Editing Battle of Adwa (section)

== Aftermath ==
[[File:Italian prisoners Ethiopia 1897 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Italian prisoners of war waiting for repatriation, March 1897]]
Emperor Menelik decided not to follow up on his victory by attempting to drive the routed Italians out of their colony. The victorious Emperor limited his demands to little more than the abrogation of the 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 [[Famines in Ethiopia|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.<ref>Marcus, ''Menelik II'', p. 176.</ref> At the time, Menelik claimed a shortage of cavalry horses with which to harry the fleeing soldiers. Chris Prouty observes that "a failure of nerve on the part of Menelik has been alleged by both Italian and Ethiopian sources."<ref>Prouty, ''Empress T'aytu'', p. 161.</ref> 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"<ref>Lewis, ''Fashoda'', p. 120.</ref> 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 3 October 1935, after the [[League of Nations]]'s weak response to the [[Abyssinia Crisis]], the Italians launched a new military campaign endorsed by [[Benito Mussolini]], the [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War]]. This time the Italians employed vastly superior military technology such as tanks and aircraft, as well as [[chemical warfare]], and the Ethiopian forces were defeated by May 1936. Following the war, Italy occupied Ethiopia for five years (1936–41), before eventually being driven out during World War II by [[British Empire]] forces and Ethiopian ''[[Arbegnoch]]'' [[Guerilla warfare|guerillas]].<ref>{{cite book|first=A.D.|last=Roberts|page=740|title=The Cambridge History of Africa Vol 7|year=1975 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-22505-1}}</ref>