Italy’s post-Adowa weakness forced reduced claims to the Ogaden
Evidence
Farther to the south, though as yet only weakly established, Italy was determined to cling to her new Somali interests, and forced, after her defeat at Adowa, to reach a boundary settlement acceptable to Ethiopia. This was negotiated by Major Nerazzini who had earlier conducted with Menelik the negotiations for the Italo-Ethiopian peace treaty. And although in that treaty Menelik described himself as ‘Emperor of Ethiopia and of the Galla countries’, making no reference to his pretensions in Somaliland, Italy was forced to reduce her claims to the Ogaden which Britain had accepted in the Anglo-Italian Protocol of 1894. In fact, the Italian sphere was defined vaguely as lying within an area up to 180 miles from the coast and running from the boundary of the British Protectorate to the Juba River, north of Bardera. At the time, when the Italian position was so weak, this hasty division of spheres of interest may have seemed advantageous to both parties; certainly in later years it fostered the growth of a tradition of uncertainty and conflict which led to the Walwal incident and Italo-Ethiopian war, and is still unresolved. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 194
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: The Ogaden conflict’s deep roots precede the 1977 war by nearly a century; Adowa shattered Italy’s Ethiopian claim but left its Somali colonies intact; Adowa’s Italian defeat ended Italy’s claim to an Ethiopian protectorate — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 170 (+1 more)
Related
- Adowa shattered Italy’s Ethiopian claim but left its Somali colonies intact (similarity 0.92)
- Adowa’s Italian defeat ended Italy’s claim to an Ethiopian protectorate (similarity 0.86)
- Ethiopia’s victory at Adowa forced European powers to treat it as sovereign. (similarity 0.85)
- Ethiopia’s Ogaden claims rest on late 19th-century conquest, not ancient empire (similarity 0.83)
- The Ogaden conflict’s deep roots precede the 1977 war by nearly a century (similarity 0.81)
- Italian reoccupation and Ethiopian claims broke nationalist momentum in the 1950s (similarity 0.80)
- Italy invaded and declared war on Ethiopia on October 3, 1935 (similarity 0.78)