Welcome to Italia Mother of Askaris
Posted: 22 Mar 2020, 10:23
Via Antonelli's courier, Menelik informed the King of Italy that he would like the Italian soldiers to occupy Asmara, in order to discourage the imperial pretensions of Mengesha Yohannes (the son of Emperor Yohannes).
added Menelik,There after,
(See Prouty, page 61)God will give me the throne that for many years I have had the right to have.
And in trying to persuade the Italians not to make friendship with Menelik, Alula begged the Italians by saying,You want the country to the River Mereb (meaning the whole Eritrea) to cultivate your gardens, to build your houses, to construct your churches? We can give it to you [And not to Menelik.]. Let the Italian soldiers come to Adwa, I shall come to meet them like friends.
(See, Haggai Erlich, "Ras Alula,", page 164)And you, why do you need to look for distant friend? We are neighbors (meaning Eritrea and Tigray) and can serve each other. You went the road to be open and I want the road to be open. You should guard to the Mereb River and I will guard it to Gondar and even beyond Gondar. We must be able to go to the coast to trade in order that our country (meaning Tigray) would flourish, with the help of God, Menelik is too far to be of any use to you. Let us make friendship between us.
present wrote: ↑22 Mar 2020, 10:42Oh yeah. He is chillin like a villain. He sold enough ascaris to the Arabs. He is done. What do expect from a grandson of Atse Yohanes, our beloved king!
(See, Haggai Erlich, pages 174 & 180)the anti-Italian Lij Beyene for a meeting (Mr Hagai spelled it as Bayyana) and treacherously imprisoned him in the hope of getting a favor from General Baratieri who was then visiting Seraye at that time. Word got out to the castle of Ras Mengesha who was then in Mekele, and not to be outdone by Alula's contact to Baratieri, Mengesha and Ras Hagos came running to Adwa. Upon their arrival, Mengesha ordered Alula to hand over Lij Beyene to the Italians. Alula fearing that the Italians will give credit to Mengesha and not him, he refused the hand over. In response to Alula's refusal, Mengesha sent Ras Hagos with an armed escort to Alula's camp, where they took custody of the rebel and delivered him to the Italians.
(See "Red Tears," page 74)Eritreans were the coast guards of the mainland. The major battles that are recorded in Ethiopian history except Adwa were in Eritrea and were fought by Eritreans most of the time. The battle-fields of Debaruwa, Gundet, Gura, Kufit, Saati, Dogali, and Koatit against the Sudan, Turkey, Egyptians, and the Italians are typical examples
Except the one in Debaruwa, all the others were fought within less than fifty years, 1870 to 1889. Add to these numbers, those who perished in the battle of Mettema & it clearly shows what a heavy price that was to pay for a population with no more than 1.5 million souls. And by the time the Italians occupied Asmara, Eritrean highlands as well as lowlands were completely devoid of able bodies to do any meaningful defense against the coming Italians.
See also Anthony Mockler, "Haile Sellassie's War," page XXXI. For the over all picture of the battle, see Thomas Pakenham, "The Scramble For Africa," page 477-484).If the history of the battle of Adwa is to be recounted carefully, the Italian defeat came largely as a result of an able Eritrean double agent in the Italian camp. Simply said, the outcome of the battle of Adwa would have been untenable for Menelik if it wasn't for Awalom Berhe, who, as an able spy and double agent, passed absolutely wrong information about Ethiopia's Military formation to General Debermuda and his crack brigade where he convinced them to travel to an isolated and confusing area (the valley of Mariam Shawitta) that was so far-off and a mountain apart from the center of Italian battle formation of General Albertoni. It is also true that Ras Sebhat and Hagos Teferi defected from the Italian battle formation with 500 men, where most of them were Eritreans, moments before the start of the battle which gave Menelik crucial information where to attack. Without these two timely and important information, the disastrous defeat and capture of General Albertoni brigade (the Italian main battle line of defense) was unthinkable. As it happened, Debermuda's blunder compounded Albertoni's confusion of not seeing Debermuda's brigade, turning General Barateri's (the overall commander of the Italian colonial army) battle plan into defeat, defeat into disaster, and disaster into catastrophe.