By Dr. Richard Pankhurst:-
We saw last week how Emperor Yohannes IV succeeded in defeating
Egyptian incursions into Ethiopia, but, as we shall now see, faced an
even greater threat from other enemies.
The British Occupation of Egypt, and the Mahdist Revolution in Sudan
In Egypt meanwhile the military revolt of Ahmad `Urabi in 1881 led
directly in the following years to the British occupation of that
country, as well as of Egyptian-occupied Sudan. This coincided with the
spectacular rise in Sudan of its Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad. His rebellion
was so successful that the British, who had become responsible for the
country on account of their occupation of Egypt in the previous year,
decided in 1883 that it would have to be fully evacuated of Egyptian and
British troops.
This evacuation was of direct relevance to Ethiopia. The Mahadists
had by then isolated a number of towns with Egyptian garrisons and
European inhabitants in the neighboring western Sudan. The British,
reluctant to undertake a major expedition, which would inevitably have
been much more arduous than that to Maqdala,
decided that the isolated
soldiers and civilians could most easily, and inexpensively, be carried
out by the Ethiopians. This seemed particularly appropriate in view of
Britain’s earlier cordial relations with Yohannes, who was moreover
indebted to the British for their gift of arms at the time of the Napier
expedition.
A British naval officer, Rear-Admiral Sir William Hewett, was
accordingly dispatched to negotiate with the Ethiopian monarch. Yohannes
received him courteously, agreed to assist, but stipulated (1) that the
territories which the Egyptian had then recently occupied in the Bogos
area on his western frontier, i.e. around Karan, should be restored to
Ethiopian rule; and (2) that he should be given control of Massawa. His
first demand was accepted, but as far as the port was concerned the
British promised him only free transit, “under British protection”, for
Ethiopian goods, including arms and ammunition. A tripartite treaty
embodying these points, and, according to its preamble, binding not only
the then reigning monarchs but also their heirs and successors, was
duly signed by Britain, British-occupied Egypt, and Ethiopia, at Adwa on
3 June 1884. In accordance with it the Emperor’s dynamic military
leader, Ras Alula, relieved six garrison towns in Sudan, the only ones
from which the isolated soldiers were able to escape.
The Coming of the Italians
The value of the 1884 agreement to Ethiopia was, however,
short-lived, for on 3 February 1885, only eight months after its
conclusion, the Italians seized Massawa. This action was taken with the
support of the British Government, which favored Italian expansion in
the area as a way of curbing that a France. The Italian officer
responsible for the occupation, Rear-Admiral Pietro Caimi, issued a
proclamation to the port’s inhabitants announcing that his action had
been taken in agreement with the British and Egyptian Governments and
promised, “No obstacle shall be put by me on your trade”. Such friendly
protestations were, however, before long abandoned, for as soon as the
Italians were in a position to do so they seized the coast adjacent to
Massawa, and instituted a blockade to stop the supply of arms of
Yohannes. Italian troops then advanced into the interior as far as
Sa’ati an Wi’a, both around 30 kilometers inland from the sea.
Ras Alula protested against this unwarranted Italian penetration, but
the invaders replied by strengthening their fortifications in the newly
occupied areas. They also sent in more troops, which were intercepted
and virtually all annihilated by Ras Alula at Dogali on 26 January 1887 –
the “massacre” of Dogali, as it came to be known in Italy. The Italians
then evacuated Sa’ati and Wi’a, and declared a blockade on all ships
bringing supplies for Ethiopia.
The British traveller Augustus B. Wylde, commenting on British policy at this time, observed:
`Look at our behaviour to King Johannes from any point of view and it
will not show one ray of honesty and to my mind it is one of the worst
bits of business we have been guilty of in Africa…. England made use of
King Johannes as long as he was of any service, and then threw him over
to the tender mercies of Italy, who went to Massawah under our auspices
with the intention of taking territory that belonged to our ally, and
allowed them to destroy all the promises England had solemnly made to
King Johannes after he had faithfully carried out his part of the
agreement. The fact is not known to the British public, and I wish it
was not true for our credit’s sake, but unfortunately it is, and it
reads like one of he vilest bits of treachery that has been perpetrated
in Africa or in India in the eighteenth century.’
War between the Italians and Yohannes now seemed imminent, but the
former, wishing to obtain their objectives without resort to fighting,
persuaded the British in mediate. A British diplomat, Sir Gerald Portal,
was accordingly sent to the Emperor to ask him to agree to an Italian
occupation of the coastal strip, including Sa’ati and Wi’a, as well as
the Bogos area, which the Egyptians, it will be recalled, had ceded to
him three years earlier. When these terms were read out to him, he
proudly replied, “I can do nothing with all this. By the treaty made by
Admiral Hewett, all the country evacuated by the Egyptians on my
frontier was ceded to me at the instigation of England, and now you have
come to ask me to give it up again”, Much incensed that Britain should
have asked him to depart from the 1884 treaty, he wrote to Queen
Victoria, protesting that if she wished to make peace for him it should
be when the Italians were in their country, and the Ethiopians in
theirs.
Faced with the threat from Italy, the Emperor strengthened his
defences by transferring there his garrison stationed at Qallabat on the
Sudan frontier. Finding the border thus unguarded, the Mahdists broke
in at that point. Yohannes has hastened to Qallabat to repel them, but
at the close of a victorious battle at Matamma on 9 March 1889 was
mortally wounded by a sniper’s bullet. News of his death created great
confusion in northern Ethiopia. This was intensified by the outbreak of a
serious outbreak of cattle disease, which was followed by a famine of
unprecedented proportions.
During this period of difficulty the Italians succeeded in advancing
much further inland than they had been able to do previously. By the end
of 1889 they had thus occupied a sizeable stretch of the northern
Ethiopian plateau. This enabled them to establish their colony of
Eritrea which came into formal existence on 1 January 1890. Their
advance, Wylde Subsequently noted, “was unopposed, and once they had
made good their foothold on the upper plateau and fortified themselves,
no Abyssinian force could drive them out”.
Modernization
Yohannes, unlike his predecessor Tewodros, was more of a conservative
rather than a moderniser. He was moreover so involved in successive
struggles to resist foreign invaders, Egyptian, Italian and Dervish,
that he had little time, or opportunity, for technological innovation.
He nevertheless succeeded, where Tewodros had failed, in sending envoys
abroad on important diplomatic missions abroad, even though the lack of
European response was such that his initiatives earned him little
advantage. He was at the same time the first Ethiopian ruler ever to
appoint a foreign consul, a certain Samuel King, who served as his
representative in London.
The reign of Yohannes also witnessed several important innovations.
In the medical field mercury preparations for the treatment of syphilis
at about this time came into extensive use, at least in the towns.
Yohannes was moreover the first ruler of his country to have a foreign
physician at his court, a Greek doctor, Nicholas Parisis, and the first
to be inoculated with modern-style smallpox vaccine, which was beginning
to replace traditional Ethiopian-Type inoculation. His military
victories over the Egyptians likewise resulted in the advent, and
extensive distribution, of numerous breech-loading rifles, as well as
some modern artillery.
Source: http://www.linkethiopia.org
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