The Battle of Adwa
Emperor Menelik II's army crushes an Italian invasion force in the mountains of Tigray, and Ethiopia stays independent through the Scramble for Africa.
- The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
- Battle of Adwa — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- A History of Ethiopia — Harold G. Marcus, University of California Press (2002)
- The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History, 1570–1860 — Mohammed Hassen, Cambridge University Press (1990)
In the 1880s Europe’s powers were dividing Africa among themselves. Italy, a newcomer to empire, had taken the Red Sea port of Massawa in 1885 and in 1890 created the colony of Eritrea. It wanted Ethiopia too.
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
The treaty that lied
In 1889 Menelik II, the king of Shewa who had just become emperor, signed the Treaty of Wuchale with Italy. Article 17 of the Amharic text said Ethiopia could use Italy’s diplomatic services to deal with other powers. The Italian text said it must, and Italy told the world that Ethiopia was now its protectorate. When Menelik discovered this, he protested to the European powers and, in 1893, renounced the treaty. Empress Taytu is remembered for her fierce opposition to any concession.
- The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- A History of Ethiopia — Harold G. Marcus, University of California Press (2002)
Menelik had prepared. He bought tens of thousands of modern rifles, including from France and Russia, and even from Italy itself in earlier years. He also used his relations with regional lords, including former rivals in Tigray and Gojjam, to raise an army from across the empire.
- The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
The battle
In late 1895 Italian forces pushed south into Tigray. After early Ethiopian victories at Amba Alage and the siege of the Italian fort at Mekele, the two armies faced each other near the town of Adwa. Under pressure from Rome to win, the Italian commander, General Oreste Baratieri, ordered a night advance on 1 March 1896. His brigades lost contact with each other in the mountainous terrain and were attacked one by one.
- The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
- Battle of Adwa — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Britannica puts the Italian force at about 14,500 men, Italian and Eritrean askari, against an Ethiopian army of roughly 100,000. By the end of the day the Italians had lost more than 6,000 dead, slightly over half of them Italian, and 3,000–4,000 were taken prisoner. Ethiopian losses were heavy too, with estimates of 4,000 to 7,000 killed. Other historians give somewhat different figures, but all agree it was a crushing defeat, the worst suffered by any colonial army in Africa in that era.
- Battle of Adwa — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
What it changed
In October 1896 the Treaty of Addis Ababa annulled Wuchale and recognised Ethiopia’s full independence. Britain, France and others soon sent envoys and signed border treaties. In Italy the government of Francesco Crispi fell. Ethiopia became the only African state, apart from Liberia, to keep its independence through the Scramble for Africa, and the only one to win it on the battlefield.
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
- A History of Ethiopia — Harold G. Marcus, University of California Press (2002)
The news electrified Black people around the world. Ethiopia’s name was already sacred to the “Ethiopianist” African churches and to Black Christians in the Americas, who read Psalm 68:31, “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God”, as a prophecy of African redemption. After Adwa, Ethiopia became a living symbol of Black freedom, and its green, yellow and red became the colours of many African flags after independence.
- The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
- Exodus! Heirs and Pioneers, Rastafari Return to Ethiopia — Giulia Bonacci, University of the West Indies Press (2015)
The other side of the empire
Adwa also secured an empire that Menelik was building by conquest. In the 1880s and 1890s his armies took the lands of the Oromo, Sidama, Wolaita, Kaffa, Somali and others in the south and west, roughly doubling Ethiopia’s size. Many campaigns were brutal, such as the conquest of Wolaita in 1894, and in much of the south land was handed to northern soldiers, settlers and the church, turning local farmers into tenants. Those conquests made Menelik’s Ethiopia much of the shape it is today.
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History, 1570–1860 — Mohammed Hassen, Cambridge University Press (1990)
- A History of Ethiopia — Harold G. Marcus, University of California Press (2002)
That is why Adwa is both unifying and divisive. Many Ethiopians see it as the shared victory of all the empire’s peoples, including the Oromo generals and cavalry who fought there. Others insist the story must include the people Menelik conquered. Arguments over Menelik’s statue in Addis Ababa, and over how Adwa Day is celebrated, are really arguments about what kind of country Ethiopia should be.
- The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History, 1570–1860 — Mohammed Hassen, Cambridge University Press (1990)
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
Adwa is the victory of all Ethiopians, peasants, nobles, Christians, Muslims, Oromo cavalry and highland infantry together, over European racism. It proved Africans could defeat Europe and inspired anti-colonial and Black movements worldwide, from the Ethiopianist churches of South Africa to Marcus Garvey.
- The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
Menelik, the hero of Adwa, was at the same time conquering the Oromo and other southern peoples with great violence, seizing land and imposing northern settlers and landlords. Celebrating Adwa should not erase that; for some, Ethiopia itself was the empire their ancestors resisted.
- The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History, 1570–1860 — Mohammed Hassen, Cambridge University Press (1990)
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
In Italy, Adwa was a national humiliation that toppled the Crispi government and fed the desire for revenge that Mussolini exploited in 1935. Historians see it as one of the few decisive African victories over a colonial army, made possible by Menelik's diplomacy, modern rifles and sheer numbers.
- The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
- Battle of Adwa — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Why it matters today
Adwa is the proudest day in the national calendar. 1 March, Adwa Victory Day, is a public holiday, marked by crowds in Addis Ababa dressed as the warriors of 1896 and by songs such as Teddy Afro's "Tikur Sew" ("Black Man"). It underpins the conviction that Ethiopia bows to no one. But Adwa also raises the question of Menelik's own conquests, and how it is commemorated has become part of the argument about what Ethiopia is.