| Battle of Dogali | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1887–1889 | |||||||
 The battle of Dogali by Michele Cammarano | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Italy |  Ethiopia | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Tommaso De Cristoforis † | Ras Alula Engida | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| ~550 infantry | 15,000 [1] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 430 killed [2] 80 wounded [2] | 730 [3] or 1,071 killed [4] | ||||||
The Battle of Dogali was fought on 26 January 1887 between Italy and Ethiopia in Dogali near Massawa, in present-day Eritrea.
The Italians, after their unification in 1861, wanted to establish a colonial empire to cement their great power status. Their occupation of coastal Eritrea brought Italian interests into direct conflict with those of Ethiopia (Abyssinia).
As soon as the Italians considered they were strong enough to advance into Abyssinia, they seized the villages of Ua-à and Zula along with the town of Sahati, in modern-day Eritrea, and erected a small redoubt on the heights commanding the water supply for the caravans. Ras Alula Engida, the governor under Emperor Yohannes IV, had at the time left Asmara, his headquarters, for the Basen country, in order to punish the Dervishes for raiding the Dembala provinces. On hearing the news of the Italian advance, he returned to Asmara and informed the Italian officials that they were violating the treaty between Abyssinia, Egypt, and Britain, and that any further movement of troops toward Sahati – the fortification of which could only be directed against Abyssinia – would be considered a hostile action and be treated accordingly. The Italians responded by strengthening their redoubt and reinforcing their garrison. By 25 January, the fort at Sahati was held by 167 Italians and 1,000 native troops. [5] On his own initiative, Ras Alula attacked Sahati. Hundreds of his men were slaughtered by cannon and rifle fire, while only four Italians were injured, forcing Ras Alula to pull his men back. The besieged Italians, however, needed more ammunition and requested supplies.
On 26 January, a battalion of roughly 550 men (mostly Italians, including 22 officers, and a few Eritrean Askari ) under Colonel Tommaso De Cristoforis, were sent to reinforce the Italian garrison at Sahati. The ras learned of their departure from spies, and before they could arrive at the fortification they had erected, he attacked them at Dogali and entirely defeated them. Although the Italians were well-armed with modern rifles, cannon, and machine guns, they were outnumbered 14 to 1; they fought back against the Ethiopians and held out for hours, but they eventually exhausted all their ammunition. Nearly all were killed, except for eighty wounded men who were able to escape, unnoticed by the Ethiopians.
Although Dogali was only a small victory for the Ethiopians, Haggai Erlich notes that this incident encouraged the Italians to plot with Yohanne's rival Menelik, the ruler of Shewa, to encourage his insubordination towards the Emperor. [6]
Italians felt that the battle of Dogali was an insult to be avenged, and started to attack Ethiopia for revenge. They were able to occupy Eritrea in 1887–89, although they failed in the occupation of the remaining Ethiopian territory in the First Italo-Ethiopian War. In 1936, Fascist Italy launched a second invasion which resulted in the Italian victory and the occupation of Ethiopia, until it was liberated during WW2.
This battle was celebrated under the Derg regime, and Mengistu Haile Mariam commemorated the centennial with much attention, including the erection of a monument topped with a red star on the battlefield. Following Eritrean independence, the monument was removed. Paul B. Henze diplomatically notes in a footnote, "When I crossed the battlefield in 1996, I could detect no trace of the monument." [7]
Erlich provides more information: when Eritrean troops gained control of the area in 1989, "a prominent commander of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Petros Solomon himself was delighted to blast Mengistu's monument of Ras Alula." [8]
This could be attributed to the fact that while Alula was an administrator appointed by Yohannes IV over part of the Eritrean highlands, he committed many atrocities against the local Biher-Tigrinya population, sowing seeds of discord. Observers, including Erlich and others, attribute this to Eritrean Tigrinya views of their own relationship with Ethiopia as a whole. [9]
The huge square in Rome in front of Termini railway station is called Piazza dei Cinquecento, in honor of the 500 Italian soldiers killed in the Battle of Dogali. Near the square is also a monument to those soldiers.
The Italian cruiser Dogali was named for the engagement.
The Ethiopian government of Mengistu Haile Mariam erected a monument at Dogali to commemorate its 100th anniversary in January 1987. The monument was designed to stress Ethiopia's historical rule in Eritrea amidst the ongoing Eritrean War of Independence. The monument was topped by a red star, a communist symbol of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Eritrea won its independence in 1991 and by 1996 the monument had disappeared. [10]
Colonial conflicts in the Italian Empire | ||
|---|---|---|
| East Africa | ||
| North Africa | ||
| South America | ||
| Asia | ||
| Europe | ||
| Authority control databases: National |
|---|
The Battle of Adwa was the climactic battle of the First Italo-Ethiopian War. The Ethiopian forces defeated the Italian invading force on Sunday 1 March 1896, near the town of Adwa. The decisive victory thwarted the campaign of the Kingdom of Italy to expand its colonial empire in the Horn of Africa. By the end of the 19th century, European powers had carved up almost all of Africa after the Berlin Conference; only Ethiopia and Liberia still maintained their independence. Adwa became a pre-eminent symbol of pan-Africanism and secured Ethiopian sovereignty until the Second Italo-Ethiopian War forty years later.
The First Italo-Ethiopian War also referred to as the First Italo-Abyssinian War;, was a war fought between Italy and Ethiopia from 1895 to 1896. It originated from the disputed Treaty of Wuchale, which the Italians claimed turned Ethiopia into an Italian protectorate. Full-scale war broke out in 1895, with Italian troops from Italian Eritrea achieving initial successes against Tigrayan warlords at Coatit, Senafe and Debra Ailà, until they were reinforced by a large Ethiopian army led by Emperor Menelik II. The Italian defeat came about after the Battle of Adwa, where the Ethiopian army dealt the heavily outnumbered Italian soldiers and Eritrean askaris a decisive blow and forced their retreat back into Eritrea. The war concluded with the Treaty of Addis Ababa. Because this was one of the first decisive victories by African forces over a European colonial power, this war became a preeminent symbol of pan-Africanism and secured Ethiopia's sovereignty until the Second Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935–36.
Menelik II, baptised as Sahle Maryam was King of Shewa from 1866 to 1889 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 to his death in 1913. At the height of his internal power and external prestige, the process of territorial expansion and creation of the modern empire-state was completed by 1898.
Massawa or Mitsiwa is a port city in the Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea, located on the Red Sea at the northern end of the Gulf of Zula beside the Dahlak Archipelago. It has been a historically important port for many centuries. Massawa has been ruled or occupied by a succession of polities during its history, including the Kingdom of Aksum, the Ethiopian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy.
Yohannes IV was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1871 to his death in 1889 at the Battle of Gallabat, and king of Tigray from 1869 to 1871. During his reign he successfully defended Ethiopia against a large scale Egyptian invasion.
Sebhat Aregawi was a Ras of Agame. He was appointed governor of Agame by Emperor Tewodros II in 1859, and his province was expanded by Emperor Yohannes IV to include Adigrat. Emperor Menelik II invested Sebhat with the title of Ras in 1892.
Tigray Province, also known as Tigre, was a historical province of northern Ethiopia that overlayed the present day Afar and Tigray regions. Akele Guzai borders with the Tigray province. It encompassed most of the territories of Tigrinya-speakers in Ethiopia. Tigray was separated from the northern Tigrinya speaking territories by the Mareb River, now serving as the state border to Eritrea, bordering Amhara region in the south.
RasMengesha Yohannes was governor of Tigray and a son of atse Yohannes IV. His mother was Welette Tekle Haymanot wife of dejazmach Gugsa Mercha. Ras Araya Selassie Yohannes was his older half brother. Prior to the Battle of Metemma, Mengesha Yohannes was considered to be a nephew of Emperor Yohannes IV. During the battle, the Emperor was mortally wounded and it was on his deathbed that Mengesha Yohannes was acknowledged as his "natural" son and designated as his heir. This created something of a succession problem.
Tigrayans are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group indigenous to the Tigray Region of northern Ethiopia. They speak the Tigrinya language, an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Ethiopian Semitic branch.
The Battle of Gallabat was an armed conflict fought on 9–10 March 1889 between the Mahdist Sudanese and Ethiopian forces. It is a critical event in Ethiopian history because Nəgusä Nägäst Yohannes IV was killed in this battle, and because it was the last major battle on the Ethiopian front of the Mahdist War. The fighting occurred at the site of the twin settlements of Gallabat and Metemma, so both names are commonly used and either can be argued to be correct.
The Ethiopian Empire, also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia was an empire that historically spanned the geographical area of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea from the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty by Yekuno Amlak approximately in 1270 until the 1974 coup d'etat of Emperor Haile Selassie by the Derg. By 1896, the Empire incorporated other regions such as Hararghe, Gurage and Wolayita, and saw its largest expansion with the federation of Eritrea in 1952. Throughout much of its existence, it was surrounded by hostile forces in the African Horn; however, it managed to develop and preserve a kingdom based on its ancient form of Christianity.
Bahta Hagos, was Dejazmach of Akkele Guzay, and retrospectively considered an important leader of Eritrean resistance to foreign domination specifically against northern Ethiopian and Italian colonialism. He was born sometime between 1839 and 1850 into a rich peasant family in the town of Segheneyti and was killed in the Battle of Halai against the Italian Colonial Army on December 19, 1894. He was of the Tsena-Degle Tigrinyas, from Akele Guzay.
Enderta or Inderta is a former historical province of Ethiopia; it is located in the eastern edge of the Tigray highlands. Enderta is bordered on the west by Tembien, on the south and southwest by Lasta and Wag, on the east by denkel, and on the north by Agame and Adwa. Mekelle was formerly the capital of the province. Enderta's local administration of Denkel/Afar up to the edges of Aseb under its jurisdiction seems to have been highly, interlinked with the operation of the salt trade and its taxation system; the entire tasks of salt caravan organization being the responsibility of the bäalgada, title assumed by the governor of Endärta, since at least the Medieval period.
Haggai Erlich is professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and an academic adviser at the Open University of Israel where he is the head of Middle Eastern History studies. He is the Landau Prize recipient for 2010 in African Studies.
Ras Alula Engida was an Ethiopian general and politician who successfully led battles against Ottoman Egypt, the Mahdists and Italy. He was one of the most important leaders of the Abyssinian forces during the 19th century. Described by Haggai Erlich as the "greatest leader whom Ethiopia produced since the death of Emperor Tewodros II in 1868." Ras Alula was referred to by Europeans as "the Garibaldi of Ethiopia".
The Egyptian–Ethiopian War was a war between the Ethiopian Empire and the Khedivate of Egypt, a autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, from 1874 to 1876. The conflict resulted in an unequivocal Ethiopian victory that guaranteed continued independence of Ethiopia in the years immediately preceding the Scramble for Africa. Conversely, for Egypt the war was a costly failure, severely blunting the regional aspirations of Egypt as an African empire, and laying the foundations for the beginning of the British Empire's 'veiled protectorate' over Egypt less than a decade later.
Ras Woldemichael Solomon served as the Ras (Duke) of Hamasien during the 19th century. Raesi Woldemichael was born in Hazega village in Hamassien. He is from the wider Tigrinya ethnic group, the eldest son of Abeto Solomon Zerai of Hazega and Woizero Eleni. Today he is widely celebrated as a hero standing for Eritrean sovereignty.
The Italo-Ethiopian War of 1887–1889 was an undeclared war between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ethiopian Empire occurring during the Italian colonization of Eritrea. The conflict ended with a treaty of friendship, which delimited the border between Ethiopia and Italian Eritrea but contained clauses whose different interpretations led to another Italo-Ethiopian war.
The siege of Saati was the first battle of the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1887–1889 between Italian colonial forces and Ethiopian forces.
The fall of the Derg, also known as Downfall of the Derg, was a military campaign that resulted the defeat of the ruling military junta Derg by the rebel coalition Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) on 28 May 1991 in Addis Ababa, ending the Ethiopian Civil War. The Derg took power after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie and the Solomonic dynasty, an imperial dynasty of Ethiopia that began in 1270. The Derg suffered insurgency with different factions, and separatist rebels groups since early their rule, beginning with the Ethiopian Civil War. The 1983–1985 famine, the Red Terror, and resettlement and villagization infamed the Derg with majority of Ethiopians tended to support insurgent groups like the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF).
