Siege of Mekelle | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the First Italo-Ethiopian War | |||||||
Ethiopian troops attacking the besieged Italians | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Italy | Ethiopia | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Giuseppe Galliano | Menelik II | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
1,306 [1] (1,114 Askari & 192 Italians) 2 mountain guns | 27,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
35 killed 78 wounded [1] | ~600 killed [1] |
The siege of Mekelle, sometimes known as the battle of Mekelle, took place in January 1896 during the First Italo-Ethiopian War. Italian forces surrendered a partially completed fort at Mekelle, a city in the northern Tigray Region of Ethiopia which they had occupied since 1895, to Ethiopian forces.
The Italians numbered 20 officers, 13 non-commissioned officers, and 150 privates, they were supported by 1,000 Askari and two mountain guns. The Ethiopian army numbered around 27,000 men.
Ras Makonnen laid siege to the fort, and on the morning of 7 January 1896, the defenders of the fort spotted a huge red tent among the besiegers, showing that the emperor had arrived. [2] After two weeks of bombardment by Ethiopian artillery and very costly attacks on the Italian positions, the Ethiopians managed to cut off the fort's water supply and then fought off desperate Italian attempts to retake the well. [2] On 19 January 1896, the fort's commander, Major Galliano, whose men were dying of dehydration, raised the white flag of surrender. [2] [3] Major Galliano and his men were allowed to march out, surrender their arms and to go free. [2] Menelik stated he allowed the Italians to go free as "to give proof of my Christian faith," saying his quarrel was with the Italian government of Prime Minister Francesco Crispi that was trying to conquer his nation and not the ordinary Italian soldiers. [2]
The Battle of Adwa was the climactic battle of the First Italo-Ethiopian War. Ethiopian army led by Ras Makonen Wolde Mikael managed to defeat the invading Italian force led by Oreste Baratieri on Sunday, March 1, 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, or simply in Italy as the 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 1935–37.
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