- [Narrator] Ethiopia, 1868.
The emperor Tewodros the second is dead.
The British have sacked his stronghold,
carrying off treasure and religious objects.
At the dead emperor's request,
they're taking Tewodros's son for his own protection.
The boy will never see his homeland again,
and there is no natural heir to the throne,
but the British do leave something behind, guns.
See on their way into Ethiopia,
they'd crossed the land of a minor noble,
an enemy of Tewodros, and he'd extracted promises
in exchange for letting them pass,
chiefly that the British sees no Ethiopian territory.
The British have abided by that.
And in thanks for safe passage
have left him a regiments worth of rifles
and a battery of artillery,
a stockpile that this noble
will use to become emperor Yohannes the fourth,
a man who will defend Ethiopia,
paving the way for its most famous king Menelik the second
and his stunning victory at Adwa.
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Emperor Yahannes the fourth is one of those figures
that gets skipped in a lot of histories.
And I'm afraid for time,
we're mostly going to have to gloss over him here as well.
But the view from 10,000 feet
is that during his 18 year reign,
he tried to unify the country
much as Tewodros the second hand
and had successfully fought off incursions from Egypt,
Italy, and Sudan
but it was the Italians that ultimately proved
the most dangerous,
because when Yohannes came to the throne in 1871,
the scramble for Africa was in full swing.
States all around Ethiopia were falling under the control
or sway of various powers.
And when the Suez Canal linked the Mediterranean
and the Red Sea in 1869,
the horn of Africa became hot territory.
France grabbed much of the Somali coast
to possibly threaten British shipping
and Britain wanted an ally in the region.
Also Egypt had seized a strip
of the Eritrean coast in the 1870s,
but by 1884, Egypt was bankrupt,
and effectively, if not officially run by the British.
So the British facilitated a treaty
saying that Egyptian troops could evacuate.,
the Egyptians would give back an Ethiopian city they'd taken
and Ethiopian goods could pass duty free
through the biggest coastal port.
Yohannes thought this would mean Ethiopia
would gradually take control of Eritrea,
but the British pull a switch
giving that strip to Italy instead.
Now Italy was attractive to Britain
because it was a new European power
that wanted colonial possessions,
it was anti French and the British worried
that if Ethiopia got a hold of the territory,
they'd either let the French operate there or get conquered.
During Yohannes' reign,
Italian troops pushed into Ethiopia from Eritrea,
seizing more cities and widening their strip of territory.
While Ethiopian troops defeated them multiple times,
Yohannes was preoccupied
with internal rebellions and a Sudanese invasion
in his north that he died fighting against in 1889,
at which point, the king of Shewa province,
Menelik the second declared himself emperor.
Of course Menelik had been around for quite a while.
As a young young man he'd been held as a captive of Tewodros
who actually liked him so much,
he treated Menelik like a son
and married the young prince to his daughter.
But when Menelik's father died,
he escaped and took up the leadership of the province.
Ever since,
he'd played the long game for the imperial throne.
And after he married his third wife Taytu Betul,
who was bold, where he was careful,
he finally made his play for power.
Plus when Yohannes died,
Menelik was in full revolt and likely headed for war anyway.
During the Italian crisis, he'd played both sides,
and for years had used European back channels
to secure modern weapons.
And one of the first things he did
upon ascending the throne was sign a treaty with Italy
defining the boundaries between Ethiopia and Eritrea
and securing the right of Ethiopian goods,
including firearms to pass through Eritrea.
Sensible, right?
Stops the fighting
and secures long term independence and peace.
Well, that would be true
if the treaties actually said the same thing.
The Amhara copy stated that Ethiopia
could use the Italian government
to conduct foreign relations, you know, could,
as in, it's optional.
But the Italian version of the treaty
said it was obliged to,
basically the Italians had tricked Menelik
into signing away his rights to conduct foreign policy.
And as soon as the ink was dry,
they went on to the other nations of Europe
and said that Ethiopia was now an Italian protectorate
and all relations with it must go through them.
And Europe just accepted that.
Menelik only found out about the difference the next year
when foreign heads of state started returning his letters
with apologies that it was in fact illegal for them
to deal with him directly.
But even then he was patient, played the long game
and focused on unifying the country.
Though he also responded
with a soft power charm offensive in Europe,
Ethiopian diplomats got photos of Menelik
wearing a giant crucifix printed in newspapers.
They spread stories about this amazing king,
head of the only Christian country in Africa
and a descendant of Solomon.
Wow, he sounds awesome.
These tactics of winning favor abroad
later became a common tactic in anti-colonial movements.
It was especially successful in Russia,
which maintained diplomatic contact
due to being angry at the Italians
for trying to cut them off
from a fellow Orthodox government.
Then in 1893, with his control of the country finally secure
and securing a promise of military aid from Russia,
he denounced the treaty and declared it invalid.
Italy escalated, seizing a shipment of Russian rifles.
Then in 1894, it struck deep into Northern Ethiopia,
seizing 7,000 square miles of territory.
The Italians under general Oreste Baratieri
stormed in expecting to exploit regional
and ethnic divisions, then overwhelm with modern firepower.
I mean, every report they'd received
was that nobles were deserting Menelik,
that the emperor was ill
and that as he rallied his armies, no one came.
They even approached the son of Yohannes,
the heir Menelik had you usurped
and offered to back his claim as emperor.
They learned too late
that all of this was a clever disinformation campaign.
In reality,
the Italian invasion had solidified Menelik's hand
and created the unity that he'd sought.
Even his enemies were joining,
realizing this was a fight for independence.
On December 7th, 1895,
soldiers at an Italian held fortress
deep in Ethiopian territory
looked down to find themselves surrounded
by 40,000 Ethiopian riflemen.
It was only Meneliks vanguard.
Baratieri tried to outlast Menelik,
knowing that such a big army
couldn't remain in the field indefinitely.
But, yeah, remember how the Italians
had hoped to exploit regional divisions?
Well, funny thing, the kingdom of Italy
had only unified in 1871.
It was all of 24 years old at the time,
and many of Baratieri's officers
had strong regional feelings
disliking him as growing up near Austria.
Also the faltering Italian government
was pushing for a big victory overseas
to stoke nationalist pride.
So they ordered Baratieri to attack.
Against his better judgment,
Baratieri ordered three brigades
to march toward Meneliks camp
and occupy three mountains creating a crossfire.
But the maps were bad, the terrain confusing
and the predawn darkness difficult.
One officer went up the wrong mountain
and upon being bullied
into repositioning by a senior officer,
blundered down slope straight into the Ethiopian army.
At 6:00 AM,
three hours before Baratieri's plan had called for it,
the shooting started.
Ethiopian artillery set up on high ridges,
pounding the brigade.
The Italian suddenly found they were fighting
a force a 100,000 strong,
10 times what they deployed
Meneliks army however hadn't expected battle
and was disorganized.
While half had modern rifles,
others had muskets or spears and shields.
They attacked pinning the Italian units
but getting repulsed time and again by Italian artillery.
Ethiopian forces began hesitating,
including empress Taytu's personal artillery unit.
She approached the faltering troops on foot
and drew back her veil,
both things that were never done mind you,
and proceeded to shout them back to their guns.
Soon other women had joined her encouragement and taunting,
their manhood challenged, no one dared retreat.
When the second Italian brigade
came to the aid of the first,
Menelik drove between them splitting the Italian force.
When the relief brigade retreated into a canyon,
Ethiopian cavalry rode them down.
And by noon Ethiopian forces had flanked and destroyed
both the third column and the reserve brigade,
both sides had taken heavy casualties,
but of the 10,000 Italians that took the field,
only 3000 survived.
It was a crushing defeat and effectively ended the war.
Within the year, Italy would sign a treaty
formally recognizing Ethiopian independence
and the other states of Europe followed.
Others saw that victory as well.
Other Africans and black people across the world
would look to the battle of Adwa as inspiration
and a source of pride, for not only did it show
that colonial control of Africa wasn't inevitable,
it proved that European claims
of racial superiority were untrue.
Indeed in later decades,
Ethiopia would become (upbeat ambient music)
a center for other African post-colonial movements
seeking independence.
First centuries, Ethiopia stood alone in Africa
looking to Europe for allies,
but by the dawn of the 20th century, it had become a leader
among fellow African states in the struggle against Europe.
What a journey.
And speaking of journeys,
have you heard about the wonderful deal that,
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