Welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service. Today we're going

back to Easter 1868 and to a historic battle that would have a major impact on modern Ethiopian

history, as well as determining the fate of one of its towering figures, Emperor Teodros II.

In 2016, Rob Walker spoke to Historian Philip Marston.

This account is from a British military expedition, as it closed in on the mountain top stronghold

belonging to Teodros II. The British had come to secure the release of a group of Europeans

that the Ethiopian Emperor was holding hostage. Boom. Boom. Boom went three monstrous guns in quick

succession, discharging 68-pound chain-shot. And one continued blaze of fire announced to us below

that he had ten guns at work in real earnest. Despite this show of defiance from his artillery,

Teodros knew that he was completely outgunned, but this was a leader who'd spent a lifetime fighting.

Teodros began in quite humble background. He was a camel raider on the borders of Ethiopia.

Very early on he showed both extraordinary charisma in his personality, but also a great aptitude

for military victory. Philip Marston has written about the life of Teodros II. He says that despite

his modest origins, Teodros had a vision of becoming a leader who could modernise and unify Ethiopia.

The powers of the Ethiopian tried to defeat him and eventually sort of embraced him if you like

and took his own forces within them and then he challenged them and in 1855 he declared himself

emperor of Ethiopia. At the point he came to power, Ethiopia had been divided bitterly,

hadn't it, between different warring factions and warring regions. Yes, I mean for a couple of

hundred years really there was no one ruler in the country and so he bought to an end this period

of chaos. But in the 1860s Teodros faced growing rebellion and his own conduct became increasingly

erratic and at times brutal. And then he came into conflict with European powers after he detained

a number of missionaries and diplomats. That included to British envoys he imprisoned,

...