By Dr. Richard Pankhurst:-
Ethiopia’s first great innovating monarch was, it is generally
agreed, Emperor Tewodros, or Theodore II (1855-1868). The British writer
Clements Markham referred to him as no less than the “most remarkable
man” of nineteenth century Africa. Likening him to Peter the Great of
Russia, he added: “They were both born kings of men, both endowed with
military genius, both lovers of the mechanical arts; both possessed of
dauntless courage.”
The Strategico-Military Field
Tewodros’s innovating genius, though remarkable for its intensity and
determination, was nonetheless largely restricted, like the modernising
interests of previous rulers, to the strategico-military field. His
innovations were thus mainly in such matters as the reorganisation of
the army, the casting of cannon, the construction of carriages upon
which to transport these weapons, the building of roads for such wheeled
artillery and so forth.
Almost the first evidence of Tewodros’s innovating interest is be
found in a report for July 25, 1853, by the British Consul, Walter
Plowden. It states that Tewodros (still at that time known as Kasa) had,
“with the assistance of some Turks, in a degree disciplined his army.”
In a subsequent report of July 9 of the following year Plowden stated that Kasa had “taught his soldiers some discipline”.
In yet another report, dated June 25, 1855, the good consul explained
that Tewodros had adopted the practice of paying his troops, in an
effort to eradicate the traditional system whereby soldiers were
expected to requisition, or loot, whatever they needed from the
population at large. “In the common soldiers,” Plowden says, “he has
effected a great reform, by paying them, and ordering them to purchase
their food, but in no way to harass and plunder the peasant as before.”
The Emperor’s object was nothing less than the replacement of old
time levies by a regular army with a single national loyalty, fixed
salaries and equipment based almost exclusively on fire-arms. In his
effort to build up such an army, Plowden says, the Emperor “created
generals in place of feudal chieftains more proud of their own birth
than of their monarch”, and “organised a new nobility, a legion of
honour dependent on himself, and chosen specially for their daring and
fidelity.” In this way, Plowden declares, the ambitious monarch “began
the arduous task of breaking the power of the great feudal chiefs – a
task achieved in Europe only during the reigns of many consecutive
Kings.”
“European Discipline”
The Emperor, according to the British traveller Henry Dufton, was
also “much in favour of adopting European discipline.” For that reason,
while still a minor chief, he had employed a certain Dominico, who was
half Italian and half Greek, to assist him in military matters.
Later, on becoming Emperor, Tewodros placed a thousand men under the
command of his English adviser, John Bell, who was ordered to train
them. At this point, however, the traditional conservatism of the
society asserted itself, for the soldiers, we are told, expressed such
discontent at the discipline expected of them – “Left, Right, Left,
Right”, etc. – that the scheme had to be abandoned, though the resolute
Emperor later supervised part of the training himself.
Cannon Making
Tewodros’s attempts at manufacturing cannon were even more
remarkable. Debtera Zaneb, one of the two main Ethiopian chroniclers of
the reign, tells the story that as early as 1853 Theodore tried to make a
cannon by boring a tree trunk and reinforcing it with iron. Though the
result was, as might be expected, a failure, the attempt was by no means
insignificant, particularly in view of later events.
In 1855, the year of his coronation, Tewodros received a letter from
the Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem, Samuel Gobat, a Swiss, offering to
send him a group of young missionaries, who had received technical
training at the Chrischona Institute near Basle, in Switzerland. The
monarch’s reply was characteristic. He declared that Gobat’s letter
“pleases me, and I wish him to send me three artisans, namely, a
gunmaker, a palace builder and a book printer.”
The Missionaries Arrive
In due course a party of missionaries arrived. They brought Tewodros
gifts of religious books, but, as he later acknowledged to his English
friend, John Bell, he “would have been more pleased with a box of
English gunpowder than, as he said, with books he already possessed.” He
nonetheless treated the party kindly, and established them at Gafat, a
hill not far from his capital at Debra Tabor. Dufton records: “Things
went smoothly for some time until one day orders came from His Majesty
to the effect that he wished them to commence the construction of
mortars and bombshells. The order came upon them like the bursting of a
bomb itself, for none of them had ever had an idea that they would have
been required to undertake work of that description. They, of course,
demurred, informing the King that, not having learnt the founding of
cannon, they were totally unprepared to enter an engagement of that
description . . .”
Tewodros, being unable to import arms because of the Turkish blockade
at Massawa, nevertheless insisted on his request, and imprisoned the
missionaries’ servants until their masters consented to carry out his
will.
Promised to Try
“In their perplexity,” Dufton continues, “they could not do otherwise
than promise to try. Only one of them, Herr Moritz [a man of Polish
origin], could be said to have the slightest acquaintance with the work
at all, and his knowledge only extended to the formation of the mould;
the clay to be used in the construction of the firebricks; the formation
of the furnace; the proportion of the metals, and the making of the
fuse being equally unknown to him as to the rest. However, by putting
their heads together, and seeking information from books, they
eventually managed to turn out something. What? A mass of vitreous
matter formed by the melting of the fine sand of the bricks; the metal
refused to flow. Their only resource was to try again; and away they
went over the country to seek better fire-brick clay, and now another
venture was made. The result was a flow of metal that came pouring out
in a molten stream now, and all hearts are hopeful that at last the
object is gained; but alas! the metal had stopped, and the mould was
only half full. They tried again. To the inexpressible joy of these
persevering men, and to the intense joy of the King himself, their
wishes are accomplished, and Debra Tabor for the first time saw the
balls soaring up into the air and bursting with a loud crash which made
the hills resound with a hundred echoes.”
The difficulties involved in this kind of technological innovation
may be seen from the fact that Tewodros’s craftsmen melted their metal
in thirty or so crucibles, using hand bellows of the most primitive
traditional type consisting only of skins. Because of the low repute
with which manual work was traditionally regarded by Amharas, most of
the operations were entrusted to Falashas and Oromos, many of whom were
accustomed to handicraft work in some ways similar to that in hand.
Several hundred Ethiopians were in due course trained to the work, which
was, of course, largely outside their experience, and there was even an
idea of sending some of them abroad for study in England or France.
The largest of the guns produced at Tewodros’s command was called
“Sebastopol”, after the then recent great battle in the Crimean War. The
weapon was capable of firing a 1,000 pound shell. “Sebastapol” was said
to weigh at least 70 tons, and, according to the British envoy Rassam,
required as many as 500 people to pull it uphill. “It was unquestionably
a wonderful piece of ordnance for its size”, he says, “and more
wonderful still was the workmanship of his Majesty’s European artisans,
who had no experience of casting cannon.”
The Emperor subsequently declared that the day of its casting was one
of the happiest of his life. His subjects, however, did not necessarily
fully share his enthusiasm. Flad asserts that the missionaries were
“much hated” by the Ethiopians, who complained that the King was
spending so much money on copper, zinc and tools.
Road-Building
Tewodros’s road building, as already suggested, was essentially
conceived of in military terms. It was none the less of wider
importance, as the construction of roads in Ethiopia was traditionally
almost unknown. The work, as in the case of the cannon-making, was
largely based on improvisation. Opposition to innovation, and the
age-old dislike of manual labour, were both broken down by the Emperor’s
boundless energy and determination.
The French pseudo-traveller, Emile Jonveaux, who claims to have
visited Theodore at this time, found him, “clothed very simply”, working
with pick-axe and hammer, like the lowest of his workmen, to encourage
them by his example. “From early dawn to late at night,” writes one of
his sometime prisoners, Henry Blanc, “Theodore was himself at work; with
his own hands he removed the stones, leveled the ground, or helped to
fill up small ravines. No one could leave so long as he was there
himself, no one would think of eating, drinking, or of rest while the
Emperor showed the example and shared the hardships.”
Source: http://www.linkethiopia.org
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