview.com/2012-... Battle of Adwa (Wikipedia; cites Berkeley, Caulk, Marcus, Pankhurst): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Adwa Battaglia di Adua (Italian Wikipedia): https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battaglia_di... First Italo-Ethiopian War (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Italo-... Treaty of Wuchale (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Wu... Siege of Mekelle (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Mek... Biography.com, "Menelik II" (proclamation excerpt): https://www.biography.com/political-figure... Maps: drawn by Wars in Ink · base data Natural Earth (public domain) · Terrain: AWS Terrain Tiles · Illustrations: original artwork created for this channel (AI-assisted) · Archival art: Ethiopian painting of the Battle of Adwa (Wikimedia Commons) · Music: YouTube Audio Library Image credits: Ethiopian painting of the Battle of Adwa: Unknown artist / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) #history #documentary #militaryhistory