Battle of Coatit

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Battle of Coatit
Contemporary heroization in an Italian magazine
Contemporary heroization in an Italian magazine
date January 13, 1895 to January 14, 1895
place Coatit, Italian Eritrea
output draw
consequences Battle of Senafe on January 15th
Parties to the conflict

Ethiopian Pennants.svg Tigray

Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Italy

Commander

Mengesha Yohannes

Oreste Baratieri
Giuseppe Arimondi
Giuseppe Galliano
Pietro Toselli
Federico Ciccodicola
Stefano Hidalgo

Troop strength
at least 10,000 men 3883 men (including 3684 Askaris), 4 cannons
losses

1500 dead, 3000 wounded

95 dead, 228 wounded

In the Battle of Coatit on January 13th and 14th, 1895, Italian colonial troops and Ethiopian troops met. It is classified by some historians as the beginning of the Italo-Ethiopian War , while others assign it to the end of the previous Eritrea War .

prehistory

The Italian military governor of Eritrea, General Oreste Baratieri , suspected the ruler of the neighboring Ethiopian province of Tigray , Ras Mengesha Yohannes, to be behind the uprising of the Bahta Hagos, which failed in the Battle of Halai on December 17, 1894 . At least the surviving leaders of the uprising (Bahta's brother Sengel Hagos) had fled to Tigray and joined Ras Mengesha's army. In the same month Baratieri had crossed the border with a small contingent, had invaded Tigray and briefly occupied Adua on December 29, 1894 , but then retreated behind the border to call for reinforcements for a more extensive and far-reaching attack waiting. Although he could not count on active support from the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II at first, Ras Mengesha decided to attack the Italians in Eritrea before Baratieri would have gathered all the colonial troops in the region.

Attack on Coatit

Ras Mengesha's hasty campaign was ill-prepared. In addition, barely two thirds of his troops had rifles and again only a few ammunition. A few kilometers west of Adi Keyh , in the village of Coatit (also: Koatit, Kewatit, Kweatit, Kwatit, Qwatit, Quatit ), Akele Guzai district, Baratieri opposed him on January 13th and 14th, 1895. When the Tigray had already broken up the front ranks of the Italians, Baratieri's deputy, General Giuseppe Arimondi, came up with fresh reinforcements and saved the Italians from defeat. At dusk, both sides broke off the battle. Ras Mengesha's army had suffered much higher losses than the Italians and hardly any ammunition. The next morning, when he learned of the approach of further Italian reinforcements, Ras Mengesha decided to retreat to Tigray.

  • Tigrinians and Italians met at Coatit

  • The Tigrins tried to bypass the Italians

  • Persecution of the Tigrins by Eritrean Askari

Retreat to Senafe

Although the Battle of Coatit actually ended in a draw, some historians consider it to be inextricably linked to the immediately following Battle of Senafe and therefore an Italian victory. General Baratieri had pursued the retreating Ras Mengesha and arrested him on January 15, 1895 at Senafe , only a few kilometers from Coatit, and this time he was devastatingly beaten.

reception

In conscious memory of the Battle of Coatit, a cruiser of the Italian Navy was christened Coatit as early as 1897 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g David Hamilton Shinn: Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia , pp. 69, 73 and 273.Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2013
  2. ↑ a b c Enciclopedia Italiana (1933): Guerra Italo-Abissina
  3. ↑ a b c Andrzej Bartnicki, Joanna Mantel-Niećko: History of Ethiopia - From the beginnings to the present , part 1, pages 323 and 330f. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1978

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