In March 1896, if you were someone who followed international news, you certainly could not

have missed the remarkable headlines coming out of East Africa.

On March 3rd, the New York Times proclaimed, quote, abesynians defeat Italians.

The reporting was a mix of shock and incredulity at the stunning turn of fortunes for the colonial

Italian forces in Africa.

As the Times would write a day later on March 4th, quote, the present campaign against the

abesynians threatens to become one of the most disastrous in which the Italian arms have

ever taken part.

Now if you're not familiar with the term abesynian, you can be forgiven.

Abesynia is a term rarely used for a country better known as Ethiopia.

These reports were referring to the Battle of Adwa, a historic confrontation between the

Ethiopians and the Italians.

At this battle, King Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, scored a crushing and conclusive

victory over the invading Italian forces.

For their part, the Italians, who had only a few decades earlier united their peninsula

into the modern nation of Italy, had been trying to get a piece of the African continent.

The so-called 19th century scramble for Africa was nearing its end, with the vast majority

of the continent having fallen under the control of the British, French, Portuguese,

Germans, and King Leopold II's Belgians.

One of the last parts of the African continent, free from colonial domination, was the ancient

kingdom of Ethiopia.

A few years earlier, the Italians had managed to snap up the coastal territory of Eritrea,

...