Chapter 377 Progress in Italy
While the war against the Boers was being discussed in East Africa, the Italians had already completed the first phase of their invasion of the Abyssinian Empire. The Italian expeditionary force led by Samuel captured Desai, an important city in the eastern part of the Abyssinian Empire.
The flag of the Kingdom of Italy fluttered over the city of Desai, causing a new round of turmoil in the Abyssinian Empire, and the princes and ministers in the capital of the Abyssinian Empire attacked each other.
Kingdom of Shoa: "It was because of the stupidity of the central government that the white people of Europe invaded the territory of the empire. They must be held responsible for this act of national loss and humiliation."
The Tigray king and his ministers said: "Assholes, it is you who have been against us in every way and have been lip-service to the central government's decisions, which has given the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of. The fall of Desai is closely related to you."
The main feudal separatist kingdoms in Abyssinia are Tigray in the north and Shoa in the south. In addition, several important provinces such as Gojam, Wollo and Simeon are also completely independent.
Later, Theodore II unified these areas and re-centralized the Abyssinian Empire, but the good times did not last long and Theodore II was destroyed by the British.
Separatist forces were re-formed in the above-mentioned regions. Prince Kasa of Tigray ascended the throne first and was crowned as Johannes IV in the ancient city of Aksum.
But at present, the title of Emperor Johannes IV is very empty. He came to power by backstabbing Theodore II and currying favor with the British. Even though he is a descendant of the royal family of Solomon, he cannot convince the people.
Moreover, he made enemies everywhere and had conflicts with a number of forces at home and abroad, including the opposition forces led by the Kingdom of Shoa in the south. At the same time, he also had prominent conflicts with Egypt and often fought with them.
In fact, Johannes IV was quite capable, especially in military ability. At this time in history, he should have defeated the Kingdom of Shoa and conquered a number of forces in the country.
But history changed because of the troublemaker East Africa. Before leaving, the British provided Johannes IV with a batch of guns and ammunition.
However, because the East African Kingdom exported arms to various forces within the Abyssinian Empire, its advantage in weapons was offset.
Especially in the southern tribal areas, they now only obey orders and not declarations. Although they still support the central government on the surface, they remain unmoved by any orders from the central government.
John IV's main rival, the Kingdom of Shoa, also regained its strength and opposed him in every way.
When the Italian expeditionary force attacked the city of Desaix, all forces in the Abyssinian Empire demanded a counterattack against Italy, but no force sent troops.
Among them, only the warlords in the northeast and the Kingdom of Shoa were capable of providing nearby support to the city of Desai. However, they were afraid that if they sent troops to the front, Johannes IV would launch a surprise attack on their base camp in the rear, so everyone chose to stand by and watch.
The victory of the Kingdom of Italy this time can be said to have been achieved by taking advantage of the right time, right place and right people. First of all, with the help of the Rubatino Company, cheap rice from East Africa entered the port of Assab directly through the Red Sea.
Although rice was not quite to the taste of Italian soldiers, it was cheap, and the originally scarce military budget suddenly became surplus.
Moreover, compared with flour, rice is easier to process and more convenient to carry. Every soldier can carry some, and it will not turn into paste like flour when it rains.
With sufficient military supplies, Samuel, who had been planning for a long time, immediately organized his army to attack the Abyssinian Empire.
Through intelligence analysis of the Abyssinian Empire, Samuel concluded that if the Kingdom of Italy wanted to capture the Abyssinian Empire at the lowest cost, it should avoid its edge and try not to touch the northern region which was the economic center, but should start from the southeast of Ethiopia.
Desai was the node of the north-south dividing line of Italy's attack on the Abyssinian Empire as Samuel anticipated. The vast area from Desai City to Addis Ababa in the south was the weakest point of the entire Abyssinian Empire.
Desai is located in the river valley area in the eastern part of the Ethiopian Plateau. Due to the terrain restrictions, it is a strategic location leading to the south of northeastern Ethiopia.
By controlling Desai, the main force of Ethiopia can be blocked in the north with a small number of troops, which is very important for Samuel who has limited troops.
Samuel thought it should be possible to hold Desai after occupying it, because the Abyssinian Empire was still in a state of division, and Egypt in the north distracted the attention of the warlords in northern Abyssinia. Abyssinia would certainly not be able to concentrate its strength to attack its own troops.
At the same time, there was another important factor in Samuel's plan, which was the ethnic distribution within the Abyssinian Empire. The Abyssinian Empire could be roughly divided into three parts: one was the Orthodox area in the north, one was the Arab area in the east, and the last was the southern tribal area adjacent to the Turkana Province in East Africa.
The areas that Samuel targeted were mainly the Arab areas, and the Arabs have always been at odds with the Orthodox areas. The Abyssinian Empire has been fighting against the Arabs in its thousand-year history. When it was strong, it controlled the Red Sea coast and even extended its hand to the Arabian Peninsula. When it was weak, it was driven back to the plateau by the Arabs. Now is the time when the Abyssinian Empire is in a weak state.
As for the southern tribal areas, they have always been vassals of the Abyssinian Empire, equivalent to the existence of barbarians. After the cleansing of the black indigenous forces in the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau in East Africa, the lack of fresh blood injected into the southern tribes has greatly weakened them. The blacks here have always been an important slave acquisition base for the Abyssinian Empire.
The loss of a large number of slaves meant that the southern tribes lost an important source of income and further lost their voice in the empire. However, East Africa supported the southern tribes in arms trade, which made no one dare to underestimate the southern tribes.
Compared with the northern forces, the biggest disadvantage of the southern tribes is that they are more scattered and have no unified core, so the southern tribes are not very enthusiastic about participating in the affairs of the empire.
Samuel's plan to take the southeastern region of Abyssinia first was quite conservative. This area had never been a key area of concern for the Abyssinian Empire, which had always been actively expanding to the north and northeast.
To the north is Egypt, and to the northeast is the Red Sea. The origins of Abyssinia and Egypt can be traced back to the Nubian Empire. During the Eastern Roman Empire, the Aksumite Empire, the predecessor of the Abyssinian Empire, merged with Egypt and Nubia, and at the same time, Eastern Orthodox Christianity flowed into the Abyssinian Empire and became its mainstream religious belief. In this way, Ethiopia was actually one of the successors of the Roman Empire in the past. If it were not for its long history and cultural lack of confidence like the Slavs, Western Europe, and Turkey, it could have strived to become a "black Roman".
The coast of the Red Sea has always been a place that the Abyssinian Empire has been thinking about. Every time the Abyssinian Empire became strong, it would try to take back the Red Sea from the Arabs. Only with the Red Sea in hand could the Abyssinian Empire become a regional hegemon. For this reason, the competition between the Abyssinian Empire and the Arabs has never stopped.
The area that Samuel tried to seize was not considered the core area of the Abyssinian Empire before Menelik II moved the capital to Addis Ababa. It had a sparse population and plenty of arable land, which was very suitable for the kingdom's needs to settle immigrants.
(End of this chapter)
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