British Ethiopia expedition of 1868

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The British Ethiopia Expedition of 1868 was a punitive expedition directed against the Emperor of Ethiopia Theodor II . He had previously captured several missionaries and two representatives of the British government. The campaign required the transport of a sizeable army for hundreds of miles in mountainous terrain with no roads.

background

By October 1862, Emperor Theodor II found himself in an increasingly dangerous situation. Much of Ethiopia rebelled against him. Only a small area between Lake Tana and its Magdala fortress to the east stood by him. The emperor fought incessantly against insurgents. In order to restore his position, he ultimately called on some great powers for help. Donald Crummey reports: “Now the final attempt was made, at the turning point in the emperor's career. Success could stabilize the internal situation; defeat would tear away the last support. He suggested sending envoys to achieve military alliances and agreements for technical progress. "

Theodor sent letters to Russia , Prussia , Austria , France and Great Britain. As far as is known, only the French government responded, making claims on behalf of a Lazarist mission in Hamasia , on the edge of Theodor's empire. The first European theodore met after this non-response was Henry Stern , a British missionary. In a book, Stern had mentioned the emperor's descent from poor backgrounds. Although the text was not meant to be derogatory ("the eventful and romantic story of the man who rose from a poor boy in a reed monastery ... to conqueror of numerous provinces and ruler over a large, vast empire"), it turned out to be a dangerous mistake. At that time Theodore insisted on his true descent from the Solomonic dynasty . His anger was expressed in various ways, including having Stern's servant beaten to death and together with Rosenthal, Stern was "chained up, treated severely and the latter beaten several times."

The British consul Charles Duncan Cameron tried to mediate together with the Abuna Salama and some missionaries from Gafat to get the two prisoners free. For a time it seemed that her efforts would be crowned with success. On January 2, 1864, however, Cameron and his employees were caught and chained. Shortly thereafter, most of the Europeans in the royal camp suffered this fate.

The British government sent Hormuzd Rassam to negotiate a solution to this crisis. Due to "security issues in Tigray , the indecision of the king and constant confusion about the orders of the ambassador", Rassam's arrival at Theodor's camp was delayed until January 1866.

At first it seemed as if Rassam's intervention was to be crowned with success and the hostages freed, although CT Beke had sent letters from the hostages' families requesting their release, which further unsettled the already suspicious Theodor. Meanwhile, the Emperor Theodore became increasingly unpredictable: friendly gestures towards Rassam were followed by paranoid accusations and violence against anyone who was near him. Ultimately, Rassam himself became a prisoner and one of the missionaries was sent out with this news and the current demands of Theodor (June 1866). The Emperor finally moved all of his European prisoners to his Magdala fortress and continued his talks with the British until Queen Victoria announced on August 21, 1867 her decision to send a military delegation to free the hostages.

The campaign

Warships and transporters of the Royal Navy off Zula, 1868
British Indian Army troops in camp, 1868
Magdala fortress on fire after the British expeditionary army defeated Theodore of Ethiopia

From Alan Moorehead's point of view, “there has not been a comparable campaign by a colonial power in modern times as that of the British in Ethiopia in 1868. From beginning to end it was the decency and inevitability of a Victorian state banquet. Even cumbersome final speeches were not dispensed with. Still, it was a terrifying undertaking because no one had invaded the country for centuries and the wild nature of the terrain alone favored a possible failure. "

The task was transferred to the British Indian Army and Lieutenant General Napier was given command of the expeditionary army. We carefully collected information about Ethiopia , calculated the size of the army to be deployed and estimated the expected needs beforehand. “For example, 44 trained elephants were brought in from India to carry the heavy weapons on the march, and delegations tried to find mules and camels for the lighter equipment across the Mediterranean and Middle East. A railway line for twenty miles was to be built in the coastal plain and a large pier, lighthouses and warehouses were to be built at the landing site. "

The force consisted of 13,000 British and Indian soldiers, 26,000 civilians and more than 40,000 animals, including the elephants mentioned above. The troops set sail from Bombay with more than 280 steam and sailing ships. The vanguard consisting of engineers landed at Zula on the Red Sea in mid-October 1867, about 30 miles south of Massaua, and began building a port. After a month there was already a 640 meter long pier, a second was completed in the first week of December and the railway line already reached inland. At the same time a vanguard under Sir William Lockyer Merewether had advanced along the dry bed of the Kumayli River to the Suru Pass, where engineers were building a road to Senafe for the elephants, carriages and carts.

Merewether sent two letters from Senafe from Lieutenant General Napier: one to the Emperor Theodore, demanding the release of the hostages, and the second to the Ethiopians, in which he announced that he was only interested in the release of the prisoners and only hostile intentions against those who tried to oppose him. The first letter was intercepted and destroyed by Rassam, who feared that an ultimatum Theodore could raise against the prisoners. Napier reached Zula on January 2, 1868, where he put the final touches on his plan of advance before continuing on to Senafe on January 25.

It took Napier's army three months to cover the 400 miles of mountainous terrain to the foot of the imperial fortress in Magdala. In Antalo , Napier negotiated with Ras Kassai, the later Emperor Yohannes IV , who assured him support, which the British urgently needed in their single-minded march to Magdala. Without the help, or at least indifference, from the local peoples, the British expedition would never have reached its destination deep in the Ethiopian highlands . On March 17th, the army reached Lake Ashangi , 100 miles from their destination. In order to further reduce their luggage, the men were given half rations.

Meanwhile, Emperor Theodor's facade of invincibility was shaken. At the beginning of 1865 he only controlled Begemder , Wadla and Delanta with the Magdala fortress. He strove to maintain the strength of his army , which, according to Sven Rubenson, was his only instrument of power. By mid-1867, however, his army had been reduced to 10,000 men by deserters.

As the British marched south on Magdala, Theodore advanced from the west along the Beshitta River. He carried cannons with him that European missionaries and foreign craftsmen had built in Gafat at his request, including his showpiece, the mighty Sebastopol . The emperor tried to get to Magdala before the British. Although he had a shorter path to travel, the success of this venture was not assured. In fact, he got there just days before his opponents. On April 9, the first forces of the British Army arrived at Beshitta and "crossed the river barefoot the following morning, Good Friday, filling their water bottles."

On April 13th , the only field battle of this war broke out at the foot of the fortress, on the Aroge plateau . The Ethiopians were put to flight. While no one was killed on the British side, more than 700 of Theodor's men had died and 1,200 others were wounded in just two hours. A few days later, when the British-Indian expeditionary force set out to storm Magdala , Theodor committed suicide to avoid capture.

Structure of the British expeditionary force

  • High Command (General Napier, Chief of Staff Colonel Thesiger )
  • 1st Division (Major General Staveley)
    • 1st Brigade (Brigadier General Schneider)
    • 2nd Brigade (Brigadier General Wilby, Chief of Staff William Hicks )
  • 2nd Division (Major General Malcom)
    • Antalo Garrison (Brigadier General Collings)
    • Adigrat Garrison (Brigadier General Fairbrother)
    • Sanafé Garrison (Brigadier General Stewart)
    • Zulu Brigade (Brigadier General Russel)

consequences

The British troops on their march back to Zula.

The British entered the capital and Sir Robert authorized his troops, before leaving Ethiopia, to plunder and burn Magdala and its churches as a punitive measure. His army returned to Zula the same way, as Moorehead writes: “an impressive procession with bands and flags. But the army soon realized that they had not earned any gratitude in Ethiopia; they were seen as another warlike tribe on the move. Now that they withdrew like weak beaten men, they offered an obvious target for attack. ”Ras Kassai was rewarded in Senafe for his services with a considerable number of weapons, ammunition and bearings, which later helped him in the rise to emperor. On June 2, Napier arrived in Zula. The base camp was dismantled and Napier boarded the Feroze in the direction of England through the Suez Canal on June 10th .

The British expedition took with them many treasures, manuscripts and relics such as tabots , which are now in various European museums and libraries as well as with private collectors. The manuscripts sparked interest in Ethiopian studies in the West.

Some of the pieces have since been returned to Ethiopia. The most important of these was Theodors II's crown, which George V personally presented to the future Emperor Haile Selassie during his visit to Great Britain in 1925.

With the completion of their mission, the British Army returned home. Napier was named Baron Napier of Magdala in recognition of his success .

literature

  • Donald Featherstone: Victorian Colonial Warfare - AFRICA. Cassell, London 1992, ISBN 0-304-34174-6 .
  • Volker Matthies: Magdala Company. Punitive expedition in Ethiopia. Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-572-0 .
  • Alan Moorehead : The Blue Nile . Revised edition. Hamilton, London 1972, ISBN 0-241-02175-8 .
  • Gerhard Rohlfs : On behalf of His Majesty the King of Prussia with the English Expedition Corps in Abyssinia. Kühtmann, Bremen 1869.
  • Peter C. Smith: Victoria's Victories . Spellmount, Tunbridge Wells 1987, ISBN 0-946771-17-0 .
  • Brian Bond: Victorian Military Campaigns . London 1967, ISBN 1-871085-21-7

References and comments

  1. ↑ Donald Crummey: Priests and Politicians. 1972 Tsehai (Hollywood 2007), p. 134.
  2. ^ Sven Rubenson: King of Kings: Tewodros of Ethiopia. Haile Selassie I University (Addis Ababa 1966), p. 84.
  3. ↑ The former diplomat Paul B. Henze points out that it was not just a matter of indifference: "The letter was written in Amharic and sent to Germany for translation." Paul B. Henze: Layers of Time, A History of Ethiopia . Palgrave (New York 2000), p. 138.
  4. ↑ Wanderings among the Falashas . Wertheim, Macintosh, and Hunt (London 1862), p. 62.
  5. ↑ Crummey: Priests and Politicians. P. 135.
  6. ↑ Crummey: Priests and Politicians. S. 137. The exception was a group of German craftsmen who continued to get along well with the Kaiser and were never imprisoned.
  7. ↑ Crummey: Priests and Politicians. P. 138.
  8. ↑ Moorehead: The Blue Nile. P. 232f.
  9. ↑ Moorehead: The Blue Nile. P. 262.
  10. ↑ Moorehead: The Blue Nile. P. 266.
  11. ↑ Moorehead: The Blue Nile. P. 270.
  12. ↑ Moorehead: The Blue Nile. contains the letter to Theodor on p. 271, and that to "the Governors, the Chiefs, the Religious Orders, and the People of Ethiopia" on p. 271f.
  13. ↑ Moorehead: The Blue Nile. P. 284.
  14. ^ Rubenson: King of Kings. P. 81.
  15. ↑ Moorehead: The Blue Nile. P. 288.
  16. ^ Peter C. Smith: Victoria's Victories p. 91.
  17. ^ Brian Bond: Victorian Military Campaigns, p. 157.
  18. ↑ Moorehead: The Blue Nile. P. 309f.
  19. ^ Moorehead, The Blue Nile , p. 310.

See also