Of all the African powers, only the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia remained completely free from European domination by the end of the 19th century. This was no accident of history; Ethiopia secured its sovereignty by inflicting a decisive and humiliating defeat upon the Italian invaders at Adowa (or Adwa) on March 1, 1896. The battle at Adowa was, at the time, the greatest defeat inflicted upon a European army by an African army since the time of Hannibal, and its consequences were felt well into the 20th century. As an example of colonial warfare on an epic scale, it cannot be surpassed. As an example of the twin follies of arrogance and underestimation of one’s enemies, it should never be forgotten.

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Ethiopia has existed as a political entity since biblical times. The ancient Greeks gave the name ‘burnt face’ to the peoples who inhabited the little known regions south of Egypt, and it is from the Greek that the name Ethiopia is derived. Bisected by the great Rift Valley that runs the length of the African continent, Ethiopia encompasses fertile mountainous highlands of moderate climate and unbearably hot lowlands that fall below sea level in some places.

Christianity came to the Ethiopians in the 4th century AD and was adopted with a fanatical passion. A rich, sophisticated and thriving culture developed among the Ethiopians, producing among its many treasures beautiful illuminated Bibles in the ancient language of Geez, the only written language native to Africa. The advent and aggressive spread of Islam, however, drove the Ethiopians deeper into their isolated mountainous highlands, and there they remained for the next 1,200 years.

In 1868 the outside world encroached upon the mountain kingdom in the form of 5,000 British and Indian troops sent to chastise the negus, or emperor, Tewodros II for his detention of a number of European envoys and missionaries. On April 13, ‘Mad King Theodore,’ as the British press soon dubbed the ill-fated negus, ended the affair by shooting himself, after being abandoned by his own nobles and decisively defeated at Magdala by the superior weaponry of the British. The British then departed, leaving behind a power vacuum that led to a four-year struggle for power among the feudal nobility.

The eventual victory went to Kassai, the ras, or lord, of Tigre, who had used his gift of surplus British rifles and ammunition to good effect. Negus Yohannes IV, as he proclaimed himself, next had to contend with growing pressures from a variety of external sources. During the 1870s, Ethiopia repelled repeated attacks from the Egyptian armies of Ismael Pasha, whose dreams of empire had led him to occupy the Red Sea port of Massawa, thus blocking Ethiopia’s only significant access to the outside world. Yohannes’ armies inflicted terrible defeats upon the Egyptians, most notably at Gura on March 7-9, 1876, when 20,000 well-equipped Egyptians, led by European and American mercenaries, were routed.

In 1885, another foreign power occupied Massawa. Italy had been trading along the Red Sea coast for some time, but under the government of Prime Minister Francesco Crispi, Italian ambitions turned toward the acquisition of a colonial empire like those of Britain and France. With the consent of the British government, with whom Crispi had fostered friendly relations, Italy garrisoned Massawa. The Ethiopians found this foreign occupation intolerable, and Yohannes encouraged his Tigrean subjects to harass any Italian forces attempting to move out from Massawa into Eritrea.

The Italians steadily expanded into the hinterland of Eritrea after occupying Massawa, leading to a number of clashes, some of which verged upon the comic. During a fight at Sabarguma in March 1885, the appearance of balloons released by the Italians was enough to panic the attacking force of Ethiopians. In another incident, electric spotlights so terrified a Tigrean force attacking at night that the men froze, petrified, then fled, while the Italians laughed at their foes. Matters took a more serious turn, however, on January 26, 1887, when a column of 550 Italians, moving to relieve the garrison at Saati, was trapped in a narrow valley and overrun, leaving 430 dead and 82 wounded. That incident was decried in Italy as ‘The Dogali Massacre.’

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