Looking for Extra History content without ads? Go to curiositystream.com/extracredits to get a full year of Curiosity Stream & Nebula for $14.79! That's Ad FREE content, served to you 24 hours before our UA-cam release!
I know nations like Egypt tend to get top billing when it comes to the wider world's knowledge of African history, but this series has shown that every single corner of that continent has fascinating stories to tell 😊
Hearing an african especially one of the oldest countries in the world's story has come to an end and we are waiting the others. You guys doing such a good job.
Empress Taytu was a truly strong woman and notorious for her temper. You DID NOT want to get on her bad side. Whenever the diplomatic Menelik was faced with a request from his subjects that he didn't want to outright refuse, he would just tell them to go ask her. Yeah, sly man was Menelik.
"Menelik, who often prevaricated and postponed unpleasant decisions by answering "Yes, tomorrow" (Ishi, nega), found it useful to have his wife be in a powerful enough position to say "Absolutely not" (Imbi) to people and issues he just did not want to personally offend or refuse." He didn't want to offend people so he told his wife to chase them off. She was definitely a good match for him. The Theodora to his Justinian.
I think it's a shame you didn't bring up the fact that Pan African flag is based on the Ethiopian flag and that the African Union is headquartered in Ethiopia. The influence of this battle is still felt today in the fact that 13 African countries have flags based on the Ethiopian tricolor
@@occam7382 He said in the episode that this is a big topic so they'll make another episode after this Edit: It was in the previous episode, though I assume it was about a seventh one because most EH series are 6 episodes unless I'm mistaken Edit edit: Oh I'm very wrong they're mostly 5 eps so this is probably the last one
Note: Not only did Menelik II know how to win a war, he also knew how to end it. After the Battle of Adwa, many Europeans expected Menelik II to move on to Eritrea, but he didn't. Menelik feared that if he invaded Eritrea, it could be enough for Italy to be threatened, with the population galvanized to launch a new invasion. He knew that if Italy had mustered all of its available resources, Ethiopia would have likely been crushed, so instead of advancing into Eritrea, Menelik II simply sought to replace the Treaty of Wuchale with the Treaty of Addis Ababa that confirmed Ethiopian independence, letting the political fallout reach Italy and causing the government to seek peace. Edit: Wording, grammar, and corrections.
Ehhh doubt that the Kingdom of Tigray under Yohannes betrayed their closest ally the Amhara under Tewodros who's ultimate goal of defense wound had saved Tigray, but Yohannes still betrayed Tewodros while Menelik was under Tewodros's protection and married to his daughter, Italy would have likely been embarrassingly obliterated, but why after what Tigray/Yohannes did to Tewodros and the Amhara, seems like he learned and let that part of the Tigrayan kingdom know he remembered
Ethiopia: "Hey Russia, can we get some help?." Russia: "I don't know, you kind of belong to Italy, and we don't feel like angering them." Ethiopia: "We're an Eastern Orthodox nation under control of Catholics." Russia: "Why didn't you say so comrade, anything you need is yours."
1:11 "Emperor Yohannes IV is one of those figures that gets skipped in a lot of histories" Can confirm - until this video I had no idea that there was anyone between Tewodros II and Menelik II. Thanks for broadening my knowledge!
There's actually another emperor who immediately ruled after the death of Tewdros, his name was emperor takla gyorgis his reign was very short lasting only 4 years and most even in Ethiopia doesn't know about him.
7:30 Just the fact that this woman, this Empress, was on the field of battle should tell you a lot about her personality. She was the Theodora to Menelik's Justinian. Bold, assertive, and fearless, Empress Taytu was a woman of power in a world and religion dominated by men.
Battle of Adwa was a the third and major battle of the 1894-96 Ethio-Italy war. There was also the battle of Alagae and Siege of Mekele where an entire Italian regiment surrendered after their water source was seized by soldiers of Empress Taitu Bitul.
This series was amazing. Ethiopia is one of those nations that has such a rich and complex history it deserves more attention by the western world. Thank you guys for covering it!
It saddens me to see that such a great series on such an interesting subject has come to an end, but I thoroughly enjoyed it while it lasted. Great work!
I've noticed when I've met Ethiopians and tell them I live in Japan they always smile and acknowledge the fact that Japan like Ethiopia is in the small club of countries that withstood colonialism and militarily defeated European powers. That said while the Russo Japanese war is well known, I don't think this is as well known as it should be. Go Ethiopia!
Technically Ethiopia didn't resist European colonialism, since they got occupied by Italy in 1936. This kind of narrows the list down to Thailand, Korea, Japan and Liberia.
I mean that would have to be double the episodes since the Congo war needs background major and layers why they all hate each other Belgian involvement, UN involvement, and Soviet Involvement. If interested in Congo war watch History House’s. Sadly he did stop posting.
IIRC they rarely cover subjects after 1920, though they have made exceptions. But Africa has so many stories to tell, and Congo has a very rich history.
Great ending for a great series! It was a nice decision to not talk about what happened after Adwa, because it would need at least two separate videos.
8:13 love how the background photo is the same used in the first episode when it was said that “Ethiopia would eclipse the power of Rome” Epic foreshadowing
There were actually quite a few colourful characters involved in the British incursion including Assyrian archaelogist Hormuz Rassam and Resident of Perak Captain Speedy.
*CORRECTION* : Ethiopia was never colonized so it’s not called independence. It’s called victory. It’s only called independence *if* Ethiopia was colonized but that *never happened.*
Something cool to add is that Adwa and later the victory against Mussolini in WWII are apparently seen in the Ethiopian church as the prophecy of the Kebra Negast comming to fruition, Ethiopia eclipsed the power of Rome.
This series has been super fascinating, and I would be happy to see it continue yet again! Thank you for this one too! Stay well out there everybody, and God bless you, friends. ✝️ :)
Suprised this series ended with Menelik II and not Haile Selassie's ignominious end and the end of his empire. Then again, EH doesn't usually like to explore topics beyond the World Wars.
I mean that war still has fresh wound to this 31yrs after the conclusion and with so many other wars and ideologies linked they would struggle to explain it properly withou having to spend sometime talking about the somalis oromos and eritria and all their grivences even surface-level and highly diluted that will take at least half the episode if not more and the war itself is a beast.
Now, I'm loving the past few series and I don't demand anything but I have a few ideas on little talked about topics: the deadliest Civil War in history and a prequel to your Sun Yat-Sen series, the Taiping Rebellion; a short series to pair with the Mary seacole series, the Crimean War; and the Mexican-American War from the Mexican perspective. Also, darker topics like the Wounded knee Massacre and Project Sunshine should be explored.
really need an Extra History on the Vietnam war, there's no video on youtube that goes through the events in a bite sized digestible format the way ExtraHistory can
Thank you for mentioning the key role of Minilik's disinformation campaign, which most accounts of Adwa don't. However, some correction: it was 20000 (not 10000) Italians against about 100000 Ethiopians.
Sukhothai and Ayutthaya maybe quite a large topic though not impossible. However the Thonburi-Rattanakosin era may align well with the Ethiopia series.
Remember kids, the best way to prevent colonialism is to be United against the colonizer. Honestly, I would hypothesize that the number one reason kingdoms in Africa and Asia were being colonized were because they were still relying on decentralized states only loosely lied to the crown via marriage or other legal contract (feudalism). Essentially, most colonized places never viewed themselves in terms of nationality, so they are ok with other groups in their area being hurt as long as theirs was ok. By this point, most regions in Europe were unified under increasingly powerful central governments that brought about the idea of nationhood. If we look at a place like India, sure, the Mughals were in charge during the British ‘invasion’, but the government was always fearful of regional uprisings. A national Indian identity did not exist to tie people together. I wonder if anyone has done research on this to confirm or deny this hypothesis?
I mean it make sense since the colonizers strategy is devide and conquer why do you think they sent missionaries everywhere Christianities intolerance of any other religion is excellent for breaking down national integrity and causing internal division.
Unifying comes with it's own terrible problems though. Problems in relatively poor and unimportant regions of your control can actually spiral out of control and destroy your entire country. I mean that's pretty much the basis of most civil wars and even movies based on internal conflict. For example if you look at the Hunger Games, you literally have 3 districts out of the twelve that exist who are unhappy(broke ass mining district, agricultural district, and clothing making district). Of the remaining districts 5 of them run just fine with no issues and 5 more are fabulously wealthy. If they had the choice they would rather just get rid of those garbage districts, but you gotta have food, minerals, and clothing.....
Well no, the idea of broader nationalism in the European sense didn't exist. A Bengali and a Rajput had nothing in common and would consider it an insult to suggest they had any kind of similarity. It'd be like asking why didn't the Germans help the French, where the roles of colonialism reversed. They are different peoples that often hated each other more then the Europeans conquering them. The simple fact of the matter is European powers were incredibly powerful, at the time and local nations just had no chance of fighting them. Those few that did resist did so because they preemptively modernized their army. Were it not for modern rifles and cannons, especially those supplied by the Russians; Ethiopia's unity wouldn't have mattered before industrial warfare. Ethiopia only having "reasonable demands" after the battle is the reason they won, if they demanded anything substantive that forced the Italians to actually commit to a war, Ethiopia wouldn't have stood a chance.
Well in the long run it didn't do England a lot of good in the run because the whole we own everything cost them because they refused to listen to the people who were under them. Today even though America isn't great at it we do try to listen and no some problems will probably never find an answer because they are just too big for an answer.
I really enjoyed this series, and I'm glad you have covered another oft overlooked area of history. However, I do think you stretched yourselves a little too thin with this topic. When you've done other stuff over a large timeline like this, there's generally been some specific focus, like the construction of Angkor Wat. Here you don't really have that, and I think there's been a lot of interesting areas you've had to skip over, and that I really hope you might return to someday. Anyway, I want to be clear again that I found this interesting and enjoyable, but letting you know my honest opinion on it as a whole.
Not really. Japan was a modernized, heavily industrialized nation, with a massive navy and the technological advantage. Ethiopia very, very much didn't have those things
Whilst the situation of the two countries was vastly different, Ethiopia definitely took note of the Meiji restoration. During the early 20th century, Ethiopia had a political faction called "Young Japanisers" who called for closer cooperation with Japan and a modernization campaign based on the Meiji restoration. Japan and Ethiopia signed a treaty of friendship and commerce in 1927 and sent many experts to Japan to take notes on how it developed. The 1931 Ethiopian constitution was even based on the Meiji constitution so both sides were heavily intertwined with one another
@@Julianna.Domina You're right. Furthermore, It's also important to note that Japan was a colonizer in the process of a hybrid genocide/forced assimilation of its native religious & ethnic minorities, and those that they conquered in their newly acquired territories, whereas in Ethiopia most of the minority & majority groups banded together against colonizers & (at least on paper) they had protections against the kind of depredations that Japan was committing within their domain
Yes and no. Both are cases of a non-European power hammering a European one and the few examples of an Asian power defeating a European one. Both also helped serve as models for other nations on their respective continents. But the First Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895, had already made Europe take Japan more seriously. At the start of this war, most Europeans expected the Japanese to be quickly crushed. The Qing Dynasty had a larger army (on paper) and several Battleships, when the Japanese had no Battleships at the time. Japan's victory shocked most of Europe and Asia and made European treat Japan more Equally. By the time of the Russo-Japanese War, the British had already entered an alliance with Japan; Japan had participated in the Eight-nation Alliance during the Boxer Rebellion and European political cartoons about imperialism in China often showed Japan on equal with Europeans. Basically, the Russo-Japanese War wasn't so much colonialists versus potential colony as two colonialists (albeit one non-European) fighting over a colony.
Not gonna lie, i have mixed feelings about the whole ordeal, but good for them for keeping themselves off the shackles of colonialism. Even if my national pride is hurted, i cannot deny as an historian the horrible truth behind that historical movement, neither the terrible consequences that colonised countries suffered.
Un po' ci abbiamo guadagnato anche noi, nonostante la sconfitta. La disfatta di Adua portò alla caduta del governo Crispi e all'ascesa di Giolitti, che estese il diritto di voto e introdusse importanti riforme nello stato sociale.
@@marcomvi4116 era colpa nostra. Non avevamo alcun bisogno di un impero coloniale. I debiti di quelle guerre li stiamo ancora pagando, e non ci hanno mai portato alcun profitto.
@@boonlincoln non dico che noi dovremmo essere fieri del colonialismo (gli inglesi dovrebbero andare ginocchioni sui ceci per un giorno intero per quello che hanno fatto al mondo) ma non posso negare un sentimento di dolore nel pensare ai migliaia di italiani uccisi in una sconfitta terribile per una causa atroce. Dobbiamo imparare il giusto messaggio da tutto questo però: non odio verso gli etiopi, ma disprezzo verso guerre ingiuste con il fine ultimo di sopraffazione, atrocità e sfruttamento.
The lowest number I have ever read for Italian Forces in the battle of Adua is 14,500. So where did you get 10,000? Also the Italian army eventually split into 3 parts and was destroyed piecemeal. According to Richard Caulk in his "Between the Jaws of Hyenas" A Diplomatic History of Ethiopia (1876-1896), Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2002 p. 551 The Italians numbered 14,500 Riflemen with 56 guns and in fact totaled 17,300 all together. Of those 10,000 were Italians the rest were local recruits, (Called Askari.). G. F. H. Berkeley in his The Campaign of Adowa and the Rise of Menelik, Archibald Constable and Co. Ltd, London, 1902, p. 269 gives the following figures 17,700 of which 10,596 were Italians the rest "Natives", (Askari). They had 14,519 rifles and 56 guns and no cavalry. The figures given by Caulk , pp. 563-564, the losses of the Italian army were has follows. 300 officers were killed, 4,600 Italian rank and file and 1,000 Askari for a total of 5,900 dead. Initially something like 1,681 Italians were captured although the figure seems to have grown to c. 1,900. Something like 800 Askari were captured. Something like 1,000 who escaped were wounded. Thus total casualties for the Italian army in this battle numbered c. 9,600. Well over 1/2 of the forces that started the battle. Berkeley, p. 345-346 gives the following figures. 2,918 Italian non-commissioned officers and men killed, 954 permanently missing, along with 261 officers for a total of 4,133, and with that 2,000 dead Askari for a grand total of 6,133 dead. Berkeley gives figures for wounded has 470 Italians and 958 Askari for a total of 1,428. Berkeley then lists 1,865 Italian prisoners. Berkeley seems to think at least 1,000 Askari were captured but mentions figures up to 2,000 captured. Taking Berkeley's minimal figures together they add up to 10,426. Again more thasn 1/2 of the Italian Army at the start of the battle. Estimates of Ehiopian casualties are all over the map. According to Caulk, pp. 566-567, some italians said the Ethiopians suffered 20,000 dead and twice that number wounded. Figures clearly absurd. Caulk records other figures given are 4,000 dead and 6,000 wounded. Caulk records that a list made for Menelik counted 3,886 dead for Adua has of the end of March. It is also recorded that Menelik supposidly told an Italian prisoner that his army sufferred 12,000 dead and wounded at Adua. Berkeley records on p. 346 estimates that Menelik's army suffered 7,000 dead and 10,000 wounded.
7k and 10k casualties is pretty bs and ya it was recorded that Emperor Menilk told an Italian prisoner that was getting beat up all the way to the capital 12k of his army died wow so believe lol
wow this man did his research ! we need more people like you in the world ! respect from Ethiopia ! i am currently painting the battle of Adwa and the vibes surrounding that era and you have inspired me !
Man, all these years of playing a game like Civilization VI, and i never knew that Menelik the II was so recent, wow, every day you learn something new i guess
bro, you drink from the ocean there is more history he didn't mention in this 6th episodes also he is not doing a video about the 225th emperor and 224 Empress, Queen of Kings
Can I just say, the nebula-curiosity bundle is the BEST offer out there for edutainment content. It’s a huge discount off each service individually and has a lot of content that my favorite creators haven’t posted elsewhere or extended versions of their videos. The sites are decently designed too. Highly highly recommend grabbing that deal while they have it
He ware hat all day because he is bared head and the hat is made by cotton and gold just like other traditional Ethiopian royalty close if you like too see it go to Ethiopian national museum
I feel like this series bit off a bit much. They should have picked a period and focused on it, like the medieval Solomons, or between Tewodoros II and Haile Selassie. I would have enjoyed a more in depth series.
what an amazing journey this has been through ethiopian history at first I wondered why this wasn't taught in the west now I have realized why because the outcome of this last battle is still felt today and while the west doesn't want to admit it they are still very much about colonialism they are just more subtle about it and wouldn't want to teach history that shows how bad the west has really been or how oppressed africa has been and kind of still is and especially how much africa would flourish if they weren't, whether we like to admit it or not america has become an empire and like every empire before them they are doing what empires do best seizing control by force and oppressing any who would challenge them
Damne I wished you guys talk about the dervish uprising. Hoped you guys talked more about how ethiopia became the size it now is and talked also about the dervish uprising, cause its one of the big uprisings in east africa.
@@Zeyede_Seyum true. Ethiopia got the size it now is mostly due to the inteŕvention of europe. The british handed ethiopia the ogaden region and they got help from russia aswell. But they mostly got to that point, because they had early on an empire, wich was centralized and had strong leaders, unlike its neighbors.
@@ajuuran2890 actually Ogaden was conquered by Ras Mekonen father of Hailesilassie. It was *Haud* that was given to Ethiopia by the British. It borders Somaliland.
The kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861, after the annexation of the southern regions, but it was “completely” unified only in 1871 with the capture of Rome
Huh. A large and theoretically more advanced and powerful nation going up against a smaller nation expecting to find it divided against itself but instead finding it united against that larger nation. I guess war really never does change.
Excellent video. Oddly enough, some of the rifles used by the Ethiopians at Adwa, notably the Manlicher 1880 and 1890, the Gewehr 1988, the Beaumont -Vitali 1871-88, were much better than the italian Vetterli one shot rifle. Baratieri had a stock of modern Carcano 1891, but decided not to use them since he had still a lot of cartridges for the Vetterli.
Is it true that the modern rifles used by the Ethiopian army were basically the same model of the ones used by the Italian army? Or at least of the same quality? My history teacher told me that, but I haven't found neither a confirm or a negation for that.
They explained in a previous episode that Ethiopia was relatively decentralized compared to other empires, with many local governing groups, and constantly had uprisings and/or foreign invasions, so it's really hard to define an exact territorial border. In this one too, it talks about how Yohannes IV tried to unify the empire, implying it wasn't unified already.
Looking for Extra History content without ads? Go to curiositystream.com/extracredits to get a full year of Curiosity Stream & Nebula for $14.79! That's Ad FREE content, served to you 24 hours before our UA-cam release!
hold up can't we able to buy curiosity just once? (there are those who say of new ways for businesses to steal personal information online )
Will you cover the rise of Ras Teferi Mekonnen(Hailesilassie)?
Please put nebula on consoles (Xbox switch ps)
Not Solomon King's, Shoan Oromo kingdom of Pagans and Muslims who like telling tall tales
Was it a strip or small fort, and not rebellions but the seige on the small fort England illegally gave to Italy, while being invaded by Sudan.
I know nations like Egypt tend to get top billing when it comes to the wider world's knowledge of African history, but this series has shown that every single corner of that continent has fascinating stories to tell 😊
Every single corner of every continent has fascinating stories to tell.
Very true!
Ethiopia also has the claim of NEVER being colonized by Europe, something that the rest of Africa can't claim.
@@alexanderchipman9571 Didn't Italy colonize them in WWII or am I confusing them with another country?
@@kakahass8845 Italy occupied them for a few years, until being driven out by the British. I couldn't count that five year period as colonization.
That misinformation campaign by Menelik against the italians was a thing of beauty.
Menelik II dabbed all over the Italians.
Hearing an african especially one of the oldest countries in the world's story has come to an end and we are waiting the others. You guys doing such a good job.
I want to see them do the Kongo kingdom next
@@Threezi04 ı always wanted to see kongo,zanzibar and tunisia.
Their series on the Zulu empire is pretty good too!
Empress Taytu was a truly strong woman and notorious for her temper. You DID NOT want to get on her bad side. Whenever the diplomatic Menelik was faced with a request from his subjects that he didn't want to outright refuse, he would just tell them to go ask her. Yeah, sly man was Menelik.
It is true. She became very famous, even proverbial in Italy too.
"Menelik, who often prevaricated and postponed unpleasant decisions by answering "Yes, tomorrow" (Ishi, nega), found it useful to have his wife be in a powerful enough position to say "Absolutely not" (Imbi) to people and issues he just did not want to personally offend or refuse."
He didn't want to offend people so he told his wife to chase them off. She was definitely a good match for him. The Theodora to his Justinian.
Oh my God XD
I wonder how her and her empire will do against breech loading rifles and criypit artillry
@@historyisawesome6399 how deadly were those types of rifles back in those days?
I think it's a shame you didn't bring up the fact that Pan African flag is based on the Ethiopian flag and that the African Union is headquartered in Ethiopia. The influence of this battle is still felt today in the fact that 13 African countries have flags based on the Ethiopian tricolor
I assume that's for the next episode
@@Nolaris3, this is the last episode (I think).
@@occam7382 He said in the episode that this is a big topic so they'll make another episode after this
Edit: It was in the previous episode, though I assume it was about a seventh one because most EH series are 6 episodes unless I'm mistaken
Edit edit: Oh I'm very wrong they're mostly 5 eps so this is probably the last one
@@occam7382 I don't think so. There's still the reign of Haile Selassie and Rastafarianism.
@@dantatadangote, I know. They should have covered that, but they didn't, for some reason.
Note: Not only did Menelik II know how to win a war, he also knew how to end it. After the Battle of Adwa, many Europeans expected Menelik II to move on to Eritrea, but he didn't. Menelik feared that if he invaded Eritrea, it could be enough for Italy to be threatened, with the population galvanized to launch a new invasion. He knew that if Italy had mustered all of its available resources, Ethiopia would have likely been crushed, so instead of advancing into Eritrea, Menelik II simply sought to replace the Treaty of Wuchale with the Treaty of Addis Ababa that confirmed Ethiopian independence, letting the political fallout reach Italy and causing the government to seek peace.
Edit: Wording, grammar, and corrections.
Yes indeed, but most Eritreans nationalists don't understand that.
Not overplaying his hand... wise
Ehhh doubt that the Kingdom of Tigray under Yohannes betrayed their closest ally the Amhara under Tewodros who's ultimate goal of defense wound had saved Tigray, but Yohannes still betrayed Tewodros while Menelik was under Tewodros's protection and married to his daughter, Italy would have likely been embarrassingly obliterated, but why after what Tigray/Yohannes did to Tewodros and the Amhara, seems like he learned and let that part of the Tigrayan kingdom know he remembered
That part of the Tigrayan kingdom became Eritrea
'Mustered'...I see what you did there.
Ethiopia: "Hey Russia, can we get some help?."
Russia: "I don't know, you kind of belong to Italy, and we don't feel like angering them."
Ethiopia: "We're an Eastern Orthodox nation under control of Catholics."
Russia: "Why didn't you say so comrade, anything you need is yours."
😂😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂
Russia: want to drink some vodka?
Nice one lol
Ethiopia is oriental orthodox, not eastern
1:11 "Emperor Yohannes IV is one of those figures that gets skipped in a lot of histories"
Can confirm - until this video I had no idea that there was anyone between Tewodros II and Menelik II. Thanks for broadening my knowledge!
Arguably the most influential leader of Ethiopia until Menlik
There's actually another emperor who immediately ruled after the death of Tewdros, his name was emperor takla gyorgis his reign was very short lasting only 4 years and most even in Ethiopia doesn't know about him.
7:30 Just the fact that this woman, this Empress, was on the field of battle should tell you a lot about her personality. She was the Theodora to Menelik's Justinian. Bold, assertive, and fearless, Empress Taytu was a woman of power in a world and religion dominated by men.
There is reason we have a saying in Ethiopia, "Taunted by a woman a man fear no hyenas.'😂😂😂
Battle of Adwa was a the third and major battle of the 1894-96 Ethio-Italy war. There was also the battle of Alagae and Siege of Mekele where an entire Italian regiment surrendered after their water source was seized by soldiers of Empress Taitu Bitul.
It's Amba Alagae
yes brother no 1 mentiond those 2 batels
Yes that is TRUE.
This series was amazing. Ethiopia is one of those nations that has such a rich and complex history it deserves more attention by the western world. Thank you guys for covering it!
It saddens me to see that such a great series on such an interesting subject has come to an end, but I thoroughly enjoyed it while it lasted.
Great work!
I've noticed when I've met Ethiopians and tell them I live in Japan they always smile and acknowledge the fact that Japan like Ethiopia is in the small club of countries that withstood colonialism and militarily defeated European powers. That said while the Russo Japanese war is well known, I don't think this is as well known as it should be. Go Ethiopia!
Until Italy came back, that is. Also, Colonialism isn't uniquely European
Japan is only abit bigger then eritera it no where never Ethiopia.
Technically Ethiopia didn't resist European colonialism, since they got occupied by Italy in 1936.
This kind of narrows the list down to Thailand, Korea, Japan and Liberia.
Japan didn't withstand colonialism, it became a coloniser and committed horrible atrocities across asia, far worse than what Italy did
@@toreq1127 eh, yes and no, their thinking is to survive colonialism, they were forced to join it, was pretty much true
I feel like you guys at Extra Credits should do more on Africa, like the Congo Wars, different leaders of Africa etc, it would be pretty neat
I mean that would have to be double the episodes since the Congo war needs background major and layers why they all hate each other Belgian involvement, UN involvement, and Soviet Involvement. If interested in Congo war watch History House’s. Sadly he did stop posting.
modern wars are pretty difficult for them to explain, also it’s more violent
IIRC they rarely cover subjects after 1920, though they have made exceptions. But Africa has so many stories to tell, and Congo has a very rich history.
@@oscarhess1376 and also why basically half of africa went head first into the war
Well I can see why Menelik was chosen represent Ethiopia in Civilization 6
Thank you for this series. I had never heard anything about the history of Ethiopia before, they should totally make a movie about this.
Great ending for a great series! It was a nice decision to not talk about what happened after Adwa, because it would need at least two separate videos.
what happened after adwa>?
Reaping is not as fun as sowing study finds. It was one of the funniest things I have seen today. Thank you.
Women of Ethiopia during the Battle of Adwa, to their husbands: "Or you fight like men, or you all will sleep outside the houses, without dinner!"
8:13 love how the background photo is the same used in the first episode when it was said that “Ethiopia would eclipse the power of Rome”
Epic foreshadowing
It was a prophecy that sort of came true since Rome is Italy's capital.
There were actually quite a few colourful characters involved in the British incursion including Assyrian archaelogist Hormuz Rassam and Resident of Perak Captain Speedy.
My greatgrandfather's father fought in the 1st Italo-Ethiopian war, he got so traumatized by the war that he fled europe a bit later.
Really hope we get a future one off episode about how the Solemnaic dynasty fell in the 1970s.
That would be an interesting topic.
*CORRECTION* : Ethiopia was never colonized so it’s not called independence. It’s called victory. It’s only called independence *if* Ethiopia was colonized but that *never happened.*
the war was about ethiopia maintaining its independce so it make total sense as they kept their indepndence just like thailand and turkey.
Something cool to add is that Adwa and later the victory against Mussolini in WWII are apparently seen in the Ethiopian church as the prophecy of the Kebra Negast comming to fruition, Ethiopia eclipsed the power of Rome.
How is nobody talking about Taytu Betul more, she deserves her own video!
This series has been super fascinating, and I would be happy to see it continue yet again! Thank you for this one too!
Stay well out there everybody, and God bless you, friends. ✝️ :)
This is arguably one of the most interesting extra credits yet!
So happy with this series, I feel like all of this is something I should have learned in school.
Suprised this series ended with Menelik II and not Haile Selassie's ignominious end and the end of his empire. Then again, EH doesn't usually like to explore topics beyond the World Wars.
I mean that war still has fresh wound to this 31yrs after the conclusion and with so many other wars and ideologies linked they would struggle to explain it properly withou having to spend sometime talking about the somalis oromos and eritria and all their grivences even surface-level and highly diluted that will take at least half the episode if not more and the war itself is a beast.
i'd gladly follow you if you just made videos about ethiopian history. such a shame so many nations barely get covered in western history content.
Now, I'm loving the past few series and I don't demand anything but I have a few ideas on little talked about topics: the deadliest Civil War in history and a prequel to your Sun Yat-Sen series, the Taiping Rebellion; a short series to pair with the Mary seacole series, the Crimean War; and the Mexican-American War from the Mexican perspective. Also, darker topics like the Wounded knee Massacre and Project Sunshine should be explored.
This series of the Ethiopian empire is really interesting I hope they do the ajuuran empire after this series
Me too bro 👋
ajuuran isn't very remarkable its just sea trades
@@luku.111 yeah they may have not been as known as the ethiopian empire but they had many great feats
@@mrprince5934 yes like exploring and trading with china
@@luku.111 yes thats one of their great feats. east africa is an interesting part of africa
really need an Extra History on the Vietnam war, there's no video on youtube that goes through the events in a bite sized digestible format the way ExtraHistory can
Thank you for mentioning the key role of Minilik's disinformation campaign, which most accounts of Adwa don't. However, some correction: it was 20000 (not 10000) Italians against about 100000 Ethiopians.
Also, of the 100,000 Ethiopians only 60,000 took to battle and Menlik did not charge the battlefield
Please do a Siamese / Thai episode.
I recommend the early kingdoms: Sukhothai and Ayutthaya
Sukhothai and Ayutthaya maybe quite a large topic though not impossible. However the Thonburi-Rattanakosin era may align well with the Ethiopia series.
Remember kids, the best way to prevent colonialism is to be United against the colonizer. Honestly, I would hypothesize that the number one reason kingdoms in Africa and Asia were being colonized were because they were still relying on decentralized states only loosely lied to the crown via marriage or other legal contract (feudalism). Essentially, most colonized places never viewed themselves in terms of nationality, so they are ok with other groups in their area being hurt as long as theirs was ok. By this point, most regions in Europe were unified under increasingly powerful central governments that brought about the idea of nationhood. If we look at a place like India, sure, the Mughals were in charge during the British ‘invasion’, but the government was always fearful of regional uprisings. A national Indian identity did not exist to tie people together. I wonder if anyone has done research on this to confirm or deny this hypothesis?
I mean it make sense since the colonizers strategy is devide and conquer why do you think they sent missionaries everywhere Christianities intolerance of any other religion is excellent for breaking down national integrity and causing internal division.
Have you already watched EC's series on that very topic? Titled, 'Conquest of India: Historical Paradox', from October last year.
Unifying comes with it's own terrible problems though. Problems in relatively poor and unimportant regions of your control can actually spiral out of control and destroy your entire country. I mean that's pretty much the basis of most civil wars and even movies based on internal conflict. For example if you look at the Hunger Games, you literally have 3 districts out of the twelve that exist who are unhappy(broke ass mining district, agricultural district, and clothing making district). Of the remaining districts 5 of them run just fine with no issues and 5 more are fabulously wealthy. If they had the choice they would rather just get rid of those garbage districts, but you gotta have food, minerals, and clothing.....
Well no, the idea of broader nationalism in the European sense didn't exist. A Bengali and a Rajput had nothing in common and would consider it an insult to suggest they had any kind of similarity. It'd be like asking why didn't the Germans help the French, where the roles of colonialism reversed. They are different peoples that often hated each other more then the Europeans conquering them.
The simple fact of the matter is European powers were incredibly powerful, at the time and local nations just had no chance of fighting them. Those few that did resist did so because they preemptively modernized their army. Were it not for modern rifles and cannons, especially those supplied by the Russians; Ethiopia's unity wouldn't have mattered before industrial warfare. Ethiopia only having "reasonable demands" after the battle is the reason they won, if they demanded anything substantive that forced the Italians to actually commit to a war, Ethiopia wouldn't have stood a chance.
Well in the long run it didn't do England a lot of good in the run because the whole we own everything cost them because they refused to listen to the people who were under them. Today even though America isn't great at it we do try to listen and no some problems will probably never find an answer because they are just too big for an answer.
Figuring out that Europeans were thirsty to find Prester John, and playing that to a T?
Geostrategic brilliance
I really enjoyed this series, and I'm glad you have covered another oft overlooked area of history. However, I do think you stretched yourselves a little too thin with this topic. When you've done other stuff over a large timeline like this, there's generally been some specific focus, like the construction of Angkor Wat. Here you don't really have that, and I think there's been a lot of interesting areas you've had to skip over, and that I really hope you might return to someday. Anyway, I want to be clear again that I found this interesting and enjoyable, but letting you know my honest opinion on it as a whole.
What an ending. Great job you guys
Italy: *trick Ethiopia into signing a mistranslated tready*
Menelik: "Let's turn up the CHARM!"
Finally a new episode thanks
I just realized, you can view (at the time) Japan's victory over Russia in 1905 as an Asian equivalent to Ethiopia's victory over Italy in 1896
Not really. Japan was a modernized, heavily industrialized nation, with a massive navy and the technological advantage.
Ethiopia very, very much didn't have those things
Whilst the situation of the two countries was vastly different, Ethiopia definitely took note of the Meiji restoration. During the early 20th century, Ethiopia had a political faction called "Young Japanisers" who called for closer cooperation with Japan and a modernization campaign based on the Meiji restoration.
Japan and Ethiopia signed a treaty of friendship and commerce in 1927 and sent many experts to Japan to take notes on how it developed. The 1931 Ethiopian constitution was even based on the Meiji constitution so both sides were heavily intertwined with one another
@@Julianna.Domina You're right. Furthermore, It's also important to note that Japan was a colonizer in the process of a hybrid genocide/forced assimilation of its native religious & ethnic minorities, and those that they conquered in their newly acquired territories, whereas in Ethiopia most of the minority & majority groups banded together against colonizers & (at least on paper) they had protections against the kind of depredations that Japan was committing within their domain
Yes and no. Both are cases of a non-European power hammering a European one and the few examples of an Asian power defeating a European one. Both also helped serve as models for other nations on their respective continents. But the First Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895, had already made Europe take Japan more seriously. At the start of this war, most Europeans expected the Japanese to be quickly crushed. The Qing Dynasty had a larger army (on paper) and several Battleships, when the Japanese had no Battleships at the time. Japan's victory shocked most of Europe and Asia and made European treat Japan more Equally.
By the time of the Russo-Japanese War, the British had already entered an alliance with Japan; Japan had participated in the Eight-nation Alliance during the Boxer Rebellion and European political cartoons about imperialism in China often showed Japan on equal with Europeans. Basically, the Russo-Japanese War wasn't so much colonialists versus potential colony as two colonialists (albeit one non-European) fighting over a colony.
Ethiopia: Send Weapons and aid plz
Russia: Can't
Ethiopia: I'm Orthodox
Russia: On my way.
Women challenging the "manhood" of men causing them to perish: Works every time.
so, there wont be a 7th episode featuring, Haile Selassie ?
not only he is the last ethiopian emperor, but he is considered holy by the rastafari
6000 well-equipped Italian soldiers were wiped out in a day. Amazing.
I feel like there should be another episode.
Yah they need to talk about Mussolini conquering it, the brits liberating it and then the communists taking over and murdering thousands of people
@@patriotadam4091 thousands? Those communists must have been slacking compared to their Chinese and Russian brothers
ya they need to talk about how menelik sent back the italian POV's to their homeland intact , that man was special!
I love how you guys draw horses...
8:14 reminds me of one prophecy mentioned in the book discussed in Episode 2.
Thank you for the video.
Up next is one of the greatest Ethiopian Emperors, “Ras Tafari”.
But also the last.
Not gonna lie, i have mixed feelings about the whole ordeal, but good for them for keeping themselves off the shackles of colonialism. Even if my national pride is hurted, i cannot deny as an historian the horrible truth behind that historical movement, neither the terrible consequences that colonised countries suffered.
Un po' ci abbiamo guadagnato anche noi, nonostante la sconfitta. La disfatta di Adua portò alla caduta del governo Crispi e all'ascesa di Giolitti, che estese il diritto di voto e introdusse importanti riforme nello stato sociale.
Non c'e' niente da essere orgogliosi nel colonialismo, sia esso della tua nazione o di altre.
@@alessandrodelogu7931 si ma per l' Europa ora eravamo solo una piccola potenza che aveva perso contro un paese africano
@@marcomvi4116 era colpa nostra. Non avevamo alcun bisogno di un impero coloniale. I debiti di quelle guerre li stiamo ancora pagando, e non ci hanno mai portato alcun profitto.
@@boonlincoln non dico che noi dovremmo essere fieri del colonialismo (gli inglesi dovrebbero andare ginocchioni sui ceci per un giorno intero per quello che hanno fatto al mondo) ma non posso negare un sentimento di dolore nel pensare ai migliaia di italiani uccisi in una sconfitta terribile per una causa atroce. Dobbiamo imparare il giusto messaggio da tutto questo però: non odio verso gli etiopi, ma disprezzo verso guerre ingiuste con il fine ultimo di sopraffazione, atrocità e sfruttamento.
@8:28 "Reaping not as fun as sowing, study finds"
Kudos to whoever put that in. Made me laugh :)
🌸Great job emphasizing how Europeans made colonization about race, and thus, it’s halting, empowering non-whites globally towards equity.
I believe we need to bring back extra mythology
The lowest number I have ever read for Italian Forces in the battle of Adua is 14,500. So where did you get 10,000? Also the Italian army eventually split into 3 parts and was destroyed piecemeal.
According to Richard Caulk in his "Between the Jaws of Hyenas" A Diplomatic History of Ethiopia (1876-1896), Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2002 p. 551 The Italians numbered 14,500 Riflemen with 56 guns and in fact totaled 17,300 all together. Of those 10,000 were Italians the rest were local recruits, (Called Askari.). G. F. H. Berkeley in his The Campaign of Adowa and the Rise of Menelik, Archibald Constable and Co. Ltd, London, 1902, p. 269 gives the following figures 17,700 of which 10,596 were Italians the rest "Natives", (Askari). They had 14,519 rifles and 56 guns and no cavalry.
The figures given by Caulk , pp. 563-564, the losses of the Italian army were has follows. 300 officers were killed, 4,600 Italian rank and file and 1,000 Askari for a total of 5,900 dead. Initially something like 1,681 Italians were captured although the figure seems to have grown to c. 1,900. Something like 800 Askari were captured. Something like 1,000 who escaped were wounded. Thus total casualties for the Italian army in this battle numbered c. 9,600. Well over 1/2 of the forces that started the battle. Berkeley, p. 345-346 gives the following figures. 2,918 Italian non-commissioned officers and men killed, 954 permanently missing, along with 261 officers for a total of 4,133, and with that 2,000 dead Askari for a grand total of 6,133 dead. Berkeley gives figures for wounded has 470 Italians and 958 Askari for a total of 1,428. Berkeley then lists 1,865 Italian prisoners. Berkeley seems to think at least 1,000 Askari were captured but mentions figures up to 2,000 captured. Taking Berkeley's minimal figures together they add up to 10,426. Again more thasn 1/2 of the Italian Army at the start of the battle.
Estimates of Ehiopian casualties are all over the map. According to Caulk, pp. 566-567, some italians said the Ethiopians suffered 20,000 dead and twice that number wounded. Figures clearly absurd. Caulk records other figures given are 4,000 dead and 6,000 wounded. Caulk records that a list made for Menelik counted 3,886 dead for Adua has of the end of March. It is also recorded that Menelik supposidly told an Italian prisoner that his army sufferred 12,000 dead and wounded at Adua.
Berkeley records on p. 346 estimates that Menelik's army suffered 7,000 dead and 10,000 wounded.
I hope they address this in lies.
7k and 10k casualties is pretty bs and ya it was recorded that Emperor Menilk told an Italian prisoner that was getting beat up all the way to the capital 12k of his army died wow so believe lol
Do you have any sources about the casualty estimates for the entire war?
wow this man did his research ! we need more people like you in the world ! respect from Ethiopia ! i am currently painting the battle of Adwa and the vibes surrounding that era and you have inspired me !
Awesome series, but I like to watch a video about Halle Selassie, the last Ethiopian king and how he managed to lead his nation in the middle of WWII.
Man, all these years of playing a game like Civilization VI, and i never knew that Menelik the II was so recent, wow, every day you learn something new i guess
I love the outfit you guys gave Menelik II
That is one of meniliks outfits
@@bereketeabteshome8126 interesting
"He treated him like a son, and married him to his daughter"
What are these, the Targaryens?
Hey, better than the Ptolomies who actually married their blood children together
@@Windona Hey, a Pharaoh gotta Pharaoh
bro, you drink from the ocean there is more history he didn't mention in this 6th episodes also he is not doing a video about the 225th emperor and 224 Empress, Queen of Kings
Can I just say, the nebula-curiosity bundle is the BEST offer out there for edutainment content. It’s a huge discount off each service individually and has a lot of content that my favorite creators haven’t posted elsewhere or extended versions of their videos. The sites are decently designed too. Highly highly recommend grabbing that deal while they have it
Great series!
OK, but what about the hat? Where did he get the hat? We need a whole movie to tell us how he got that hat.
He ware hat all day because he is bared head and the hat is made by cotton and gold just like other traditional Ethiopian royalty close if you like too see it go to Ethiopian national museum
I feel like this series bit off a bit much. They should have picked a period and focused on it, like the medieval Solomons, or between Tewodoros II and Haile Selassie. I would have enjoyed a more in depth series.
I have been waiting for this!
I missed the series that went beyond five episodes, series like Justinian.
You guys should do a 20th century history of Ethiopia or a part 7 (or mini series) of Halie Salense the last emporer of the Solomonic dynasty.
Thank you. This is such an under reported segment of history.
I like how the British are drawn with martini henrys and the ethiopians with russian mosin nagants
what an amazing journey this has been through ethiopian history at first I wondered why this wasn't taught in the west now I have realized why because the outcome of this last battle is still felt today and while the west doesn't want to admit it they are still very much about colonialism they are just more subtle about it and wouldn't want to teach history that shows how bad the west has really been or how oppressed africa has been and kind of still is and especially how much africa would flourish if they weren't, whether we like to admit it or not america has become an empire and like every empire before them they are doing what empires do best seizing control by force and oppressing any who would challenge them
Damne I wished you guys talk about the dervish uprising. Hoped you guys talked more about how ethiopia became the size it now is and talked also about the dervish uprising, cause its one of the big uprisings in east africa.
The Great War channel did a video on that
Ethiopia's centralization is a reaction of European colonization of surrounding countries.
@@Zeyede_Seyum true. Ethiopia got the size it now is mostly due to the inteŕvention of europe. The british handed ethiopia the ogaden region and they got help from russia aswell. But they mostly got to that point, because they had early on an empire, wich was centralized and had strong leaders, unlike its neighbors.
@@ajuuran2890 actually Ogaden was conquered by Ras Mekonen father of Hailesilassie. It was *Haud* that was given to Ethiopia by the British. It borders Somaliland.
@@ajuuran2890 It's part of somali region now.
"So you haven't read: The News"
What a classic~! 🤩
im soo proud of my country Ethiopia💕💗💕
"We'll just kinda skip over when the Italians came back 40 years later with aerial bombs and poison gas."
Love nebula, please add a notifications page though to track my notifications from nebula!
6:25
Oops, little mistake - Italy unified in 1861, not 1871
The kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861, after the annexation of the southern regions, but it was “completely” unified only in 1871 with the capture of Rome
@@alviseossena3238 didn’t know that. Thanks
Very cool
Another story that I learned about from reading the Flashman series of novels by George Macdonald Fraser.
I hoped there would be one more episode with Mussolini and Second Italo-Ethiopian War.
Italy: We will return. Mark my words
I love this channle
So close to talking about Rastafari, and yet so far
Do a video on Kwame Nkrumah
You should do an Extra Mythology video on the Ba’al Cycle sometime.
DO A VIDEO ABOUT JULIUS CEASAR
Great series but a little sad we stopped short of the Italian invasion prier to WW2.
Huh. A large and theoretically more advanced and powerful nation going up against a smaller nation expecting to find it divided against itself but instead finding it united against that larger nation. I guess war really never does change.
* LIKE IF YOU LOVE ETHIOPIA *
“Reaping not as fun as sowing, study finds.”
Excellent video. Oddly enough, some of the rifles used by the Ethiopians at Adwa, notably the Manlicher 1880 and 1890, the Gewehr 1988, the Beaumont -Vitali 1871-88, were much better than the italian Vetterli one shot rifle. Baratieri had a stock of modern Carcano 1891, but decided not to use them since he had still a lot of cartridges for the Vetterli.
in one of the bottom corners it would be helpful to have a the year each event you are talking about is happening
wouldve loved to see the journey of haile selassi, but still a great series
Is there going to be a part 7 and 8
Part 7 would be world war I and ii
And part 8 would be the fall of the solomonic dynaatie
This story of African nation defeating European forces reminds me of the Zulu empire episode that EH did
The Ethiopians one the war the Zulu won a battle but lost the was and got colonized
@@prideofegypt388 Ethiopia had fire weapons
@@prideofegypt388 EXACTLY!!! Thank you.
No Haile Selassie? Though I guess his story would be worth it's own series.
Is it true that the modern rifles used by the Ethiopian army were basically the same model of the ones used by the Italian army? Or at least of the same quality? My history teacher told me that, but I haven't found neither a confirm or a negation for that.
As an italian I can say:
Yes, probably.
I actually heard that Russia did provide more modern rifles than Italy had...
@@feuerderveranderung6056 copping mecha8
one more Episode come on
One more fo ethiopia. Love ur content!!!
Throughout your hole series until now, on the map of Ethiopia, the border was blurry. Why?
They explained in a previous episode that Ethiopia was relatively decentralized compared to other empires, with many local governing groups, and constantly had uprisings and/or foreign invasions, so it's really hard to define an exact territorial border. In this one too, it talks about how Yohannes IV tried to unify the empire, implying it wasn't unified already.
@@eliu868 ethiopia or better known as axum/abysinnia was unified and there are many maps of the ancient empire and its borders