The Battle of Adua took place on March 1, 1896. It was the decisive battle in the war between Italy and Ethiopia in 1895-96. It represents one of the heaviest defeats in the history of the Italian Army and put an end to the first phase (1881-96) of Italian colonialism.
The battle of Adua - The premises: the treaty of Uccialli
During the CrispI government, on 2 May 1889, the Treaty of Uccialli was signed between the Italian government and the Ethiopian negus Menelik II.
The agreement was drawn up in Aramaic and Italian, in two non-corresponding versions. It recognized Italy's possessions on the Red Sea and in the immediate hinterland, which would give rise to the Eritrean colony from January 1890. However, the Italian version of the treaty was broader and more articulated and included Menelik's acceptance of an Italian protectorate on his domains.
Menelik, on the other hand, wanted to preserve Ethiopia's independence, deal as equals with the Europeans and rejected the hypotheses of protectorate put forward by the Italian interpretation of Uccialli's treaty.
The occupation of the Tigré
Francesco Crispi, who returned to government in December 1893, began to urge Colonel Oreste Baratieri, governor of the Colony of Eritrea, to expand Italian possessions towards the Tigré, the Ethiopian area on the border with Eritrea.
Baratieri began to organize some expeditions, provoking the reaction of the ras (the governors of the provinces of the Empire). After an anti-Italian rebellion fomented by Mangascià, the ras del Tigré, in December 1894 Baratieri reacted by bringing the Italian troops to Adua, considered a "holy city" because an ancient law forbade them to execute capital sentences and because close to Axum, where it was thought the biblical Ark of the Alliance was kept.
In response, Mangascià began the invasion of Eritrea. Italian troops repelled him and invaded the Tigré. At the end of March 1895, when they annexed the conquering territories to the Colony of Eritrea, they arrived in Aigrat and Macallé and occupied Adua, which remained in Italian hands for the next eight months.
The war between Italy and Ethiopia
The negus Menelik II could not accept the loss of the Tigress. After reorganizing and arming a large and deeply motivated army, on September 17, 1895, he launched an appeal for general mobilization, to which they responded between 80,000 and 120,000 men, who placed themselves under the orders of talented commanders.
Menelik then turned his troops against the Italians to repel them to Eritrea. In a short time, the Italian troops suffered hard defeats and kept only the outpost of Adigrat. Behind them, in the meantime, numerous rebellions developed, to which the Italians responded with fires, summary executions, and raids.
The Battle of Adua
In February, the Ethiopian army settled in Adua, not far from the Italian camp. On 29 February 1896, Baratieri, driven by both his generals and Crispi, decided to carry out an "offensive demonstration" and to move four brigades - about 20,000 men, including Eritrean fighters recruited from Italian colonial troops (axes) - to the Ethiopian camp, whose military strength he underestimated. The four brigade commanders were Albertone, Arimondi, Dabormida and Ellena.
The Italian troops immediately encountered difficulties. Due to the lack of coordination and errors in the maps they were equipped with, they lost contact with each other. On the morning of March 1, 1896, Albertone's brigade was defeated in a few hours and the general was taken prisoner.
Shortly afterward, the Dabormida brigade also made a mistake and was overwhelmed by the Abyssinians: the same general died in the battles. The same fate came for Arimondi, on the third front of the battle. Everywhere Menelik's troops, in overwhelming numerical superiority, faced and defeated the Italian brigades.
The Italian retreat was disastrous. The tiredness of the soldiers, the harshness of the ground, the continuous enemy attacks turned it into a real defeat. The Italian troops lost cannons and rifles and almost 2000 Italians and 800 axes were taken prisoner. The latter were punished for fighting against the negus with the amputation of their right hand and left foot.
Menelik, victorious, decided to put an end to the hostilities, leaving to the Italians the territories north of the Mareb.
The news of the defeat reached Italy and in many cities the population demonstrated against the war and the Crispi government. Crispi was forced to resign, while Baratieri, abandoned by the ruling class, was tried by the military court and expelled from the Army.
The Treaty of Addis Ababa
The peace treaty was signed in Addis Ababa on October 26, 1896. Italy paid an indemnity for the release of the prisoners and recognized the full Ethiopian independence.
After a year the Italian prisoners returned home.