The battle of Adua ( Italian: Battaglia di Adua ) - the decisive battle of the Italo-Ethiopian war of 1895-1896, occurred on March 1, 1896 near the city of Adua .
| The Battle of Adua | |||
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| Main Conflict: Italo-Ethiopian War | |||
 Combat map ("The Military Encyclopedia of Sytin ") | |||
| date | March 1, 1896 | ||
| A place | near the city of Adua | ||
| Total | Ethiopian victory | ||
| Opponents | |||
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| Commanders | |||
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| Forces of the parties | |||
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| Losses | |||
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Content
The balance of power
The Italian corps under the command of General Orest Baratieri numbered about 20 thousand people, but some of them were natives. On February 28, 1896, Italian Prime Minister Francesco Crispi sent a telegram to General Baratieri with a categorical demand to immediately launch a decisive attack and defeat the enemy [2] .
The strength of the Ethiopian army was more than 80 thousand soldiers [2] , possibly about 90 thousand people, including 80 thousand infantry and 8.6 thousand cavalry. The battle involved soldiers from all areas of the country. In terms of training, armament and equipment, the Ethiopian feudal army was significantly inferior to Italians; the armament of the soldiers had outdated flintlock rifles and bows.
On the side of Emperor Menelik there were Russian volunteers from the group of N. S. Leontiev [3] [4] .
Battle Progress
Italian forces were divided into three columns.
As a result of active reconnaissance, the command of the Ethiopian army established the location and movement routes of the Italian units, which allowed for a concentration of forces against the convoy of General Albertoni. As a result, the first convoy under the command of General Albertoni, which was the first to attack Ethiopian troops, was surrounded and defeated [5] .
The second column under the command of General J. Arimondi was attacked by the 30,000th army led by Emperor Menelik II and was also defeated. On this section of the front there were also tiger troops (from representatives of the tiger people, the main population of present-day Eritrea) under the command of the Mengesi race.
The most fierce battle took place on a section of the front of General Vittorio Dabormida, who was attacked by the 30-thousandth army of the race Mekonnyna . During the 10-hour battle, the Italians were surrounded, and General Dabormida was killed.
Results
Italian troops lost 11 thousand people killed and wounded, up to 4 thousand were captured. Ethiopian trophies were artillery pieces and a large number of other weapons and military equipment [5] . Among the dead were 2 generals and 250 officers [6] .
After the battle, during the retreat, Italian troops suffered additional losses as a result of attacks by hostile locals [2] . In total, 56 officers and 2,500 soldiers went to the location of Italian troops in Addi Keih, and another 800 went to Asmara [7] . Subsequently, the Italian troops went over to the defense on the Gura - Seganaiti - Khalai line and in previously captured cities [6] .
The losses of the Ethiopian army amounted to 5 thousand people killed and (according to various estimates) from 6 to 10 thousand people wounded [5] .
Consequences
The defeat of the Italian troops put an end to the Italo-Ethiopian war of 1895-1896 [2] .
On October 26, 1896, a peace treaty was signed in Addis Ababa, according to which Italy was forced to recognize Ethiopia 's sovereignty and pay indemnity [2] .
Memory, Reflection in Culture and Art
- The film "Adwa - An African Victory" (Ethiopia, 1999)
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Italo-Ethiopian Wars // Africa. Encyclopedic reference book (in 2 vols). volume 1. M., "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1986. p. 593
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 " Baratieri advanced the Adowa with 20,000 men against an army four times that size "
Adowa, Battle of // The New Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th edition. Micropedia Vol. 1. Chicago 1994. p. 106 - ↑ K.V. Vinogradova. The participation of Yesaul of the Kuban Cossack Army N. S. Leontyev in the events of the Italo-Ethiopian war
- ↑ N. Scourge. Cossacks at the Emperor Menelik II Archival copy of July 16, 2015 on the Wayback Machine // literary magazine "Creative Russia", 08/02/2011
- ↑ 1 2 3 The Italo-Ethiopian War of 1895–1896 // Soviet Military Encyclopedia (8 vols.) / Ed. N.V. Ogarkov. volume 3, M., Military Publishing, 1977. p. 651-652
- ↑ 1 2 G.V. Tsypkin, V.S. Yagya. The history of Ethiopia in modern and recent times. M., "Science", 1989. p. 109
- ↑ G.V. Tsypkin. Ethiopia in the anti-colonial wars. M., "Science", 1988. p. 190
Literature
- Orlov N.A. The Italians in Abyssinia. 1870-1896. - SPb., 1897.
- GF-H. Berkeley. The campaign of Adowa and the rise of Menelik. London, 1935.
- V.T. Popov. The defeat of the Italians under Adua. M., 1938.
- R. Battaglia. La primera guerra d'Africa. Torino, 1958.
- A. Bartnitsky, I. Mantel-Nechko. History of Ethiopia (translated from Polish). M., Progress, 1976.