Imperial Army of Abyssinia
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| guide | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Commander in Chief : |
Emperor of Abyssinia ( Negus ) lastly Haile Selassie |
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| Headquarters: | Addis Ababa | ||
| Military strength | |||
| Active soldiers: | 320,000 (1960) | ||
| Reservists: | 550,000 (1960) | ||
| Conscription: | Yes | ||
| Eligibility for military service: | |||
| household | |||
| Military budget: | N / A | ||
| Share of gross domestic product : | N / A | ||
| history | |||
| Founding: | 980 BC | ||
| Resolution: | 1974 | ||
| Replacement: | Armed Forces of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia | ||
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The Abyssinian Imperial Army was the military of the Abyssinian Empire . It consisted of an army, air force and, from 1952, a navy. In 1960, around 320,000 soldiers and around 550,000 reservists served in their three branches of the armed forces.
history
The armed forces of the Abyssinian Empire had a long history. According to legend, Abyssinia was founded around 980 BC and existed until 1974. Until the British Ethiopian expedition of 1868 , the troops of the empire succeeded in defending their territory consistently. The suicide of Tewodros II after the defeat in 1868 initially led to internal power struggles. But already under the rule of Emperor Menelik II , the imperial army conquered four times the original territory. During the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1895/96 it conquered several smaller areas on the territory of the present-day states of Eritrea , Sudan and Somalia and defeated the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy with around 100,000 men .
During the modernization under Haile Selassie , the army was comprehensively reorganized since 1917 (formation of the Kebur Zabagna guard unit ), but was defeated by the armed forces of Fascist Italy (including through the use of poison gas ) during the Abyssinian War of 1935/36 . Ethiopia briefly became part of Italian East Africa . From 1940 to 1941, Haile Selassies and troops from the British Empire liberated Abyssinia.
After the Second World War , the former Italian colony of Eritrea became part of the national territory and occupied by the army in 1952 . She set up several military bases there; the first navy in Africa was founded. In the 1960s, the armed forces were modernized again with Israeli help. After the Six Day War in 1967, military bases for the Israeli Defense Forces were set up on some islands in the province of Eritrea , which was particularly criticized by the Arab side. After tensions with Emperor Haile Selassie, parts of the army took part in the overthrow of the monarchy. The new communist regime ( Derg ) eliminated the armed forces and, with financial and military help from the Soviet Union, founded a completely new army, the armed forces of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia . These were replaced by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces after the victory of the Revolutionary Democratic Front of the Ethiopian Peoples in 1991 .
Workforce
- Active soldiers = 320,000 (1960)
- Reservists = 550,000 (1960)
literature
- Giulia Brogini Künzi: Italy and the Abyssinian War 1935/36. Colonial War or Total War? (= War in History. Vol. 23). Schoeningh, Paderborn u. a. 2006, ISBN 3-506-72923-3 (also: Bern, Universität, Dissertation, 2002) ( full text ).
- Michael Thöndl: The Abyssinian War and the Totalitarian Potential of Italian Fascism in Italian East Africa (1935–1941). In: Sources and research from Italian archives and libraries. 87, 2007, pp. 402-419.
- Bruce Vandervort: Wars of Imperial Conquest in Africa. 1830-1914. UCL Press, London 1998, ISBN 1-85728-487-9 ( Warfare and History ). (engl.)