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Resisted colonialism
Africa colonization started in the 1880s to 1890s and during the period several countries were colonized by European imperialism. Ethiopia is one of two countries in African, which were never colonized during the colonization period of Africa. Although neighboring countries such as Kenya, Sudan, and others were colonized by British, Ethiopia staged a constant rebellion against the Italian colonists and therefore, it ended up being one of the countries which were not colonized. According to Anoba (16), between 1870 and 1900, African was faced by invasion from European Imperialism. The invaders came in the form of missionaries spreading the gospel across Africa. Most Africa countries put different resistance to oppose the concept of colonization. Menelik II the crowned emperor of Ethiopia led a serious resistance against the Italian. It is established that Ethiopia had a strong army and therefore, it could stand constant war against the Italian forces. The resistant against colonization was not an easy task and therefore, Ethiopia utilized its military strength, food security and collaboration with Italy to prevent colonization.
Although Italian occupied Ethiopia for some time during the colonization, Ethiopia is regarded as a country which was never colonized. Ethiopia was a thriving country with a strong empire. Sbacchi (12) pointed out by Ethiopian empire started in the early days and during the 1880s, Ethiopia had a well-established system of administration and military. This gave Ethiopia a strong bargaining power and strength on the battlefield. As stated by CITATION Ali15 \p 21 \l 1033 (Boddy-Evans 21) by 1850s, Ethiopia had had decades of constant internal upheaval. The internal upheaval helped Ethiopia to strengthen its central control to ensure that the Menelik’s royal dynasty is kept strong. The long decade of internal war prepared the empire's soldiers and therefore when Italy arrived it could not be easy to fight and win the war against the Ethiopian's military. Most countries in African did not have a well-established administration and military structure like Ethiopia and therefore, they were easily colonized. Ethiopia turned everything up and staged a strong military defense.
In the 1880s, Italy never succeeded in colonizing Ethiopia even after Mussolini order several invasions. Ethiopia is a rich agricultural nation and therefore, the country was food secure. It ensured that the majority of citizens were food protected and never depended on Italians for survival. As stated by CITATION Alb98 \p 21 \l 1033 (Sbacchi 21)countries that were unstable were easily colonized and because of food security, it became difficult for Italians to launch a strong assault against the Menelik’s military. The Emperor strategically denied Italian troops, a food supplier. It frustrated Italian troops and because of lack of enough food, the colonists were compelled to seek collaboration with Menelik’s Emperor. As a result, it made it impossible for the Italia to move to force them to become associates of the Ethiopia Empire. The occupation of Ethiopia by Italian between 1936 and 1941 is not considered as colonization because Italian never established a strong administration in Ethiopia CITATION Shi15 \p 25 \l 1033 (Shin, Spencer and Thottapilly 25). Though Menelik was overthrown and installed later as the leader, Italian never established any administration. There was a constant war between Menelik's soldiers and Italian soldiers for years.
However, before the resistant against colonialism, Ethiopia had been invaded by several soldiers from outside. Theodore invaded Ethiopia Empire and led a serious fight against the Haile’s soldiers. The invasion caused a lot of casualties and many people lost their lives including children. There were also internal fights among the empires in Ethiopia competing to take charge of the country. The constant fights and invasion forced the empires to strengthen their militaries. However, the invasion by Italy found Ethiopia well prepared to stage combat against Italy. Due to constantly fight and strengthen food security, the Italians were forced to recognize the administrative structure established by the Menelik and Haile in the early days. Without proper administration, Ethiopia would have been colonized by Italy. The Italian got much support to colonize Ethiopia from British, and other European colonists but the support did not work week for the colonist. It is pointed that during the resisted of colonialism, many people lost their lives. Several Ethiopia and Italians’ soldiers died CITATION Ben14 \p 21 \l 1033 (Talton 21). The Haile also died and this was the end of the Haile dynasty. However, the Menelik continued with the spirit and lead a strong fight against the Italia invasion and therefore, several people died to ensure that Ethiopia was never colonized.
Menelik strategically collaborated with Italian invasion for his advantage. He responded by seeking an alliance with Italian. In the treaty, which was signed in 1889 he accepted to cede the Eritrea territory and in return, he obtained money and other essential assets such as weapons. It helped him to build a strong alliance with other regions and a defensive military which could bravely face Italian soldiers. However, by design or an error in part of the Italian, the treaty had several errors which made it difficult to put to end constant conflicts. The fact that Ethiopia had constant conflicts with other neighbors from other empires made it difficult for the Italians to consolidate support and face the soldiers of Menelik which were strong and well organized.
However, in 1890, Italy declared Ethiopia its protectorate to prevent any other invaders from coming to Ethiopia. But Menelik dismissed the claim and declared that Ethiopia is not a protectorate of any imperialist. It is, therefore, important to point out that the fact that Ethiopia had a voice to speak to the rest of the world against the Italian. It made it easily for the empire to rally allies to support the removing of Italian and finally the declaration of independence of the country. It took the courage of 70000 Menelik's soldier to bring down Italian protectorate idea. Immediately, Italian claimed the protectorate, Menelik ordered his soldiers to move to north to face Italian troops. The repercussion could not be tolerated by the Italian citizens. Over 4000 soldiers died forcing Italian Prime Minister to resign due to public pressure CITATION Shi15 \p 21 \l 1033 (Shin, Spencer and Thottapilly 21). The war was not only Italians and Ethiopians, there was support from other countries like the United Kingdom was supporting Italy, "The United Kingdom supported the Italians to challenge Russian influence in Africa." (First Italo-Ethiopian War) In addition, Russia and France supported Ethiopia. "Ethiopia 190501746885supported by Russia, an Orthodox Christian nation like Ethiopia, with military advisers, army training, and… weapons for Ethiopian forces. The French also supported Ethiopia diplomatically in order to prevent Italy from becoming a colonial competitor.” (Principia) The war takes place in Ethiopia, which took place in the mountainous country north of the actual Image 1: Ethiopia wins the battle of Adwa. The battle occurred between the Italian soldiers and Menelik’s soldiers.
town of Adwa. The nation’s leader of Ethiopia was Emperor Menelik II and the Italian leader was Benito Mussolini. In this situation, Ethiopia wins the battle of Adwa. The fight takes over two days (1st/2nd March 1896). On this date in 1896, Ethiopian defeated the Italian colonial army in the battle of Adwa. The victory signaled the decline of European colonialism in black Africa. The Italian army, invading Ethiopia from Italian Eritrea in 1893, faced a more united front than they expected. Italian defeat came after the Battle of Adwa, where the Ethiopian army dealt the heavily outnumbered Italians a decisive blow and forced their retreat into Eritrea. In this war, a lot of peoples have died. "The Italians suffered about 7,000 killed during the battle with 3,000 taken prisoner (in addition, 1,200 Eritrean were killed while 800 were captured and later mutilated by the Ethiopians); the Ethiopian losses were estimated to be 4,000.” CITATION Ibr16 \p 27 \l 1033 (Anoba 27).
The resistant and win against Italy were achieved due to long resistance to the empire which occurred for a generation. The diverse cultural practices of Ethiopia also made it a strong nation to concur. It brought the country together to face Italian has a common enemy of the people. This worked well for Menelik because he did not need to get worried about internal competition. He focused on Italian and therefore, he used the united to counter all the measures which Italian could take to colonize his country. The Ethiopia church of orthodox made it difficult for the Italian system to be localized CITATION Alb98 \p 21 \l 1033 (Sbacchi 21). The Orthodox Church is the identity of Ethiopia, the church refused to subject itself to Rome. The catholic was only adopted by the upper-class citizens. This made it very difficult for the Italian mode of rules to be implemented in Ethiopia. It was difficult to convince Jews to accept catholic. This brought all ethics communities together to fight a common enemy to ensure that they do not lose their way of life.
The history resistance of colonialism by Ethiopia is essential for me because it provides abroad teachings of the importance of having a structured system. It is with no doubt that Ethiopia maintained consistence rebellion and fought the Italian army due to their unity. This can be applied in current generation where nations have been disintegrated CITATION Mic18 \p 21 \l 1033 (Michelson and Kelly 21). The internal conflicts and wars make a country weak and unity is the best option to build a proper country. It is important to ensure that unity is built consistently to cement the unity to give citizens a reason to work together. It also illustrates the system of transformation which occurred in the early day and the beginning of the globalization. However, without colonization which occurred in the early days, the world would be different today. It also shows that the colonized happened to nations which accepted it. Ethiopia was not colonized because of its previous wars amongst its which help it strengthen its military.
In conclusion, Ethiopia resisted colonialism because it had a strong administration system which could not be broken by invaders. The study also established that food secure and partnership with other countries made Ethiopia strong and therefore, it could stand against Ethiopia. It also established that the war of Adwa was a historical event in the resistant of the colonialism. The Italian soldiers were defeated and over 4000 Italian soldiers died. It forced the Italian citizens to stage a public protest demanding for the resignation of the Prime Minister for the losses. It is, therefore, important to point out that the achievement obtained by Ethiopia and win against Italian were achieved because of the leadership of Menelik. The Menelik signed treaties with other nations and leaders which made it difficult for Italian to create allies and therefore, the war became difficult for them to win. Compared to other countries, Ethiopia was much prepared to deal with colonists and as a result, it was difficult for Italian to colonize Ethiopia the way other nations in the region were colonized.
Works Cited
BIBLIOGRAPHY Anoba, Ibrahim. "Religion and Resistance: Ethiopian Anti-Imperialism." https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/religion-resistance-ethiopian-anti-imperialism-part-2 (2016): 4-38.
Boddy-Evans, Alistair. "Countries in Africa Considered Never Colonized." https://www.thoughtco.com/countries-in-africa-considered-never-colonized-43742 (2015): 2-34.
Michelson, Brenda M., and Martin H. Kelly. "What Led to the Boston Tea Party?" https://www.thoughtco.com/what-led-to-boston-tea-party-104875 (2018): 2-34.
Sbacchi, Alberto. "ITALIAN COLONIZATION IN ETHIOPIA: PLANS AND PROJECTS, 1936-1940." Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (IsIAO) (1998): 2-45.
Shin, Joshua, Richard Spencer, and Kiran Thottapilly. "Ethiopia's Resistance Against European Imperialism." (2015): 12-35.
Talton, Benjamin. "African Resistance to Colonial Rule." Complexities of Resistance (2014): 2-35.
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