Battle for Magdala

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Battle for Magdala
Magdala shortly before its destruction in April 1868
Magdala shortly before its destruction in April 1868
date April 13, 1868
place Magdala , Amhara Region , Ethiopia
output British victory
Parties to the conflict

United Kingdom 1801United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland United Kingdom

Abyssinia

Commander

Robert Cornelis Napier

Tewodros II. †

losses

10 seriously wounded and five slightly wounded

around 65 killed and 120 injured warriors and civilians

The Battle of Magdala took place on April 13, 1868 and was the end of the British Ethiopia expedition of 1867/68 . After several hours of bombardment, British troops stormed the mountain fortress in which the Ethiopian ruler Tewodros II had entrenched himself. The fighting ended after around 15 minutes; Tewodros II committed suicide so as not to get into captivity.

Starting position

In 1855 the British Foreign Office had sent its consul in Massaua to Tewodros II in order to conclude a friendship and trade treaty with him, in which Great Britain was also interested because the region around the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea were strategically important for securing the sea route to India. It was thanks to the British consul's diplomatic skill that friendly relations were soon established between him and the Ethiopian negusa nagast (English: "King of kings"). After his death, his successor Charles Duncan Cameron, who arrived at the ruling court in 1862, also benefited from the benevolence that Tewodros II had shown the British consul .

Tewodros II presented him with a letter to the British Queen on October 29, 1862, in which he asked her for help in his fight against Islam and the "Turks" (the Egyptians were meant by this expression). With this letter, Tewodros II, who was confronted with an increasing number of opponents domestically, also linked the hope of being able to modernize his country and raise its prestige again with technical assistance from Great Britain . The lack of a response to his letter and Cameron's trip to the border area with Sudan , which was ruled by his “mortal enemy” Egypt, not only aroused suspicion but also increased bitterness among Tewodros. His anger finally discharged against the Anglican missionary Henry Aaron Stern, who had good relations with Abuna Salama, the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and at the same time one of the main opponents of the negusa nagast . In 1863, on Tewodros' orders, Stern was flogged and chained. When Great Britain dismissed Consul Cameron and ordered him back to Massaua, Tewodros reacted unceremoniously in January 1864 with the arrest of the consul, whom he had chained and brought to Magdala fortress with other Europeans who gradually fell into his hands.

There followed a long diplomatic tug-of-war between Great Britain and Tewodros, which ultimately not only remained fruitless, but also led to Tewodros taking hostage the British negotiators sent to his court for the negotiations . From the British point of view, the Ethiopian ruler's actions represented a blatant breach of the then applicable international law and, not least due to corresponding reports in the British press, was viewed by an increasing public as a humiliation of the Empire by a “fourth-tier native potentate ” who was also considered a unpredictable "savage" was considered, respected. On August 13, 1867, the British government therefore decided to forcibly end the hostage drama by sending a punitive expedition to free the hostages and restore Britain's (supposedly) tarnished reputation in the world.

Robert Cornelis Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala

For this purpose a force commanded by Robert Cornelis Napier , which together with the logistical and other personnel comprised more than 60,000 men, was sent to Ethiopia from India . At the end of January 1868 the British advance on Magdala began, where Tewodros, who had meanwhile been completely isolated internally, had withdrawn. On April 9, the British expeditionary force was not far from the mountain fortress. On its advance it had not encountered any resistance and was even supported by local princes like Kassa (i) Mercha , who were in opposition to Tewodros. After Tewodros' only attempt to decide the situation militarily in his favor on April 10th in the Battle of Aroge had ended in a heavy defeat, he decided literally at the last minute to give in, released all his hostages and sent one "Peace gift" in the form of a herd of cattle to the British camp.

Contrary to Tewodros' expectations, the British commander-in-chief returned the "peace gift" and also demanded the unconditional submission of the Ethiopian ruler, to whom he guaranteed security for his life and that of his family. However, Tewodros' pride in rulership ruled out a surrender to the British and, after his attempt to secretly leave Magdala had failed, he dismissed most of his army and prepared with the few remaining supporters who were absolutely loyal to him for the now unavoidable British assault.

procedure

British soldiers present themselves to the photographer at the Kafi Bur gate

The British assault on Magdala fortress began on April 13, 1868, an Easter Monday, around 9:00 a.m. with several hours of bombardment by British artillery and missiles from the Naval Brigade , the latter alone firing around 200 missiles. Around 20 Ethiopian warriors and civilians fell victim to this bombardment, and 120 others were wounded, some seriously.

At 4:00 p.m., after an hour-long ascent to the fortress, the storm troops, consisting of members of the 4th Regiment of Foot and the 33rd (Duke of Wellington's) Regiment of Foot , began the actual assault. Ethiopian resistance rose at the Kafi Bur gate, which secured access to the fortress. With no explosives on hand, the gate was pushed open by the British with crowbars , but it turned out that the path behind the gate was almost impassable because it was filled with stones to a height of 12 feet . Because the Ethiopian gate guards had kept a constant fire on the British soldiers who were busy breaking open the gate, this brief episode of the Magdala storm with nine men also accounted for the majority of the British wounded. The battle at this point, however, had quickly neared its end after soldiers of the 33rd Regiment of Foot discovered a place where the fortress walls could be overcome with a scaling ladder and then fell to the flanks of the gate guards .

The corpse of Tewodro after the capture of Magdala

The British soldiers quickly followed the Ethiopian defenders of the gate, who retreated along boulders and barracks onto a second narrow gateway, and soon reached the top of the fortress, where the British flag was hoisted. Now the last Ethiopian defenders surrendered. In view of the hopeless situation, Tewodros urged the last of his followers to flee and then killed himself with a pistol shot in the mouth. On the British side, the storm on the Magdala fortress had a total of 15 lightly and seriously injured, while the Ethiopian side left 45 dead.

There were also numerous Abyssinians among the liberated. Both women and the son of Emperor Theodore fell into the hands of the English. The first with the name Durenesch , with whom he had three children, of whom only the eldest, 7-year-old son, named Alamayo, was still alive. The second wife, Tamena, was the former widow of a Uedjo boss and, along with her two children from her first marriage, also fell into the hands of the English, as well as many members of the Abyssinian upper class.

consequences

Tewodros' suicide had robbed the British of the triumph of catching him alive, but the aims of the punitive expedition had nonetheless been fully achieved. The reputation of Great Britain could be regarded as restored and the extremely careful planning and professional handling of the company made a huge impression on the military observers from other countries who were allowed to accompany the expedition.

The Africa researcher Gerhard Rohlfs , who participated as a Prussian observer and published his experiences in literary form, noticed that the company had enormous amounts of money at its disposal to meet the needs of the Abyssinian population for food. Looting among the population apparently did not take place. Napier's actions are felt by him hesitantly, then, under the danger of the beginning rainy season, as hasty.

Shortly after the capture of Magdala, the British Expeditionary Force began preparations for a swift retreat to the Red Sea coast. Before that, however, Magdala was thoroughly plundered, with the British having carried numerous and in some cases extremely valuable Ethiopian cultural assets out of the country as spoils of war. Quite a few of these objects are still in Great Britain today. In 1999 the organization AFROMET ( acronym for Association For the Return Of the Magdala Ethiopian Treasures ) was founded, which has been fighting for the restitution of these cultural assets ever since .

Gerhard Rohlfs also viewed the looting of Magdala critically. It is noted that the personal gifts that the German hostage Eduard Zander received from Theodor were also confiscated and auctioned. However, he later received the value in cash. However, Napiers' personal conduct is said to be flawless.

Depiction of the burning Magdala fortress in the London Illustrated News

The fortifications and the weapons and ammunition stocks found in the fort were completely destroyed by the British on April 17th before they left. After all of the 37 Ethiopian guns had been destroyed, the fortress walls and gates were systematically blown up and the buildings, which were mostly huts made of easily combustible materials, were set on fire. The church of Magdala, which should have been spared, also fell victim to the rapidly spreading fire.

The returning troops and their commander-in-chief received a triumphant reception in Great Britain. Napier was awarded the title of Baron Napier of Magdala and the Order of Bath for success in this campaign , other troops who had distinguished themselves were awarded the Abyssinian War Medal . Those two men of the 33rd Regiment of Foot, Private James Bergin and drummer Michael Magner ( aka Barry), who were the first to overcome the obstacles behind the Kafi-Bur gate and take up close combat with the defenders of the gate, received the Victoria Cross awarded. The two were the only ones who had received this highest award for outstanding bravery in the face of the enemy in the course of the British expedition to Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia itself, the power struggles between the individual princes who had already started before Tewodros' death, and which ultimately also concerned his successor, continued unabated. For a long time, these and subsequent events prevented the formation of a culture of remembrance . Today, however, many Ethiopians consider him a "national hero and his fight against the British in Magdala as a heroic act of anti-colonial resistance."

literature

References and comments

  1. ↑ The journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley who was traveling on the British side wrote about this battle, which had cost the Ethiopians up to 700 dead: “ Against shell-vomiting cannon, and against a very wall of fire, discharging bullets by the hundreds to their one , what could matchlocks and spears effect? "Quoted from Piers Brendon: The Rise and Fall of the British Empire 1781-1997 , London 2008, p. 157.
  2. ↑ All information given here on the prehistory of the British Ethiopia expedition of 1867/68 and the events up to the storm on Magdala are based on Matthies (2010), pp. 22–28, 35–44, 75–112.
  3. ↑ On the assault on Magdala cf. Matthies (2010), pp. 113-124.
  4. ↑ Gerhard Rohlfs, on behalf of Sr. Majesty of the King of Prussia with the English Expedition Corps in Abyssinia , Bremen 1869, pp. 173,174
  5. ↑ See, for example, Matthies (2010), pp. 163–165.
  6. ↑ Gerhard Rohlfs, On behalf of Sr. Majesty of the King of Prussia with the English Expedition Corps in Abyssinia , Bremen 1869, mentioned several times
  7. ↑ On the looting of Ethiopian art and cultural assets, the removal of which is said to have required 15 elephants and 200 mules , cf. Matthies (2010), pp. 124-126 and 131-135.
  8. ↑ Gerhard Rohlfs, On behalf of Sr. Majesty of the King of Prussia with the English Expedition Corps in Abyssinia , Bremen 1869, p. 176, foreword VI
  9. ↑ Kevin Brazier: The Complete Victoria Cross: A Full Chronological Record of All Holders of Britain's Highest Award for Gallantry. Fully Revised and Updated Paperback Edition. Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley 2015, ISBN 978-1-4738-4351-6 .
  10. ↑ Matthies (2010), p. 170.
Due to the complicated transcription from Amharic , the spelling of Ethiopian proper names can be different in different publications.