In
1863 Isma'il
Pasha became the ruler of Egypt. After annexing Darfur in 1875 he turned his attention to
Ethiopia. He wished to create an empire covering the whole of the Nile River, much of
which is in Ethiopia, and to do this he built a large army recruiting many
European and American officers. Yohannes IV became the
emperor of Ethiopia in 1872 after defeating Tekle Giyorgis II
in battle.
Egypt emerged as a powerful force in
Africa during the latter stages of the decline of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire.
In the second half of the 19th century, an ambitious and energetic new Khedive
negotiated with the Ottomans to take control of Egypt. He intended to create an
Egyptian African empire by swallowing up Sudan and Ethiopia.
For this purpose he recruited a
large army staffed with European officers and Confederate officers from the
American Civil War which had ended 10 years earlier. These officers were sent
to Ethiopia, and the following accounts of the Battles of Gundet and Gura are
drawn in large part from their diaries and other notes. Other accounts of these
battles from Ethiopian and other sources can be found in the biography of Ras
Alula and in general histories of Ethiopia.
Note: The battle sites of Gundet and Gura are both located
within present-day Eritrea. Eritrea did not exist at the time. It is currently
the fashion in Eritrea to hack out a separate Eritrean identity from the
broader current of Ethiopian history. Therefore this period of history is
ignored or deliberately twisted by Eritrean historians, and most of the younger
Eritreans have no idea about it.
Gundet:
1875
Note: Colonel Kirkham was a British
officer who was contracted to help train the Ethiopian soldiers. Munzinger was
a Swiss adventurer who was in the service of Egypt.
In December 1874, a force of 1,200
[Egyptian] troops from Kassala, under the command of Munzinger, occupied Keren,
but as protests were lodged, he withdrew. A skeleton garrison was however, left
for the protection of the Roman Catholic mission (so it was said), although for
nearly forty years, they had managed without such measures.
Owing to the presence of
Turco-Egyptian troops within what he regarded as the Ethiopian frontier,
Colonel Kirkham entrenched a force of Ethiopians at Ginda.
During the month of October, Colonel
Arendup with an Egyptian force occupied Ginda without resistance. Arendup then
hoisted the Turkish ensign. Colonel Arendup sent the Naib Muhammad of Arkiko to
King John of Ethiopia with a message (which in reality constituted an
ultimatum), whereby the immediate delimitation of the frontier was demanded.
King John imprisoned the messenger, who occupied the unenviable position of
being tributary to both the Turks and Ethiopians in respect to all custom
duties he collected on imports and exports.
Meantime, reports reached the
Ethiopians that the Gallabat garrison had been reinforced by the Egyptians, and
had crossed the frontier into Ethiopian territory en-route to Gondar. This
force was probably that of Munzinger Pasha, which marched from Kassala to
Danakil country. It consisted of about 2,000 men, and would pass through
Agordat and via the Mereb, near to Adowa. This force was ambushed, and
Munzinger and nearly all his followers were killed on November 7th by Danakil
tribesmen. There were practically no survivors reported.
On November 14th , Colonel Arendup’s
force was attacked at Gundet, to which place it had advanced on the road to
Adowa. His column consisted of 2,500 infantry, armed with Remington rifles, and
12 mountain guns. There were a number of European and American officers under
his command.
Possibly due to overconfidence at
the occupation of Ginda without any resistance, Colonel Arendup was unprepared
for an attack, and the fact that the Ethiopians commenced firing with rifles
was a complete surprise. His force was practically annihilated, despite the
personal bravery of its commander. Among those killed were Colonel Arendup,
Arakel Bey Nubar (nephew of the Egyptian Prime Minister), Count Zichy, and
Rustem Bey. An American officer collected the survivors, and with Rauf Bey and
Major Dornholtz, managed to reach Massowah.
For comparison, Haggai Erlich
provides the following, more detailed description of the Battle of Gundet,
based largely on a Ge’ez biography of Ras Alula written over 100 years ago.
“On 14 November, Alula crossed the
Mereb river and immediately engaged forward Egyptian posts. The main Ethiopian
army under the emperor (Yohannis IV) crossed the river on the night of 15-16
November. Meanwhile, Shalaqa Alula had disengaged his forces; he had completed
a flanking action from the west against troops advancing from Addi Quala; and
had appeared in the Egyptian rear, blocking their line of retreat. “
“On the morning of 16 November 1875,
the Egyptians found themselves surrounded in a steep valley, and the battle
soon turned into a massacre from which only a few of the 3,000 Egyptians
managed to escape. Two thousand two hundred Remington rifles and sixteen
cannons were captured by the Ethiopians, who lost some 550 dead and 400
wounded. Among the latter of whom was Alula’s brother Basha Tessema, whose
wound remained unhealed for a long period.”
Gura:
1876
Note: After the defeat at Gundet, the Egyptians sent another,
much larger force to attack Ethiopia in 1876. The Egyptians advanced to Gura
and built a fort there.
On November 6th and 7th, the
Egyptians were attacked by the Ethiopian army, and surrounded. Most of the
Ethiopians were armed with firearms, and although they had only one field-gun,
it is said to have had no effect in deciding the action.
The accounts of the American
officers are silent on the point; but it is said that Rateb Pasha allowed his
views to be overruled by Loring Pasha, who insisted on the ramps of the trenches
which had been erected being razed, so that the artillery could have a clear
zone of fire.
The gunners and infantry were
enfiladed by the Ethiopians from higher ground, and the slaughter was so great
that several regiments became completely demoralized. Those officers who
attempted to rally their men and the survivors, were accused generally of
joining in the panic, and of cowardice in the field.
The Egyptian troops and officers
were called upon to fight under conditions hitherto unknown to them, and
without the benefit of tried and skilled leaders. The result was inevitable.
The regiment of Ismail Pasha Kamel stampeded during the action and could not be
rallied.
The Ethiopians followed up their
success, and closely invested Fort Gura, which they attacked in force on the
8th and 9th of March.
On March 10th, Rashid Pasha and
Osman Bey Neghib led an attack on the Ethiopians which was repulsed with loss,
and both officers were killed while leading their men.
[Note: The battle of Gura ended Egypt’s
ambitions against Ethiopia. Two of the captured Egyptian cannon can still be
seen at Aksum]
Relations
between Ethiopia and Egypt remained hostile until the signing of the Hewett Treaty in 1884, which allowed Egyptian
soldiers to retreat from Mahdist
Sudan in exchange for control of Massawa. The treaty
turned out to be bad for the Ethiopians as it caused the Mahdists to attack
Ethiopia and sack Gondar, and later
kill Yohannes at the Battle of Gallabat in 1889. To make things worse, the
Italians took control of the Red Sea coast and Massawa, so the Ethiopians
gained nothing from the treaty.
This is what history tells us, but what do we learn from these?
Egyptians have tried to invade Ethiopia twice and
never succeeded. Our hero fore fathers defeated them twice. For centuries now,
Egyptians have tried to attack Ethiopia directly and indirectly. They have been
supporting radical Islamists Somalia, ONLF and ONL rebels, Eritrean Extremists,
and many more. They have been adding oil to the fire enraging in our country.
They lobbied international donors not to finance Ethiopian dam constructions around
the Nile… and they succeeded.
Egyptians have used anything they could to destabilize Ethiopia so that the country would remain poor politically and economically. They thought that was the only means to preserve their Nile share of a colonial era. Now, they are saying "Egypt will never surrender its right to Nile water and all options (to safeguard it) are being considered." But in Cairo on Monday, Younis Makhyoun, leader of an ultraconservative Islamist party, said Egypt should back rebels in Ethiopia or, as a last resort, destroy the dam. He said Egypt made a "strategic error" when it did not object to the dam's construction.
Makhyoun said Ethiopia is "fragile" because of rebel movements inside the country. "We can communicate with them and use them as a bargaining chip against the Ethiopian government," he said.
"If all this fails, then there is no choice left for Egypt but to play the final card, which is using the intelligence service to destroy the dam," said Makhyoun. They think this is new… that we are naïve towards their historical evil deeds. We know this even before they uttered a word.They think we have no idea that they never hesitate to harm our country if they could. All of these mischievous plots against Ethiopia are as old as Egypt. We know they have an extra contempt towards Ethiopians.
Egyptians have warned us before and still doing so. Our leaders assured them repeatedly that we don't have any irrigation projects around the dam. That the dam is solely intended for electricity production ... So there should not be any concerns about a diminished water flow… since the water flows normally after generating hydro power. We could not convince them even if we provided such sound arguments since they are irrational… since they don’t in logic. Egyptians are greedy pigs, egoistic blood suckers… they are leeches in the arm pit.
The only things Egyptians have never tried for centuries now are respecting Ethiopians. They don’t believe that they would be beneficiaries of mutual respect, peaceful and cooperative diplomatic relations. They have no idea about compromise… about win-win conflict resolutions. For Egyptians there is only one solution for all problems… for all frictions…disagreements… and that is direct and indirect military means. This shows us they are stuck in the 19th and 20th centuries. We wish Egyptians knew about globalization… the coming together of the world. We wish they could stop acting wildly and befriend us for the benefit of both. We wish they could stop harming our country directly and indirectly. But, we know that they won’t.
Therefore, we have no options left but wait for them well armed and defeat them for the third time. That would be a transfixing historical hat trick!
Reading Refernces
Ethiopian–Egyptian War.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian%E2%80%93Egyptian_War
Egyptian Politicians to distablise Ethiopia over the New Dam
http://indepthafrica.com/egyptian-politicians-to-distablise-ethiopia-over-the-new-dam/#.Ua4jrJzL-ZH
The Ethiopian- Egyptian War: 1874 –1876,http://news.yahoo.com/egyptian-politicians-sabotage-ethiopias-dam-221039097.html
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