The Battle of Adowa cost the lives of 289 Italian officers and 2,918 European soldiers, an additional 954 European troops could not be found, while 470 Italians were wounded. Most of them armed with just machetes and knifes. The angry and intolerant people of Ethiopia who fought against the well-equipped Italian troops, included men, women, the old, disabled, monks and priests. With God’s help and your assistance I will get rid of them”!!! And so the Battle of Adowa took place on the 29th of February 1886 (during the night). They have passed beyond the sea which God gave us as our frontier….These enemies have advanced, burrowing into the country like moles. Menelik called upon his people from every corner of the country to join him at this determining instant, saying “Enemies have come who would ruin our country and change our religion. As far as Italy was concerned, The Ethiopians were nothing more than unsophisticated barbarians. The trick was eminently simple, the kind that had been played on native rulers by European traders and settlers for centuries. Many attempts by Menelik failed to correct the misinterpretation of the text, but indemnified the Italians with the right to invade Ethiopia. Whereas, The Italian version of article XVII stated, ‘The Emperor consents to use the Italian government for all the business he does with all the other Powers or Governments.’ In a devious ploy, the Italian government peddled the Treaty of Wichale as legal proof that Menelik had given way too much power to the government of Italy. The Amharic version states: ‘The Emperor has the option to communicate with the help of the Italian government for all matters that he wants with the kings of Europe.’ However, article XVII of the Treaty of Wichale or (Uccialli Trattato in Italian), had two versions. Menelik signed the treaty of “diplomacy” known as the Wichale, assuming Italy would help him in his fight to unify and rule the country which was under great power struggle between rival lords at the time. A premeditated plan to entrap him with a treaty that would allow him bring in ammunition to fight against other lords but mainly Ras Mengesha Yohannes of the North. Italy pretended to be a great ally to Lord Menelik of Shewa (who was planning to take over the whole of Ethiopia). The government of Italy run by prime-minister Francesco Crispi decided to colonise Ethiopia using two great advantages, one: England being under pressure because of France and Germany and, two: the fact that Ethiopian lords were going through power struggle. At the time when most of Africa was either directly or indirectly colonised by Great Britain, Ethiopia, a sovereign and independent kingdom was betrothed by the government of Italy which was underrated by its own neighbouring cohorts.
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