Was Ethiopia Colonised? Adwa, Occupation and Independence

Was Ethiopia colonised? The short answer is: not in the way almost every other African country was, but the popular phrase "never colonised" needs a qualification. Ethiopia defeated an Italian invasion at the Battle of Adwa in 1896 and kept its independence through the Scramble for Africa. Then, from 1936 to 1941, Fascist Italy occupied much of the country after a brutal invasion, until Ethiopian resistance and British and Commonwealth forces drove it out.

So the honest version is this: Ethiopia was never turned into a long-term European colony, but it was invaded and occupied for about five years. Many historians call that period an occupation rather than colonisation, and Ethiopians often stress that it was resisted throughout. Both parts of the story matter.

The road to Adwa

By the late nineteenth century, European powers had claimed most of Africa. Italy had established its colony of Eritrea on the Red Sea coast and wanted more. In 1889, Emperor Menelik II signed the Treaty of Wuchale with Italy. The trouble lay in Article 17. In the Amharic text, Ethiopia could use Italy to conduct its foreign relations if it wished. In the Italian text, it was required to. Italy used its version to claim Ethiopia as a protectorate. Menelik rejected the claim, and after years of rising tension, Italian forces advanced from Eritrea into northern Ethiopia.

Menelik's response was to mobilise on a scale few expected. Regional rulers and their armies answered the call, and a very large Ethiopian force, armed with modern rifles as well as traditional weapons, marched north.

Menelik, Taytu and the Battle of Adwa

On 1 March 1896, near the town of Adwa, the Italian army under General Oreste Baratieri attacked in several columns over difficult mountain terrain. The columns lost contact with one another and were defeated one by one. Italy lost several thousand soldiers in a single day, one of the heaviest defeats suffered by a European colonial army in Africa.

Empress Taytu Betul was far more than a royal consort. She was a shrewd political adviser who had opposed the Wuchale treaty, she commanded her own troops in the campaign, and tradition credits her with helping to cut the water supply to the Italian garrison at Mekelle in the months before the battle. Her place beside Menelik is a central part of how Adwa is remembered.

Later in 1896, the Treaty of Addis Ababa annulled the Wuchale treaty and Italy recognised Ethiopia's full independence. Other European powers soon sent diplomats to Menelik's court.

It is worth adding one honest complication. In the same period, Menelik's state was expanding south and west, bringing many peoples, including much of the Oromo population, under imperial rule. How that expansion is remembered differs among Ethiopia's communities, and it remains a sensitive subject. Adwa was a victory over European conquest; it was not the whole story of the Ethiopian empire.

The Italian occupation, 1936 to 1941

Italy did not forget Adwa. In October 1935, Mussolini's forces invaded from Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. Ethiopia appealed to the League of Nations, which it had joined in 1923, but sanctions were limited and did little to stop the war. Italian forces used aircraft and chemical weapons, including mustard gas, against soldiers and civilians. Addis Ababa fell in May 1936, and Emperor Haile Selassie went into exile, spending much of it in Bath, England. His speech to the League in Geneva that summer, warning that collective security was failing, became one of the famous moments of the decade.

Italy declared Ethiopia part of Italian East Africa, but it never controlled the whole country. Resistance fighters, known as the Arbegnoch or patriots, held out across large areas of the countryside. Repression was severe. In February 1937, after an attempt on the life of the Italian viceroy, Rodolfo Graziani, thousands of people in Addis Ababa were killed in reprisals, an event Ethiopians remember as Yekatit 12, and the monastery of Debre Libanos was later attacked and its monks killed.

In 1941, British and Commonwealth forces, including many African soldiers, fought alongside Ethiopian patriots to defeat the Italians. Haile Selassie returned to Addis Ababa in May 1941, five years to the day after the city fell.

So, was Ethiopia colonised?

The fairest summary is that Ethiopia was occupied but not durably colonised. The occupation lasted about five years, was resisted throughout, and never achieved control of the whole country. That is very different from the decades of colonial rule experienced elsewhere. But "never colonised" on its own erases the suffering and resistance of 1935 to 1941, which is why careful writers add the qualification. Liberia is the other African country often described as never colonised, and its history carries its own complications.

Why Adwa matters across Africa

Adwa became a symbol far beyond Ethiopia. For Africans living under colonial rule and for people of African descent across the world, it was proof that European conquest was not inevitable. The green, gold and red associated with Ethiopia were later adopted in the flags of several newly independent African states, and they became known as pan-African colours.

That symbolic role took institutional form too. Ethiopia was a founding member of the United Nations, and in 1963 the Organisation of African Unity was founded in Addis Ababa, which remains the headquarters of its successor, the African Union. Ethiopia marks Adwa Victory Day every 1 March.

The walk passes through other countries with their own stories of resistance and independence, from the three Botswana chiefs who travelled to London in 1895 to Zambia's role among the Frontline States.

On the road through Ethiopia

The walk from Cape Agulhas to Windsor is planned to cross Ethiopia from the Kenyan border east towards Djibouti. You can see the line on the route page. Adwa is one of the stories the expedition hopes to understand there, ideally with help from Ethiopian historians, because a journey across Africa on foot is also a journey through the history of how the continent was divided and how it fought back.

You can read who Leon is, follow updates in the journal once he is walking, and support the walk if you would like to help it happen.

Frequently asked questions

Was Ethiopia ever colonised?

Not durably. Italy occupied much of the country from 1936 to 1941, against continuous resistance, but Ethiopia was never a long-term European colony.

Who won the Battle of Adwa?

Ethiopia, under Emperor Menelik II and Empress Taytu Betul, defeated the Italian army on 1 March 1896.

Why did Italy invade Ethiopia in 1935?

Mussolini's regime wanted an empire in East Africa and sought to avenge the defeat at Adwa.

Why is the African Union based in Addis Ababa?

Its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity, was founded there in 1963, reflecting Ethiopia's symbolic place as an independent African state.