Battle Of Embabo
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Battle of Embabo was fought 6 June 1882, between the
Shewa Shewa (; ; Somali: Shawa; , ), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa, is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is located at it ...
n forces of ''
Negus ''Negus'' is the word for "king" in the Ethiopian Semitic languages and a Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles, title which was usually bestowed upon a regional ruler by the Ethiopian Emperor, Negusa Nagast, or "king of kings," in pre-1974 Et ...
'' Menelik and the Gojjame forces of ''Negus'' Tekle Haymanot. The forces fought to gain control over the Oromo areas south of the Abay/Nile River.Shinn, p. 67 The Gojjame forces under Tekle Haymanot were defeated. This is one of the three battles (along with Chelenqo and Adwa) which Donald Donham lists that led to Shewan supremacy over the rest of
Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
.


Background

South of Gojjam, across the Abay River, and southwest of Shewa, lay the fertile Gibe region and the gold deposits beyond. Both
polities A polity is a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of political institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any group of people organized for governance ...
craved control of these resources in order to assert dominance over the rest of Ethiopia. Of the two, the Gojjame had the earlier start and better position: as early as 1810, a large volume of luxury trade passed North through Gojjam (and its major market at Boso) to the coast of the
Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...
, far more than passed east through Shewa to the coast. ''Negus'' Bofo of Limmu-Ennarea maintained good relations with the contemporary governor of Gojjam. A letter survives from his son Abba Bagibo to '' Dejazmach'' Goshu Zewde, seeking an alliance against a mutual foe. The armies of Shewa and Gojjam had clashed earlier in 1882. The Shewan was led by '' Ras'' Gobana Dacche, and the Gojjame by ''Ras'' Darrasu, a deputy of ''
Negus ''Negus'' is the word for "king" in the Ethiopian Semitic languages and a Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles, title which was usually bestowed upon a regional ruler by the Ethiopian Emperor, Negusa Nagast, or "king of kings," in pre-1974 Et ...
'' Tekle Haymanot; ''Ras'' Gobana had forced his opponent to surrender the tribute he was bringing back to Tekle Haymanot. Humiliated, Tekle Haymanot exchanged angry words with his peer, Menelik II, which resulted with the two potentates leading their armies to face one another at
Embabo Embabo (Embbo) is a town in Ethiopia's Region of Oromia (Africa), with the region font code Africa/Middle East. It is 2,231 metres above sea level. Ambabo, Embabo, Embbo, Gara Cai-cai-ba, Gare Kakarba, Imbabe, Imbabo, Imbabu, Imbab, mbabu are all ...
near the Guder River.Harold G. Marcus, (1995). ''The Life and Times of Menelik II: Ethiopia 1844–1913'' (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1995), p. 69


Battle

The battle began at 10:00 am with the Gojjame cannons firing at the enemy. The guns of both sides did little damage, and soon were inoperable. After a volley of rifle fire, soldiers on both sides charged and engaged their opponents in what Harold G. Marcus describes as "a fierce day-long battle of
hand-to-hand combat Hand-to-hand combat is a physical confrontation between two or more persons at short range (grappling distance or within the physical reach of a handheld weapon) that does not involve the use of ranged weapons.Hunsicker, A., ''Advanced Skills in ...
, with both kings participating as ordinary soldiers". Late in the afternoon the Gojjame center collapsed, and Tekle Haymanot was wounded then captured. The troops under his son, ''Ras'' Bezzabbeh, surrendered and were taken prisoner. Although ''Ras'' Darrasu continued to fight, a cavalry charge led by ''Ras'' Gobana on his flank ended their resistance, and the battle was over. More than half the Gojjame force was lost during the battle. The Shewans suffered 913 killed and 1,648 wounded.


Aftermath

"In victory Menelik was prepared to be magnanimous", Marcus states. Menelik allowed the common soldiers to return to their farms and plough their lands before the
rainy season The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Rainy Season may also refer to: * ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King * "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni * '' ...
. For his vital role in the conflict, Menelik awarded ''Ras'' Gobana the governorship of the Gibe region. However, there was one exception to Menelik's
magnanimity Magnanimity (from Latin , from "big" + "soul, spirit") is the virtue of being great of mind and heart. It encompasses, usually, a refusal to be petty, a willingness to face danger, and actions for noble purposes. Its antithesis is pusillanimity ...
. According to Oromo tradition, Tekle Haymanot had been captured by a slave named Sambato, who did not know the identity of his prisoner. ''Ras'' Mangasha Atikam did recognize Sambato's prisoner, bought his captive for ten
Maria Theresa thaler The Maria Theresa thaler (MTT) is a silver bullion coin and a type of Conventionsthaler that has been used in world trade continuously since it was first minted in 1741. It is named after Maria Theresa who ruled Austria, Hungary, Croatia and ...
s, and led him to ''Ras'' Gobana's tent. Gobana, on seeing the ''Negus'', called to him in
Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...
, "Gojjame, bring me the plate!" – responding to a boast Tekle Haymanot had made before the two armies had clashed: "After the battle, ''Ras'' Gobana will carry my ''mitad'' aking trayback to Gojjam." Sambato also received his freedom and was made a '' fitawrari'' for capturing the enemy ''negus''. However, Emperor
Yohannes IV Yohannes IV ( Tigrinya: ዮሓንስ ፬ይ ''Rabaiy Yōḥānnes''; horse name Abba Bezbiz also known as Kahśsai; born ''Lij'' Kahssai Mercha; 11 July 1837 – 10 March 1889) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1871 to his death in 1889 at the ...
, their overlord, was outraged at his two
vassals A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerai ...
openly at war with each other and marched to Were Ilu, just inside Menelik's borders, where he demanded the release of Tekle Haymanot and his family. There the Emperor hammered out a compromise: Yohannes would take Agawmeder from ''Negus'' Tekle Haymanot and Wollo from ''Negus'' Menelik; Menelik would surrender the arms he captured to Yohannes's lieutenant ''Ras'' Alula Engida; and a peace was cemented with several dynastic marriages, including ''Negus'' Menelik to the daughter of a noble family from the Emperor's own domain, Taitu Betul. Paul B. Henze, ''Layers of Time, A History of Ethiopia'' (New York: Palgrave, 2000), pp. 150f


Notes

;Footnotes ;Citations


References

*


Further reading

*Bairu Tafla
"Two of the Last Provincial Kings of Ethiopia"
''Journal of Ethiopian Studies'', 11 (1973), pp. 29–55 *R.A. Caulk
"Territorial competition and the Battle of Embabo, 1882"
''Journal of Ethiopian Studies'', 13 (1975), pp. 65–88 Menelik's Expansion Campaigns 1882 in Ethiopia Conflicts in 1882 June 1882 Military history of Shewa {{DEFAULTSORT:Embabo