While fending off Italian incursions, Yohannes also had to deal with his African neighbors. The rise of the Mahdi Mohammed Ahmed in Sudan led to conflict between the Mahdist and Ethiopian forces. On March 12, 1889, they clashed at Gallabat in southern Sudan, both sides invoking their own God to grant them victory. In a battle more reminiscent of the medieval Crusades than the later part of the 19th century, Yohannes was killed and his army fled. Within months, Ras Menelik of Shoa, Yohannes’ great rival, was proclaimed negus.

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Crowned as Menelik II (the first Menelik had been the son of King Solomon of Israel and the queen of Sheba), Sahle Miriam, Ras Menelik of Shoa, was intelligent, shrewd and ruthless, all virtues which had helped him to prosper in the cutthroat world of Ethiopia’s feudal politics. As a young man, Menelik had been held hostage by Tewodros, and during his captivity he had absorbed a good deal of Tewodros’ fascination with the technology of the outside world. He had also seen with his own eyes the effects of disunity upon the empire and the rout of the negus’ armies by the British. Menelik realized that Ethiopia’s continued sovereignty would rely upon national unity and military strength. Since the most dangerous enemies would more than likely be European, Menelik decided that the procurement of modern weaponry was essential.

With funds from the sale of ivory, gold, silver, musk and slaves as well as from taxes, the negus embarked upon a major effort to import modern rifles and artillery via the French-controlled port of Djibouti, along with whatever he could cajole out of the Italians in Massawa. Over the next few years, tens of thousands of magazine-loading rifles, millions of rounds of ammunition and dozens of modern rifled artillery guns were brought by caravan on a tortuous route from the coastal lowlands to Menelik’s new capital at Addis Ababa. By the mid-1890s, Menelik was able to field an army in which the majority of his warriors were armed with the best weapons that Europe and the United States could offer.

The Italians had been cultivating friendship with Menelik for years by supplying him with rifles. When he came to the throne, their support seemed to have payed off–surely, Rome reasoned, this new negus would compliantly surrender sovereignty to his former sponsors. On May 2, 1889, Menelik signed the Treaty of Wichale (or Uccialli), in which he ceded to the Italians part of Yohannes’ native province of Tigre and some of the adjacent highlands.

In a Machiavellian subterfuge, the Italian government touted the Treaty of Wichale as legal proof that Menelik had ceded sovereignty to Rome. The trick was eminently simple, the kind that had been played on native rulers by European traders and settlers for centuries. As far as Rome was concerned, Menelik was little more than an unsophisticated barbarian.

Article XVII of the treaty, concerning Ethiopia’s diplomatic representation outside of Africa, had been presented for signing as two documents, one written in Italian and one written in Amharic. The Italian version of Article XVII stated, ‘The Emperor consents to use the Italian government for all the business he does with all the other Powers or Governments.’ Article XVII of the Amharic version read somewhat differently: ‘The Emperor has the option to communicate with the help of the Italian government for all matters that he wants with the kings of Europe.’ Needless to say, the Italian negotiators failed to inform the Ethiopian court of the none-too-subtle differences between the two versions of the treaty.

Menelik, however, was at heart a nationalist, and subservience to any power was anathema to him. When he discovered the subterfuge in the treaty, Menelik rejected it. Despite a belated attempt by the Italians to buy him off with a gift of 2 million cartridges, he continued to characterize the Italians as cheats. The European powers remained deaf to his complaints, however, and all but Turkey, Russia and France accepted the Italian version of affairs.

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