Book II: Corbett's The Battle of Adowa (In Progress)

EDITOR CORBETT:
THE GLORY OF THE KING
Book Two: The Battle Of Adowa (In Progress)
PART ONE:
1. Before Adowa

BEFORE THEODORE'S dramatic suicide on Easter Monday, April 13, 1868, the most important of the minor kings was Menelik of Shoa, the area around present-day Addis Ababa.
Menelik had been captured by Theodore in 1855 when the emperor overran Shoa. The teenager had escaped several years later from the fortress at Magdala, and with the aid of the Gallas, who hated the emperor, he had regained the Shoa throne that belonged to his father.
Now Menelik had a very strong army, but was too prudent to attack Theodore himself; he stood back and waited for the British to defeat the emperor.
Following Theodore's death, Ethiopia had no emperor for three years and Menelik's ambition to gain the throne was impeded by other challengers -- Wagshum Gobaza, of Zagwe blood, who had proclaimed himself emperor under the throne name of Takle Giorgis II and Tigre's Prince Kassa.
Kassa had aided British commander Sir Robert Napier during his rescuing expedition of a number of Theodore-held prisoners from Magdala. When Napier left Ethiopia in May 1868, he gave the Tigrean prince guns, ammunitions and military supplies. These arms strengthened Kassa's 12,000 troops and they were easily able to defeat Gobaze's 60,000-man army in an 1871 battle.
Menelik, who had shown his sense of destiny by taking the throne name of the son of Solomon and Sheba, decided against challenging Prince Kassa, who declared himself King of Kings of Ethiopia and was crowned at Aksum, taking the throne name of Yohannes IV (John). While Emperor John had fought his way to the emperorship, Menelik ignored the struggles in the North and, acting on French advice, methodically set about conquering the rich Gallas country to the south and west of his kingdom. He bought modern equipment for his troops, and French adventurers, including the famed poet Rimbaud, did a furious business in outdated arms, which they bought in Europe for five-six francs and sold in Shoa for 40.
Although the new Negus was as brave as Theodore, possessing his virtues, but none of his vices, he never was given an opportunity to show his ability to develop the country.
The travellers of his generation were no longer freelancers like Bruce and Plowden, but bagmen with machines and western devices made in Birmingham and Leipzig and Lille and Brussels, and with a supply of blank treaty forms in their luggage. Through the whole of his reign he was almost ceaselessly distracted by the aspirations, military and commercial, of outside powers.
Egypt's ambitious and crafty Khedive Ismail, who harbored plans of conquerng Ethiopia, seized the whole of the Red Sea shore from under the shadowy suzerainty of Turkey, and by 1875 he had encircled John's territory on the east and south, and had occupied Berbera and Harar. He decided to attack John from the north, but the Ethiopians, fighting in the mountain country which suited them best, routed his two expeditions in 1875 and 1876.
The 1882 revolt of Arabi Pasha led to the bombardment of Alexandria and the British occupation. The Mahdist rebellion followed and by 1883 all the Sudan south of Khartoum was in hands of the Dervishes.
These disturbing neighbors didn't worry John at first; indeed, their victory might well prove an advantage, for on the strength of it in the British -- on whom the death of Gordon at Khartoum in 1884 seemed to make a disheartening impression -- advised the Egyptians to abandon all their southern conquests. When they evacuated Harar and the coast, it looked as if the obstacles to Ethiopian aggrandizment were melting unaided.
But they were only to be replaced by another menace. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 had turned the Red Sea from a cul-de-sac into a highway and had given a new importance to the coast.
The scramble for Africa was beginning, and the powers were becoming practised at unfurling flags.
The unwitting Emperor John was launched into the middle of an eternal triangle: Britain, France and Italy.
2. The Italians
IN 1869, a private Italian company had bought a trading station called Asab and a few years later it was taken over by the Rubbatino Shipping Company.
In 1882, the Italian government bought the port from the Company and sent a mission to Menelik in Shoa to conclude a trade treaty and to obtain his help in improving their colony.
As a late comer to the game, Italy was hungry for a piece of African territory, and Ethiopia, known to the Europeans as Abyssinia, with its interminable problems and occasional power vacuums, seemed to be ready for the picking.
In 1884, the British, for a short time, occupied the coast to be known as Eritrea, in order to evacuate certain Egyptian garrisons marooned by the Madhi in Sudan.
They sought Ethiopian help by promising Emperor John the ex-Egyptian territories behind Massawa.
The next year -- 1885 -- the British left, and at the same time encouraged and approved of Italy's occupation of further coastal towns, including Massawa, a move which brought them dangerously near to the newly-promised boundaries of Tigre.
John didn't object when the Italian staked a claim on the hot, humidly miserable lowlands along the Red Sea, but the situation changed abruptly when the Italians began trying to edge into the Ethiopian highlands.
Menelik had accepted guns and aid from the Italians in Somali, but he stood aloof as John challenged the encroachment from Massawa.
Skirmishes with the Ethiopians began to take place on the northern border and guerilla tactics, led by the mighty Ras Alula, wiped out the Italians at Dogli on Wednesday, January 26, 1887.
The defeat resulted in the evacuation of all up-country outposts.
The news trouble Rome.
Reinforcements were sent to Massawa.
Meanwhile, the British, disturbed at the prospect to war, sent Sir Gerald Portal to Shoa to try to preserve the peace, but to no avail.
The Italians marched inland, but before any battle took place they seemed to decide on new tactics.
They would bargain with Menelik against John.
3. A Ras Named Alula
ALTHOUGH THE BRITISH seemingly were willing to give away land, which didn't belong to them, to the Italians, a Tigrean ras, named Alula, stood his ground.
Alula was John's right-hand man, who sarcastically told the British emissary, Sir Gerald Portal: "The Italians can take Ethiopian land, but only after I become governor of Rome."
The son of a farmer, Alula, didn't have the advantages of the wealthy or influential, but his hard work moved him into a position of power. He would become one of Ethiopia's greatest leaders.
In later years, Portal would remember him, admirably, despite the fact, Alula had once imprisoned the British envoy.

Gerald Portal: He (Alula) was dressed in a long dark robe of purple silk, with, I think, some gold embroidery work on it. His head was uncovered save for his own curly hair, which he wore rather longer than was usual with Abyssinians, and not plaited in rows. His complexion was darker than most men of the Tigre mountains, being of a rich chocolate color. But, whatever, the color, the owner of that powerful, cruel and intelligent face would be bound to make his name known in any country, whether as a leader or destroyer of men. There's another striking peculiarity -- a pair of gleaming tawny eyes of much lighter color than the skin of his face. To these flashing yellow orbs whose effect was aided by a brilliant row of white regular teeth. I had seen such eyes in the head of a tiger and of a leopard, but never in that of a human being. On one side of the ras, on the divan, lay his curved sword, and on the other was a Martini-Henry carbine.

In Wylde's Abyssinia, the writer describes Alula like "an English gentleman, adding "I knew him for 20 years ... he never persecuted any man for his religion, which is a remarkable record."

Emperor Johnwas also furious at the British intrusion into Ethiopian land rights while encouraging and approving Italy's real estate grab. He wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, with these words: "How can you say that I shall hand over to the Italians the country which Jesus Christ gave to me? ... If your wish were to make peace between us, it should be when they are in their country and I in mine."
John was also extremely bitter at Menelik's refusal to help against the Italians.

In 1888, Emperor John from the northern province of Tigre had tried to gain a close relationship with the Shoan king, Menelik, by proposing a marriage between John's 12-year-old son, Araya, and Menelik's six-year-old daughter, Zawditu.
Menelik, at first, objected because he believed his daughter was too young.
On the wedding day, which was filled with pomp and splendor, Zawditu's gold cloth-covered tent was surrounded by some of the most beautiful women in Ethiopia. Cannons covered the area with thick smoke, and through the haze, came a procession of at least 500 slaves, 5,000 cattle and thousands of individual costly articles.
However, before the year was out, Araya died of poisoning, and a conciliation between the North and the South disintegrated because Menelik and the Italians were still gun dealing.
The real riff between Menelik and John festered into an open wound when the Emperor named his illegitimate son by his brother's wife, Mangasha, as his heir and successor, instead of Menelik.
The king of Shoa would have to wait for another day before ascending to the throne.
4. The Day John Died
ON THURSDAY, January 12, 1888, the Dervishes had come to Gondar, destroying all its Christian churches and killing both the clergy and people.
When Emperor John heard of the slaughter, he sent Negus Tekle Haimanot of Gojjam as his avenging angel, and his 100,000 men defeated them on the Field of Metema.
The ruler of Sudan sent out 80,000 men, under the leadership of Angah, and this time Tekle Haimanot was defeated and his daughter captured.

John wanted Ethiopia to have one religion and he decreed that all Moslems accept the Christian faith, and he even forced them to take communion. Those who refused were punished severely and sent away to the Sudan or regions around the Red Sea as refugees. As a result, these refugees wanted to attack the emperor at every opportune time.

After King Tekle Haimanot lost, he became dissatisfied and joined with Menelik and refused to cooperate with Emperor John, who proposed to go to Gojjam and Shoa to unite them through disciplinary action, or, if necessary, by force, but his advisers urged him against fighting with his own brothers while the country had outside enemies.
He listened to their advice and on Saturday, March 9, 1889, he went to Metema.
John had personally taken to the field along with Ras Mangasha, Ras Mikael and Ras Alula, who had been responsible for fighting the Italians above Massawa.
During the March battle, the Ethiopians smashed the Sudanese fortifications, but a stray Mahdist bullet struck John in the stomach.
At dawn on Monday, Match 11, 1889, he gathered all his chiefs around him and solemnly acknowledged Mangasha as his son and heir and put him in their care, particularly his trusted ras, Alula.
And then he died.
5. A Very Gross Act
JOHN's FAMILY, along with the bishops, placed the Emperor's body in a coffin.
However, the Dervishes seized it; took the body out of the coffin and beheaded it.
His head was taken to their leader in The Sudan, Anduruhman Calif Abdulahi, together with a gold watch, a gold-covered Bible, a letter that had been sent to him by Queen Victoria, and a pair of eyeglasses.
The Calif prepared a great feast and put the emperor's head on a stick and paraded it through his marketplace while the Calif rode on a camel, demonstrating his victory.

STEPHEN MENGESHA: My great grandfather, Emperor Yohannes IV, went to battle against the Dervish. He ruled from 1872 to 1889. The Dervish were then in power, in what is present-day Sudan. Yohannes lost his life as the infidels tried to conquer his Christian kingdom. He was killed by the Dervishes of the Mahdi in 189 at the Great Battle of Metema. Remember the movie, Khartoum? Well, when the Muslims -- the Dervishes -- reached the city of Gondar, they pillaged it. They burned all the churches and tried to convert the priests to the religion of Islam. Emperor Yohannes was wounded and died. The Dervishes came and exhumed the Emperor's body and once it was identified, decapitated him and put his head on a stick and were dancing in Khartoum. It was a big celebration for Islam, in slaying the Christian king.

It had been a fitting end for the Emperor to die at the moment of victory; but it was a terrible misfortune for this country.
At the time, Ethiopia was surrounded by enemies: John had disposed of the Dervishes, but the Italians remained at Massawa on the northeast frontier while in the south, Menelik of Shoa had allied himself with the Italians.
Menelik sent his man, Seyum, into Tigre while General Baldissera, rushed down and occupied the northern towns of Asmera and Keren.
When the old warrior, Alula, returned from Metema, he hunted down Seyum.
Although Mangasha and Alula, considered to be his "mind and arm," realized that three of their northern territories were in the grip of the Italians, they began to gradually assert their authority in Tigre.
6. The Rise Of Menelik
NO SOONER did the news of John's death on the Field of Metema reach Shoa than both Menelik and the Italians took advantage of the anarchy which followed.
Proclaiming himself Emperor on Tuesday, March 26, 1889, Menelik had no serious rival. He was able to trace his descent to the daughter of King David (1508-40), meaning he belonged to the Solomonic line; he was also the most outstanding personality among the rases; and the best argument of all, he had the Shoan army at his back.
The other claimant, Ras Mangahsa in Tigre, had no material advantage to offer.
With customary prudence, however, he determined not to act alone, and once turned for support to his Italian allies; here, obviously, was an opportunity for negotiation.
However, the Italians and Menelik would eventually go to war over the interpretation of a clause in their "peace and trade" alliance -- the Treaty of Wuchale (Uccialli).
The war would be Ethiopia's greatest military triumph and be the first - and only time - an African nation defeated a European colonial power.
The Battle of Adowa of 1896 was fought less than 20 miles from Aksum, where the Ark of the Covenant, the Very Essence of God, supposedly lies in a chapel next to St. Mary of Zion Church.
Aksum in the province of Tigre was also the sacred place where Ethiopian emperors were anointed and crowned for generations. Menelik, who was from Shoa and therefore an "enemy" of Tigre, for they believed they had the absolute right to rule Ethiopia, had to wait for his coronation day in the holy city.
7. A Place Called New Flower
FROM THE late 1870s, Menelik began to show interest in the region in which Addis Ababa is located and headquartered the royal camp at several sites in the area.
His first major settlement was established on the slopes of Mount Wuchacha, west of the present settlement, but he soon moved northwards, and set up his camp near the summit of Entoto Mountain, a choice determined by strategic considerations. It was here he created a palace.
The next important building to be constructed at Entoto was the Church of Maryam, a circular structure, the foundations for which were laid in 1885.
It was in this Church of Maryam that Menelik was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in November 1889. Even today, there's an effigy of the old monarch on its walls.
Entoto, as Menelik's capital, rapidly acquired a considerable population.
At the turn of the century, the British game-hunter and ethnographer, P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, described it as a "populous city," while his compatriot, Herbert Vivian, believed that it "must have comprised 50,000 souls."
The site, which had initially been selected as a fortress, wasn't suitable as a capital for more peaceful times.
Because of inclement weather much of the time on Entoto, Menelik and Queen Taitu used to ride down to the Plain of Filwoha - Amharic for "hot springs." Thermal springs, literally bubbled from the ground.
They paid their first visit there in 1885.
Queen Taitu asked her husband to give land on which to build her house. Taitu decided the place should be known as Addis Ababa, meaning New Flower.
Work on Menelik's palace began early in 1889, some months before his coronation as Emperor at Entoto, and the first stone buildings were erected in 1891. Menelik's original palace at Addis Ababa,however, was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1892, but was soon rebuilt. No fewer than 50 structures in the palace compound were erected within three months, and by 1894 the entire palace complex was virtually restored.
8. The Monarch Watchers
THE NEW emperor was a remarkable man, according to I.G. Edmonds in his informative book, Ethiopia -- Land of the Conquering Lion of Judah.

EDMONDS: He was described as being very dark of skin but tall and regally imposing. As a child he had been imprisoned on Amba Magdala by Emperor Theodore because he was of Solomonic blood and a possible candidate for the throne. Theodore was fond of the young man and treated him well, but Menelik -- conscious of his own destiny -- managed to escape from Magdala two years before Napier stormed the citadel. He had made his way to Shoa where he was sheltered by the Gallas, who hated Theodore. Through the influence of Galla friends, Menelik conquered Kaffa, a Galla province adjoining Uganda and Sudan. Other independent provinces and principalities along his borders also fell to the Ethiopia monarch.

After Emperor John was killed at Metema, Edmonds claimed that Ras Mangasha, whose army had been battered from the war with Sudanese rebels, didn't have a chance to challenge the fresh armies of Menelik or his right-hand man and cousin, Ras Makonnen. Also the position of the Ethiopia Orthodox Church was important. They would Menelik against an illegitimate son. So Ras Mangasha swallowed his disappointment and was content to remain as King of Tigre province.

Another monarch watcher, George Berkeley, who wrote a book, The Campaign of Adowa and The Rise of Menelik, in 1902, had his own views on Menelik.

BERKELEY: The most remarkable fact about Menelik's career is that although he has dominated a fighting nation like Ethiopia, he is himself by no means a warrior. Some Italian writers have even called him a coward, but his own description of himself is probably more accurate -- namely, that he is a man of peace who has several times been compelled to fight. It is in organizational and in diplomatic arts that he excels; he is careful, crafty, and perservering, the type of man to succeed in this world; and he is said to believe in his destiny.

The Menelik-era writer also related a story, told to him by an Italian army officer.

BERKELEY: He told me about Menelik's christening. His father, Ailu, came from the old royal stock that traced its descent to Menelik I, son of Solomon by the Queen of Sheba. Ailu was the oldest on of a great chief named Sahle Selassie, under whom Shoa attained its highest pitch of power. Now, Sahle Selassie's own name had been Menelik, but had he been warned by a monk to change it, or he would suffer great misfortune; he should,however, said the monk, call the son of his first-born by the name of Menelik, and the child so christened would one day be the conqueror of all Ethiopia and the greatest of all rulers since the days of Menelik I, son of Solomon. As soon as the slave girl gave birth to a boy, he was named Menelik. Throughout his life, Menelik had been attended by good fortune, so it seems as if this prophecy has been completely fulfilled. But if you're interested in his character, no description will have a better idea of it than the events that surround the Treaty of Wuchale (Uccialli).
9. A 'Lady MacBeth'
BIOGRAPHER LEONARD MOSLEY called Queen Taitu, Menelik's consort, a "Lady MacBeth."
The daughter of the ancient ruling house of Gondar, Taitu, in her youth was said to have had very light skin and to have been surprisingly beautiful.
On her 13th birthday, she was married to one of Theodore's generals, but Taitu deserted him after the fall of Magdala and married another general before she was 14.
He wasn't quite romantic enough for her and she deserted him to marry the governor of a northern province. At this time she came to the attention of Yohannes (John), who had her husband thrown in a dungeon, but Taitu -- who preferred to pick her lovers -- fled from the emperor to turn ip later married again to an officer in Menelik's army.
When Menelik saw her he got rid of his third wife, arranged a quick divorce for Taitu, and she became Queen of Shoa.
In Taitu, Menelik not only found a lover and a wife, but also a counsellor as adept at intrigue as he was.
It was said in later years that a lot of Menelik's success was due to his consort's shrewd advice.

Although Taitu had named her husband's new capital, Addis Ababa, it really was Menelik who picked the site, according to his chronicler, because his grandfather, King Sahle Selassie, had once predicted his gradson would some day return to build a city on the spot. Sahle apparently made the prediction after a local resident had given the king a horn of tej, the honey mead favored by the Ethiopians.
10. A Ras Named Makonnen
IF RAS ALULA was Mangasha of Tigre's "mind and arm," then Ras Makonnen's "pillar of strength." He was also the Emperor's special companion since he was a youngster and his first cousin.
Makonnen was born at Darafo Maryam in the Gola district on Saturday, May 8, 1852 to Princess Tenagne Worq, the daughter of Negus Sahle Selassie of Shoa and Dejazmatch Walda Mikael of the Doba and Manz nobility.
He stayed with his father for about 14 years during the time, Menelik, the son of Makonnen's uncle, Negus Haile Melakot, was still only the king of Shoa.
His father, Walda Mikael, then took him to Menelik and said: "Let this my son, your aunt's offspring. grow up with you in your place."
Menelik made Makonnen his special companion, quite apart from the obvious family ties.
He restored the ancient province of Harar to Ethiopia in 1886 and rose to the rank of ras in April 1890, after he returned from a celebrated Rome visit.

Before Yohannes' death, he suspected the Ottoman hold on Egypt was slipping. He was right. Sudan revolted under the guidance of the Mahdi -- the Guided One. As the government of Egypt collapsed, Britain moved in to keep order and became involved in fighting the Mahdi in Sufan. British troops were tied up in Egypt and also in sections of South Africa, so the British didn't try to hold Harar province in Ethiopia but evacuated Egyptian forces there in 1884.
The Emir Abdullah, son of the Arabic ruler of Harar before the Egyptians took control, was left in charge of the province.
Menelik, whose province of Shoa adjoined Harar, sent the Emir a message. He pointed out that Harar had always been considered an Ethiopian province. He was agreeable for the Abdullah to administer the provincial government, but the former land tax must be reinstated and paid to the king of Shoa.
The Emir sent Menelik a turban and a prayer rug along with an insulting letter suggesting the king of Shoa convert to Islam, "for only then will I consider you my master," he added. Menelik removed Abdullad without difficulty and then place Makonnen in charge of Harar in 1888.
In July 1892, a son was born to Makonnen near Harar. His name was Tafari and he would become the most famous emperor in Ethiopian history -- Haile Selassie I, the great-grandfather of Prince Stephen Mengesha.
11. Roman In The Emperor's Court
THE ITALIANS were opportunists.
In fact, they had their own man inside Menelik's Court.
His name was Count Antonelli.
A real charmer, with connections, for his uncle was the celebrated Cardinal Antonelli.
He had seen from the moment he arrived in Shoa, the future possibilities of the little kingdom.
With a keen grasp of the situation, he had become a good friend of Menelik's Queen Taitu and when he brought the monarch more tangible products of European civilization, he didn't forget Taitu, providing her with Parisian shoes and stockings.
The ambitious Antonelli was a firm believer in an alliance with Shoa. He had negotiated the first treaty in which Menelik was given rifles and ammunition and urged to defy Emperor John.
Now the prince of Tigre was dead and within a week in March 1889, Count Antonelli told Menelik he couldn't ask Rome to assist him without some kind of a "treaty of trade and friendship."
That document, to be known as the Treaty of Wuchale, named after a hamlet north of Dessie, and its disputed terms would be a lynchpin for future Ethiopian history.
It would ultimately become the immediate cause for the war that ended in the Battle of Adowa.
The bickering was just about to begin.