Editing First Italo-Ethiopian War (section)

== Background ==
{{See also|Ethiopian-Egyptian War|Italo-Ethiopian War of 1887–1889|Italian Eritrea}}
The Khedive of Egypt [[Isma'il Pasha]], better known as Isma'il the Magnificent, had conquered Eritrea as part of his efforts to give Egypt an African empire.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marsot |first1=Afaf |title=The Porte and Ismail Pasha's Quest for Autonomy |journal=Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt |year=1975 |volume=12 |issue=1975 |pages=89–96 |doi=10.2307/40000011 |jstor=40000011 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000011 |access-date=23 December 2020}}</ref><ref name="Perry p196">{{harvnb|Perry|2005|p=196}}</ref> Isma'il had tried to follow up that conquest with Ethiopia, but the Egyptian attempts to conquer that realm ended in humiliating defeat in the [[Egyptian–Ethiopian War]]. After [[History of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty|Egypt's bankruptcy in 1876]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Atkins |first1=Richard |title=The Origins of the Anglo-French Condominium in Egypt, 1875-1876 |journal=The Historian |date=1974 |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=264–282 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1974.tb00005.x |jstor=24443685 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24443685 |access-date=23 December 2020}}</ref> followed by the [[Mahdist War|''Ansar'' revolt]] under the leadership of the [[Muhammad Ahmad|Mahdi]] in 1881, the Egyptian position in [[Eritrea]] was hopeless with the Egyptian forces cut off and unpaid for years. By 1884 the Egyptians began to pull out of both Sudan and Eritrea.<ref name="Perry p196" />

On 3 June 1884, the [[Hewett Treaty]] was signed between Britain, Egypt and Ethiopia that allowed the Ethiopians to occupy parts of the dissolved [[Habesh Eyalet]] which allowed Ethiopian goods to pass in and out of [[Massawa]] duty-free.<ref name="Perry p196" /> From the viewpoint of Britain, it was highly undesirable that the French replace the Egyptians in Massawa as that would allow the French to have more naval bases on the Red Sea that could interfere with British shipping using the Suez Canal, and as the British did not want the financial burden of ruling Massawa, they looked for another power who would be interested in replacing the Egyptians.<ref name="Perry p196" /> The Hewett treaty seemed to suggest that Massawa would fall into the Ethiopian sphere of influence as the Egyptians pulled out.<ref name="Perry p196" /> After initially encouraging the Emperor [[Yohannes IV]] to move into Massawa to replace the Egyptians, London decided to have the Italians move into Massawa.<ref name="Perry p196" /> In his history of Ethiopia, British historian Augustus Wylde wrote: "England made use of King John [Emperor Yohannes] as long as he was of any service and then threw him over to the tender mercies of Italy...It is one of our worst bits of business out of the many we have been guilty of in Africa...one of the vilest bites of treachery".<ref name="Perry p196" />

On 5 February 1885, Italian troops landed at Massawa to replace the Egyptians.<ref name="Perry p196" /> The Italian government for its part was more than happy to embark upon an imperialist policy to distract its people from the failings in post ''[[Italian unification|Risorgimento]]'' Italy.<ref name="Perry p196" /> In 1861, the unification of Italy was supposed to mark the beginning of a glorious new era in Italian life, and many Italians were gravely disappointed to find that not much had changed in the new Kingdom of Italy with the vast majority of Italians still living in abject poverty. To compensate, a chauvinist mood was rampant among the upper classes in Italy with the newspaper ''Il Diritto'' writing in an editorial: "Italy must be ready. The year 1885 will decide her fate as a great power. It is necessary to feel the responsibility of the new era; to become again strong men afraid of nothing, with the sacred love of the fatherland, of all Italy, in our hearts".<ref name="Perry p196" /><ref name=Erlich>{{Cite journal |jstor = 41988228|title = Ethiopia and the Mahdiyya – You Call Me a Chicken?|journal = Journal of Ethiopian Studies|volume = 40|issue = 1/2|pages = 219–249|last1 = Erlich|first1 = Haggai|year = 2007}}</ref> The struggle against the ''Ansar'' from Sudan complicated Yohannes's relations with the Italians, whom he sometimes asked to provide him with guns to fight the ''Ansar'' and other times he resisted the Italians and proposed a truce with the ''Ansar''.<ref name=Erlich />

On 18 January 1887, at a village named Saati, an advancing Italian army detachment defeated the Ethiopians in a skirmish, but it ended with the numerically superior Ethiopians surrounding the Italians in Saati after they retreated in face of the enemy's numbers.<ref name="Perry p200">{{harvnb|Perry|2005|p=200}}</ref> Some 500 Italian soldiers under Colonel de Christoforis together with 50 Eritrean auxiliaries were sent to support the besieged garrison at Saati.<ref name="Perry p200" /> At Dogali on his way to Saati, de Christoforis was ambushed by an Ethiopian force under ''Ras'' Alula, whose men armed with spears skillfully encircled the Italians who retreated to one hill and then to another higher hill.<ref name="Perry p200" /> After the Italians ran out of ammunition, ''Ras'' Alula ordered his men to charge and the Ethiopians swiftly overwhelmed the Italians in an action that featured bayonets against spears.<ref name="Perry p200" /> The [[Battle of Dogali]] ended with the Italians losing 23 officers and 407 other ranks killed.<ref name="Perry p200" /> As a result of the defeat at Dogali, the Italians abandoned Saati and retreated back to the Red Sea coast.<ref name="Perry p201">{{harvnb|Perry|2005|p=201}}</ref> Italian newspapers called the battle a "massacre" and excoriated the ''Regio Esercito '' for not assigning de Chistoforis enough ammunition.<ref name="Perry p201" /> Having, at first, encouraged Emperor Yohannes to move into Eritrea, and then having encouraged the Italians to also do so, London realised a war was brewing and decided to try to mediate, largely out of the fear that the Italians might actually lose.<ref name="Perry p196" />

The defeat at Dogali made the Italians cautious for a moment, but on 10 March 1889, Emperor Yohannes died after being wounded in battle against the ''Ansar'' and on his deathbed admitted that ''Ras'' Mengesha, the supposed son of his brother, was actually his own son and asked that he succeed him.<ref name="Perry p201" /> The revelation that the emperor had slept with his brother's wife scandalised intensely [[Ethiopian Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] Ethiopia, and instead the ''Negus'' [[Menelik II|Menelik was proclaimed emperor]] on 26 March 1889.<ref name="Perry p201" /> ''Ras'' Mengesha, one of the most powerful Ethiopian noblemen, was unhappy about being by-passed in the succession and for a time allied himself with the Italians against the [[Menelik II|Emperor Menelik]].<ref name="Perry p201" /> Under the feudal Ethiopian system, there was no standing army, and instead, the nobility raised up armies on behalf of the Emperor. In December 1889, the Italians advanced inland again and took the cities of Asmara and Keren.<ref name="Perry p201" />

=== Outbreak of the war ===
{{Main|Treaty of Wuchale}}
[[File:Emperor Menelik II.png|thumb|250x250px|[[Emperor of Ethiopia|Emperor]] [[Menelik II]]]]

On 25 March 1889, the [[Shewa]] ruler [[Menelik II]] declared himself Emperor of Ethiopia (or "Abyssinia", as it was commonly called in Europe at the time). Barely a month later, on 2 May he signed the [[Treaty of Wuchale]] with the Italians, which apparently gave them control over [[Italian Eritrea|Eritrea]], the [[Red Sea]] coast to the northeast of Ethiopia, in return for recognition of Menelik's rule, a sum of money and the provision of 30,000 rifles and 28 artillery cannons.

However, the bilingual treaty did not say the same thing in [[Italian language|Italian]] and [[Amharic language|Amharic]]; the Italian version did not give the Ethiopians the "significant autonomy" written into the Amharic translation.<ref name="Gardner">{{harvnb|Gardner|2015|p=107}}</ref> The Italian text stated that Ethiopia must conduct its foreign affairs through Italy (making it an Italian [[protectorate]]), but the Amharic version merely stated that Ethiopia ''could'' contact foreign powers and conduct foreign affairs using the embassy of Italy. Italian diplomats, however, claimed that the original Amharic text included the clause and Menelik knowingly signed a modified copy of the Treaty.<ref>{{cite web |last=Pastoretto |first=Piero |title=Battaglia di Adua |url=http://www.arsmilitaris.org/pubblicazioni/ADUA/adua.htm |access-date=2006-06-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060531223251/http://www.arsmilitaris.org/pubblicazioni/ADUA/adua.htm |archive-date=May 31, 2006|language=it}}</ref> In October 1889, the Italians informed all of the other European governments because of the Treaty of Wuchale that Ethiopia was now an Italian protectorate and therefore the other European nations could not conduct diplomatic relations with Ethiopia.<ref name=Rubenson>{{Cite journal |jstor = 179872|title = The Protectorate Paragraph of the Wichale Treaty|journal = The Journal of African History|volume = 5|issue = 2|pages = 243–283|last1 = Rubenson|first1 = Sven|year = 1964|doi = 10.1017/S0021853700004837}}</ref> With the exceptions of the Ottoman Empire, which still maintained its claim to Eritrea, and Russia, which disliked the idea of an Orthodox nation being subjugated to a Roman Catholic nation, all of the European powers accepted the Italian claim to a protectorate.<ref name=Rubenson />
 
The Italian claim that Menelik was aware of Article XVII turning his nation into an Italian protectorate seems unlikely given that the Emperor Menelik sent letters to Queen Victoria in late 1889 and was informed in the replies in early 1890 that Britain could not have diplomatic relations with Ethiopia on the account of Article XVII of the Treaty of Wuchale, a revelation that came as a great shock to the Emperor.<ref name=Rubenson /> The tone of Victoria's letter was polite. The Queen informed Menelik that the restrictions on the import of arms were no longer in force and to prove this mentioned that [[Ras Makonnen]] received permission "to pass two thousand rifles through [[Zeila]], return to Harar" i.e. from Italy. But on the question of further diplomatic contacts, she left no doubt in Menelik's mind: "We shall communicate to the Government of our Friend His Majesty the King of Italy copies of Your Majesty's letter and of our reply."<ref name=Rubenson /> 
 
[[Francesco Crispi]], the Italian Prime Minister, was an ultra-imperialist who believed the newly unified Italian state required "the grandeur of a second Roman empire".<ref name="Perry p201"/> Crispi believed that the [[Horn of Africa]] was the best place for the Italians to start building the new colonial empire.<ref name="Perry p201" /> Because of the Ethiopian refusal to abide by the Italian version of the treaty and despite economic handicaps at home, the Italian government decided on a military solution to force Ethiopia to abide by the Italian version of the treaty. In doing so, they believed that they could exploit divisions within Ethiopia and rely on tactical and technological superiority to offset any inferiority in numbers. The efforts of Emperor Menelik, viewed as pro-French by London, to unify Ethiopia and thus bring the source of the [[Blue Nile]] under his control was perceived in Whitehall as a threat to their influence in Egypt.<ref name="Marcus">{{Cite journal |jstor = 41965700|title = A Background to Direct British Diplomatic Involvement in Ethiopia, 1894–1896|journal = Journal of Ethiopian Studies|volume = 1|issue = 2|pages = 121–132|last1 = Marcus|first1 = Harold G.|year = 1963}}</ref> As Menelik became increasingly successful in expanding Ethiopia, the [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]] courted the Italians to counter Ethiopian expansion.<ref name="Marcus" />

The only European ally of Ethiopia was [[Ethiopia-Russia relations|Russia]].<ref name="Robert G. Patman 2009">{{harvnb|Patman|2009|pages=27–30}}</ref><ref name="vestal">{{cite book|last=Vestal|first=Theodore M.|editor1=Paulos Milkias |editor2=Getachew Metaferia|title=The Battle of Adwa: Reflections on Ethiopia's Historic Victory Against European Colonialism|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nljca_pOqrEC&pg=PA26|year=2005|publisher=Algora|isbn=978-0-87586-414-3|pages=21–35|chapter=Reflections on the Battle of Adwa and its Significance for Today}}</ref><ref name=eribo>{{harvnb|Eribo|2001|p=55}}</ref> The Ethiopian emperor sent his first diplomatic mission to St. Petersburg in 1895. In June 1895, the newspapers in St. Petersburg wrote, "Along with the expedition, Menelik II sent his diplomatic mission to Russia, including his princes and his bishop". Many citizens of the capital came to meet the train that brought Prince Damto, General Genemier, Prince Belyakio, Bishop of Harer Gabraux Xavier and other members of the delegation to St. Petersburg. On the eve of war, an agreement providing military help for Ethiopia was concluded. Russia had been trying to gain a foothold in Ethiopia,<ref name="Burke1892">{{cite book|last=Burke|first=Edmund|title=The Annual Register of World Events: A Review of the Year|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrEHAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA397|year=1892|publisher=Longmans, Green|series=Annual Register, New Series|volume=133|pages=397–399|chapter=East Africa}}</ref> and in 1894, after denouncing the Treaty of Wuchale in July, it received an Ethiopian mission in St. Petersburg and sent arms and ammunition to Ethiopia.<ref name="vestal"/> The Russian travel writer [[Alexander Bulatovich]] who went to Ethiopia to serve as a Red Cross volunteer with the Emperor Menelik made a point of emphasizing in his books that the Ethiopians converted to Christianity before any of the Europeans ever did, described the Ethiopians as a deeply religious people like the Russians, and argued the Ethiopians did not have the "low cultural level" of the other African peoples, making them equal to the Europeans.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 20065745|title = Reading "Ethiopia through Russian Eyes": Political and Racial Sentiments in the Travel Writings of Alexander Bulatovich, 1896–1898|journal = History in Africa|volume = 32|pages = 281–294|last1 = Mirzeler|first1 = Mustafa Kemal|year = 2005|doi = 10.1353/hia.2005.0017|s2cid = 52044875|url = https://muse.jhu.edu/article/187888}}</ref>

In 1893, judging that his power over Ethiopia was secure, Menelik repudiated the treaty; in response the Italians ramped up the pressure on his domain in a variety of ways, including the annexation of small territories bordering their original claim under the Treaty of Wuchale, and finally culminating with a military campaign and across the [[Mareb River]] into Tigray (on the [[Eritrea–Ethiopia border|border with Eritrea]]) in December 1894. The Italians expected disaffected potentates like Negus [[Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam]], [[Ras Mengesha Yohannes]], and the [[Aussa Sultanate|Sultan of Aussa]] to join them; instead, all of the Ethiopians flocked to the Emperor Menelik's side in a display of both nationalism and anti-Italian feeling, while other peoples of dubious loyalty (e.g. the Sultan of Aussa) were watched by Imperial garrisons.<ref>{{harvnb|Prouty|1986|p=143}}</ref> In June 1894, ''Ras'' Mengesha and his generals appeared in Addis Ababa carrying large stones which they dropped before the Emperor Menelik (a gesture that is a symbol of submission in Ethiopian culture).<ref name="Perry p201" /> There was overwhelming national unity in Ethiopia as various feuding noblemen rallied behind the emperor who insisted that Ethiopia, unlike the other African nations, would retain its freedom and not be subjugated by Italy.<ref name="Perry p201" />

Menelik had spent much of his reign building up a vast arsenal of modern weapons and ammunition acquired though treaty negotiations and purchases from the Russians, French, British, and even the Italians.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Milkias |first1=Paulos |title=The Battle of Adwa Reflections on Ethiopia's Historic Victory Against European Colonialism |date=2005 |pages=55 |publisher=Algora |isbn=978-0-87586-413-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pq1MBAAAQBAJ&dq=menelik+rifles&pg=PA96}}</ref> In 1884, Count {{Interlanguage link|Pietro Antonelli|it}}, the Italian envoy to [[Menelik II]], was able to import 50,000 Remington rifles and 10 million cartridges in exchange for 600 camels bearing gold, ivory and civet.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pankhurst |first=Richard |year=1982 |title=History of Ethiopian towns from the mid 19th century to 1935 |page=296 |publisher=Steiner }}</ref> After Italian sources dried up Menelik strove to increase his other imports, in the few years preceding the war the arms trade expanded considerably. In November 1893, Menelik's Swiss friend and advisor, [[Alfred Ilg]], went to Paris where he traded gold and ivory for 80,000 [[Fusil Gras mle 1874]], 33 pieces of artillery and 5,000 artillery shells. Menelik had also purchased 15,000 quick-firing rifles left over from the [[Franco-Hova Wars]] from the French arms trader [[Léon Chefneux]]. By the end of 1894, 30,000 [[Berdan rifle]]s and loads of ammunition were imported from Russia, and at least 250,000 cartridges were imported from [[French Somaliland|French Djibouti]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Richard Caulk |title="Between the Jaws of Hyenas": A Diplomatic History of Ethiopia (1876–1896) |year=2002 |publisher=Harrassowitz |page=413}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Carmichael |first1=Tim |title=Approaching Ethiopian History Addis Abäba and Local Governance in Harär, C.1900 to 1950 |date=2001 |publisher=Michigan State University: Department of History |location=East Lansing, MI|pages=38|doi=10.25335/140b-kv31}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Armies of the Adowa Campaign 1896 |first=Sean |last=McLachlan |year=2011 |page=35 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |location=Oxford |isbn=9781849084574}}</ref>