Battle of Adwa

There's then the war in the Sudan, which spills over.

The Mahdi, our old friend General Gordon, and it only ends really at the end of the century under a guy called Menelik II, and he really establishes himself as a kind of Abyssinian hero by beating the Italians at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, which is seen as a kind of landmark moment, humiliation of a European army by, by an African one.

But all that lies in the future.

So Napier and co. march back to the coast, their bands playing, their flags flying.

He preferred to wait until he had assembled an army of ninety thousand Abyssinians, many of whom had been trained by the French and equipped through French courtesy with modern rifles and artillery.

Then in the famous Battle of Adwa, March first, eighteen ninety-six, Menelik routed two small Italian armies, each about five thousand strong.

It was more than a defeat.

Two Italian generals were captured with more than two thousand of their troops, and more than six thousand were killed or wounded.

Italy paid Menelik an indemnity of about two million dollars, recognized his absolute independence, and relinquished the province which Italian forces had occupied.

Perhaps this disaster averted one even more serious.

The German secret documents show that before the Battle of Adwa, there was some danger that France and Russia might take up arms to prevent Italy from conquering Abyssinia.

Russia was keenly interested and prominent in Abyssinian negotiations, partly because of the traditional sympathy with the legend of Prester John, partly because of the motives which the German Chancellor keenly described in a dispatch to Bulow.

Africa success stories.

The prime minister of Barbados described it as the new battle of Adwa, where Ethiopia actually wins.

And it's not just Ethiopia.

Africa wins.

Right.

The Battle of Adwa in 1896.

It completely rewrites the rules of engagement in East Africa.

It was a total disaster for them,