760 000 ethiopians gave up their lives to sustain ethiopia's freedom
and here's how it all took place ethiopia has an extensive and well-documented history on the
global scale and at some point in their history they're referred to as amongst the top four super
powers of the world bodybagging everyone that dared a colonial conquest upon their land but
something different happened in 1936 but before we get there let us flash back 49 years prior in
the year 1887 where king menelik ii of ethiopia agreed to offer up his land to the italians to
carry out whatever agenda that they may have upon ethiopia in exchange for cash and guns
be aware of the dangers of a single story the truly king menolect sign was double-sided one
was in his native language of empiric and the other a malicious italian interpretation
both documents contain completely different terms diving into african history in regards
to colonization this tactic is not uncommon and has been used to justify several massacres on
the continent the document king menelik signed in amharic had nothing to do with war nor given up
his land whilst the italian version had all of the above the italians exclaimed that if their demands
were not met that it will cause italy to lose their dignity and in stern words emperor's title
to bethel responded that we too must retain our dignity you want other countries to see ethiopia
as your protege but that will never be hold on to that we'll be revisiting that later on as
this is a prophecy that stood the test of time the italians finland accomplished and justified
immediately commenced their colonial campaign declaring war against ethiopia in 1896 this
was referred to as the battle of oblah ethiopia had two tactics to defend themselves one was to
play the full because the italians thought that this was going to be easy breezy lemma squeezy
i don't know if that's an italian accent but we'll pretend like it is and move on you see
ethiopia was not ignorant of the new era of warfare and unbeknownst to the italians they
had been stacking up on guns for quite some time and when italy found out it was already too late
the other tactic ethiopia implemented was to stretch italy as thin as possible they permitted
the italians to proceed further and further into ethiopia to deplete their supplies of food
water and ammunitions in preparation for a counter attack the italians grew wary
thirsty hungry and this was ethiopia's crew for requital this was an embarrassing defeat to the
italians a defeat that came by the hands of a people that date them inferior to themselves
pause this is more serious than you think ethiopia's victory sparked a mass protest in
italy the italians protested the government's failure to implement colonial policies and it
also caused the prime minister of italy to resign leading to a change in the italian government how
how can a proud european power like italy lose to a people like ethiopia italy
quickly became the laughingstock of europe being referred to as europe's soft underbelly hold on
to that we'll talk about that more later on once again a new era of warfare had evolved
the likes of which no other country outside of europe was prepared for the italians regrouped
and a few decades later in the year 1935 returned with a force of half a million men and hundreds
of aircrafts flooding the land with poisonous guys and for this ethiopia was not prepared for
because they had made the single most crucial mistake almost every african colony had made
trust they trusted that the international community will stay true to their word
to prevent the pursuing impending injustice that italy was soon to embark on
against ethiopia but the contrary was so bordering colonial powers prevented
the supply of goods into ethiopia further weakening the country and in retrospect
this was naive and a grave mistake that caused emperor haile selassie of ethiopia everything but
you cannot completely blame him for this because this time period in history was quite different
this was the period of the league of nations the first worldwide intergovernmental organization
whose principle mission was to maintain world peace this was the same body that brought an end
to world war one the league of nations kinda sorta evolved into the united nations as we know today
and at the time the job of the league of nations was to maintain peace stability and to settle any
impending disputes between rival countries yes the world had changed but this still was a time where
africans were not viewed as humans and despite the league of nations mission to maintain world peace
this did not include africa its members consisted of colonial countries who proceeded over the most
brutal and diabolical regimes on the african continent and of the 63 countries in the league
of nations none of them were african well except liberia and south africa and we all know why
the league of nations permitted mussolini the fascist leader of italy into ethiopia they were
an accomplice to the genocide carried out and they also restricted ethiopia from defending themselves
ethiopia subsequently fell to a more superior power italy won the war the countries that were
part of the league of nations prevented supplies from entering ethiopia they also
turned a blind eye to emperor's hailey solace's request for justice emperor sir lassie said
today it is us and tomorrow it will be you another prophecy that stood the test of time
personally i would conclude that this was not just a battle of italy against ethiopia but
ethiopia against europe ethiopia was alone they had suffered mass casualties from the
previous wars declared against them they had no supplies of weapons to defend themselves they
were recovering from a famine and all odds were against ethiopia after the war italian presence
in ethiopia was accompanied by the destruction of property and the murder of hundreds of thousands
of people with attacks targeted and notable figures in ethiopian societies does include
the most educated and religious leaders please permit me to digress to make an important point
the only reason italy won the war was because well they cheated you may ask again it's all fair in
love and war how can one cheat when it comes to war let me explain on the 22nd of august 1864 the
first geneva convention was signed into existence and italy was one of the countries that agreed to
the geneva conventions which was a set of rules governing how war should be conducted these were
laws made to protect people that were not part of war the rules mentioned that civilians should be
protected that people had the rights to receive care that they needed it mentioned that the red
cross must be identified and never targeted and to do so was a war crime and every single rule in the
geneva conventions was breached by italy whilst the world stood still and did nothing obviously
the geneva conventions applied to everyone except africa the use of chemical weapons by
italy was abused and this was against the rules of war this also was italy's chief strategy to
maintain their dignity and was the only path that they saw towards victory considering that ethiopia
lost the war does this mean that they were colonized many may argue so but the truth is no
colonization the action and process of establishing control over the
indigenous people of an area colonization is accompanied by imposing power and control
italy was able to occupy ethiopia and impose power but the latter of control they did not have over
ethiopia italy was not able to exert control due to a nationwide patriotic confrontation
and for this ethiopia paid the ultimate price and this is significant of all the african kingdoms
that i've come across while studying i've not seen one that responded towards colonization the
way ethiopia did immediately after such massacres pursued the complete control of that kingdom came
afterwards in ethiopia the contrary was so from the very beginning italy faced stern resistance
ethiopia said if you want to stay here we'll make it as uncomfortable for you as possible
and italy did everything to maintain a stronghold from familiarizing themselves
with notable detractors who opposed emperor haile selassie to even pain and given a higher role to
those who pledge allegiance to italy and this new annex colony that they're trying to create
although the war italy waged against ethiopia was officially over it wasn't ethiopia was like
nah bro we're just getting started okay they didn't say that but you get the idea they refer
to this movement as the patriotic resistance and this consisted of a multitude of rebellions and
attacks on multiple italian figures present in ethiopia a lot of these attacks were successful
and others weren't those that failed were followed by a swift execution of everyone involved
february 19 1937 in an attempt to sustain their freedom one of such attacks took place and fell in
retaliation italian soldiers embarked on a swift and indiscriminate massacre ranging from various
cities within the country this was referred to as the graziani massacre where 30 000 ethiopians were
killed most of whom were children women religious leaders monks deacons the elderly the sick
no one was safe what makes this different from the rest of the war crimes europe carried out on
the african continent was the speed and odious to which it was carried out permit me to pause here
for a second when the story of africa is being told it is usually told from a short-sighted
uninformed perspective one thing that i failed to mention in this massacre was that these 30
000 people who were killed were all killed within three days after flooding the streets of people
the soldiers would set fire to houses and point their weapons at those who dared to escape the
fire this was a whole town a whole city littered with carcass when i read up on the story of africa
10 000 30 000 these are all recurring numbers numbers that are sufficient enough to scare
an entire civilization into submission this is the final deal on the coffin to yield a colony
then those who suffered the most were not soldiers these were civilians farmers teachers and children
i hate to be graphic on this channel but i think this is important to mention because it wraps our
minds around how possible it is for a small continent to take over the entire world and
it also puts many inconsistent fallacies that we may have about africa into perspective as if
this was not enough ethiopia did not surrender here italy being humiliated in the first war and
their inability to colonize ethiopia doubled down even more i'm sorry but i don't know how
to put this in a word ethiopia was willing to fight to the last man stand-in ethiopia launched
more and more and more and more attacks and made it hell for the italians their attacks became more
strategic and coordinated they went after their lines of communication food and water supply their
modes of transportation their camps they sent out a clear message to the italians that you
are not safe here this was a nationwide movement and everyone was involved you don't get it
everyone they armed themselves by looting weapons from italian soldiers that they ambushed those
who could not fight provided food and shelter for those who could ethiopian women are the greatest
woman on the planet they played amongst the greatest roles in destabilizing the italian
forces in their country they were viewed by the italians as less of a threat and they used it to
their advantage there were spies conveying confidential information to the resistance
strategically arranging assassinations of notable italian figures they stole weapons intelligence
anything that they could use to remove the fog of war and to turn the tides of the battle
in many cases because of the intelligence that they had gathered they organized their own
battalion to launch various ambushes and secret assassinations this was not one organized movement
these were independent sleeper cells doing whatever it is that they can
to sustain their dignity bringing to life emperor's title bethel's prophecy we too
must retain our dignity you want other countries to see ethiopia as your protege but that will
never be the story of ethiopia cannot be concluded without talking about the european tribal wars 2.
let me know in the comments if you heard what i just did there many world war ii articles and
resources will mention that it was the british who aided ethiopia to drive the italians out
that's not necessarily true it was nigeria the only reason britain gets credit for this
is because they colonize nigeria in my previous video titled what will africa look like if it
was never colonized i mentioned of how nigeria was responsible for the fastest military retreat
in human history in the liberation of ethiopia was where this took place ethiopia had already made it
uncomfortable for the italians and nigeria came in to deliver the final blow the likes of ethiopia is
a symbol of african pride and a hint of african unity saying that ethiopia is the only african
country to never be colonized it is an injustice to their sacrifice and will be remiss if we don't
mention the immense sacrifice that ethiopia went through to sustain their freedom this video is not
over click this video to have a full understanding of the sacrifice that ethiopia went through
and this is needed to properly contextualize the events that took place leading to their liberation