The Battle of Adwa

Why this matters

Article 17 of the Treaty of Wichale said one thing in Amharic and another in Italian, and that gap is what Italy used to claim Ethiopia as a protectorate it never agreed to. Menelik II answered by mobilizing a national army of well over 100,000 soldiers, backed by leaders like Empress Taytu Betul, Ras Alula, and Ras Makonnen, before the sides met at Adwa.

Crediting Ethiopia's win to Italian weather or bad maps erases everyone who planned it, so this lesson centers Menelik's own 1895 proclamation, written before the fighting started. Reading his reasoning in his own words turns Adwa from an upset into a victory built on strategy and agency.

From one teacher to another

Ethiopia won at Adwa because Italy had bad luck with weather and faulty maps, or so too many textbooks still tell it. I center the activity on Menelik II's own 1895 proclamation instead, since it shows a leader who'd already sized up the treaty dispute correctly and moved a force past 100,000 soldiers into position before the fighting started. Empress Taytu Betul and the generals beside her, Ras Alula no less than Ras Makonnen, get proper credit here, and the lesson ends with the 1896 treaty that secured Ethiopian independence.