Ethiopia is one of the few countries of the African continent endowed with an ancient civilization, societal cohesion and history of government. The nation is located in the very strategic regions of east Africa, which is flanked by the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden and red sea.
The country is also the place where Blue Nile River (Abbay) originates and such a situation has left the country to be envied by foreign countries.
Its existence came across various challenges particularly from foreign intruders, but thanks to our forefathers and foremothers sacrifice, the foreigners' malicious intention was reversed and the nation's territorial integrity and sovereignty was protected.
Putting aside the earlier attempts, since the sixteenth centuries on wards invaders such as Turkish, Egyptians, Dervish, British and Italians exerted energy to conquer our country but their attempt was rebuffed by our gallant fighters.
Since the 16 century, Othman Turks had been a dominant power in the Middle-East and in the red sea root and partially had power over the Gulf of Aden and in the north eastern part of Indian Ocean.
In 1557 the Turkish conquered port of Massawa and repeatedly expedited to the plateau of Bahre Negash territory of Ethiopia but the then emperor Sertse Dingile defeated and repulsed them.
The Turkish also intervened in the internal affairs of Ethiopia during the war between emperor Libne-Dingil and Ahmed Gragn which lasted from 1529 to 1543 by supporting Gragn in terms of material and morale. Their intention was to install puppet regime backed by them but their objective remained futile.
In the 17th century, a British explorer started his Journey from Egypt to trace the origin of River Abbay and arrived in Ethiopia. He was able to understand the society culture, religion, language which he employed to intrude into the country in the later decades.
In 1820 the Egyptian Military leader Mohamed Ali conquered Sudan and recruited soldiers to advance his military adventure to western part of Ethiopia through pursuing the river basin of Abbay but in various occasions his invasion was repulsed by the Ethiopian patriots through paying life scarification.
When Emperor Tewodros II assumed power in 1943, his major priorities were unifying the country which was fragmented under the rule of princes which lasted for 80 years and defending the territorial integrity of the country.
After appointing his loyal governors in the regions such as Tigray, Wollo, Gonder, Gojam and Shewa, he rebuffed Egyptians intruders who crossed the Ethio-Sudan border.
It had been common to see conflicts among the various lords and princes in that era but when foreign intruders attempted to conquer the country, Ethiopians had developed a culture of narrowing their internal differences and unified their forces and repealed the enemy and such strategic allianceenabled them to sustain the nation existence.
In 1869, the Suez Canal was opened, greatly reducing the distance between Europe and Asia by some 4,500 miles as ships no longer needed to travel round southern Africa. This made foreigners to focus on the eastern Africa and their ambition to conquer the areas got momentum.
In 1875 the Egyptian occupation forces were engulfed by the Sudan Dervish forces in the eastern region of Sudan in the place known as "Kufit".
The British government who backed the Egyptians understood that Egyptians had no longer to be its partner and decided to change them by other partner. But before that it decided that Egyptian forces must be liberated and to that end Major Hewette of the British forces came to the court of Emperor Yohaness IV of Ethiopia in Adwa and agreed to dispatch the Ethiopian forces to Kufit and to liberate the curtailed Egyptian forces in eastern Sudan and in return to give back port of Massawa to Ethiopia by repealing Egyptians.
Based on the agreement the Ethiopian forces led by Ras Allula Aba Nega expedited to the place and liberated the trapped Egyptian forces by defeating the Dervish forces. However, instead of ceding Massawa port to Emperor Yohannes they gave it to the Italians who later used the place as the launching pad to conquer the high land parts of Ethiopia known as that time Bahre Negash province.
In 1885 500 Italian troops based in Massawa encroached the high land parts of Bahre Negash province but the Ethiopian forces led by Ras Alulla Aba Nega routed out in the place where known as "Dogale" 50 kilometers away from Massawa.
Five years later, the Dervish forces in order to revenge Ethiopia because of their support to Egyptians, invaded Ethiopia and came up to Gondar town and burnt out various churches and heritages.
It was a sad news to the emperor but sooner the Dervish forces were repelled from Gondar by Ethiopian fighters and later the final war took place in Metema were the Emperor himself was killed.
These all show that how Ethiopians from the ordinary citizens up to the Kings sacrificed their life to defend the nations freedom.
Taking advantage of the death of Emperor Yohannes IV, the Italians conquered the high land parts of Bahre Negash province and established the newly created colony of Eritrea in 1891.
However, Italians colonial ambition to concur Ethiopia was not rested there. They began their excursion to the neighboring Tigray region.
Some 8 months later after the death of Emperor Yohannes, the then Shewan Emperor Menelik II enthroned and became king of Kings of Ethiopia.
Emperor Menelik while he was king of Shewa under the King of Kings of Yohaness of Ethiopia, in order to pay tribute to Yohannes and to strengthen himself militarily as well as economically, he expedited and conquered the Southern regions of Ethiopia in which helped to prepare himself to the unavoidable war of Adwa.
Initially Emperor Menelik tried to resolve the problem through negotiation but Italians did not give up their colonial ambition to conquer Ethiopia in clandestine manner.
The immediate cases of the Adwa war was the disagreement between emperor Menelik and the Italians on the Wuchale agreement of article 17 in which the Italian version of the article gave systematic power to Italy to dominate Ethiopia. It further said that if Ethiopia wanted to have diplomatic contact with European countries, it must have use the diplomatic corridor of Italy.
Ethiopia rejected the agreement and announced that it intended to resolve the problem in the battle field.
Emperor Menelik by combining his own forces and from all over Ethiopia including the forces of Ras Tekle Haymanot of Gojam, Ras Mekonen of Haraghe, Ras Balcha Safo of Sidama, Ras Mikael of Wollo, king Jima Abba Jifar and Jote Tullu of Wollega marched to Adwa.
The Battle lasted for one day and all the Italian forces were routed out and once again Ethiopians scarified their life to protect the nation territorial integrity from Colonial powers.
Right after the defeat of Italians in the battle of Adwa, European powers recognized the sovereignty of Ethiopia and opened their diplomatic mission here in the capital. Countries such as France, Great Britain, France, Germany and USA can be mentioned as the case in point in this regard.
However, the Colonial ambition to reconquering Ethiopia was not ended. While Emperor Menelik was physically incapacitated because of his deteriorating health the neighboring colonial powers such as Great Britain, France and Italy in 1906 agreed to claim the sovereign rights over Ethiopian territories and to redraw the map of Ethiopia in line with their interest but their ambition was nullified.
Italy which obtained colonial territory at the door step of Ethiopia such as Eritrea and Somalia prepared militarily, logistically, manpower and finance for 40 years for the final conquest of Ethiopia. In 1936 Italy launched its offence from the northern front, in Eritrea and from East from Somalia. This time unlike during Battle of Adwa, Italy deployed tanks, fighter jets, armored vehicles, sophisticated machine guns and artilleries.
The ill fed and ill equipped Ethiopian army similar to the Adwa time went to Mychew through utilizing animals as means of transportation.
Italy bombarded Ethiopian soldiers trenches and utilized master gas which was prohibited that time by the then league of nations and within a month fascist forces reached to the capital and claimed that Ethiopia was under their rule.
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Angered by the conquest of their country Ethiopian fighters who returned from the north and eastern fronts began their patriotic movements and paid heavy price to evict the fascist forces from Ethiopia. Five years later in 1941 the Ethiopian Sovereignty was reinstituted and the emperor who was in exile during the war came back to his country.
The challenge which the nation faced with regard to territorial annexation both from far and from near was a common phenomenon.
In 1978, forty years later after the second invasion of Italy, Somalia regime led by Ziad Bare invaded the eastern part of Ethiopia and entered up to 700 kilo meters in land. In the first months of the invasion Ethiopian army members diligently fought the enemy forces and fallen for the protection of the nation territorial integrity.
The Somali regime exploited the internal discontent due to ideological difference between various political factions in Ethiopia. President Mengistu Haile Mariam rallied all Ethiopians in the motto of "Revolutionary mother land or death" and deployed 300 thousand militia men in the eastern front.
The unrestrained support of USSR, Cuba and South Yemen in terms of military hard ware, soldiers and advising enabled Ethiopia to repeal the enemy only within 6 months. Ethiopians scarification to defend their territorial integrity and sovereignty still not properly documented and transferred to the successive generations as the result the youth suffers from ignorant of history and identity crises.
Ethiopians defended their country from foreign invaders regardless of their ethnic, cultural, language and religious differences. Even in the time of hard ship, Ethiopians did not let the nation territories to be annexed by foreign enemies.
Therefore, when we celebrate the day of martyrdom, we should commemorate the patriotic struggle of our forefathers.
Editor's Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
