The army of the Ethiopian Empire was the principal land warfare force of the Ethiopian Empire and had naval and air force branches in the 20th century. The organization existed in multiple forms throughout the history of the Ethiopian Empire from its foundation in 1270 by Emperor Yekuno Amlak, to the overthrow of the monarchy and Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 by members of the Ethiopian army. Due to the country's position along multiple trade routes and its maintenance of independence against multiple Islamic and colonialist invasions lead to multiple conflicts against numerous major countries including the Ottomans, Egyptians, British, and Italians.
European contact with the Ethiopians in the 1500s brought the first firearms to the country although attempts to arm the imperial army with gunpowder weapons did not happen until the early 1800s. The Ethiopians attempted to develop modern weapons internally, but after a British expedition to the country resulted in the death of an emperor and an Ethiopian defeat, the empire increased its importation of weaponry. The method of raising a national army was also altered in the 1800s with a centralized permanent field army being established.
Unlike the majority of non-European armies, the Ethiopian army was able to successfully modernize in the late 19th century and saved the country from European colonialism until another Italian invasion in the 1930s. After regaining independence in 1941, the military saw massive modernization programs under the guidance of the British and Americans and served minor roles in international conflicts until internal conflicts diverted Ethiopia's foreign policy.
Historical overview
Pre-19th century
Equestrian culture in Ethiopia is one of the oldest in the continent of Africa. Horses were likely introduced to the Ethiopian Highlands from the Nile valley during the second half of the 2nd millennium BC.Kebede, A. A. (2023). A short history of Awi Agew horse culture, Northwestern Ethiopia. Cogent Arts & Humanities, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2023.2231705 Equestrians and horse warriors in Ethiopia were called Feresenya (Amharic: ፈረስኛ), equivalent to the Arabic furusiyya, which was also the version of knight in Senterej."Pankhrust, R. (1989). The Early History of Ethiopian Horse-Names. Paideuma Bd, 35, 197–206. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40733033
In 1306, diplomatic envoys from Ethiopia arrived in Rome seeking diplomatic relations. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias completed the first circumvention of the African continent reaching India and opening relations between the Portuguese and multiple African countries, including Ethiopia. In 1488, Ethiopian diplomats arrived in Lisbon, Portugal and Jesuit missionaries came to Ethiopia where they remained until their expulsion by Emperor Fasilides in 1632. Emperor Yeshaq I, according to the Islamic historian al-Maqrizi, hired a group of Mamluks led by al-Tabingha to train his army in gunnery and sword fighting. This is the earliest reference to firearms (Arabic naft) in Ethiopia.Richard Pankhurst, "Linguistic and Cultural Data on the Penetration of Fire-Arms into Ethiopia", Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1 (1971), pp. 47–82.
On 9 April 1520, a Portuguese embassy led by Ambassadors Dom Rodrigo de Lima and Mateus, and included missionary Francisco Álvares, arrived in Massawa to negotiate with Emperor Dawit II over the possibility of an alliance against Muslim countries. On 21 February 1543, the Portuguese aided the Ethiopians defeat the Adal Sultanate at the Battle of Wayna Daga ending the fourteen year Ethiopian–Adal war.
In 1557, the Ottoman Empire invaded Ethiopia and conquered Massawa and other areas along the Red Sea coast. The Ottomans would remain in the area until 1863, when Isma'il Pasha became the Governor of the Egypt Eyalet and declared a Khedivate that was later recognized in 1867. By 1875, Isma'il had expanded his control to Berbera and Harar during the Ethiopian–Egyptian War, but following his deposition by the British and the Ethiopian victory in the war the areas were returned to their control. In 1884, the Bogos in Eritrea were returned to the Ethiopians through liquidations of Egypt by the British and Harar was conquered by Menelik II in 1886.
Modernization
In 1887, the Sudanese Mahdist State invaded the Gojjam and Begemder provinces as a part of the Mahdist War. From 9 to 10 March 1889, Emperor Yohannes IV met the Mahdists at the Battle of Gallabat where the Mahdists were defeated, but Yohannes IV was fatally wounded and died on 10 March. Due to the instability of the region from the Mahdist invasions the Ethiopians were unable to do anything to prevent the Italian colonization of Eritrea which took access to the Red Sea away from them.
The first firearms arrived in Ethiopia arrived during Yeshaq I's reign, but were not put to use. In the 1520s Dawit II purchased a small amount of Portuguese and Turkish firearms but large scale usage of them by both lay folk and nobility would not come until after the founding of Gonder. In 1828, Ras Sabagardis, the chief of the Tigray Province, sent his English servant to Bombay, Egypt, and England with requests for firearms and one hundred light cavalry. In India the servant found a surplus of outdated matchlocks belonging to the East India Company and Foreign Secretary Henry John Temple and the directors of the East India Company approved the transfer of 3,000 matchlocks in 1831. In 1839, Sahle Selassie, the King of Shewa, imported several cannons and was later given a mill to manufacture gunpowder by the French in 1840.
Northern Ethiopian spearheads were not serrated and heavily decorated like those of other African groups and were typically ribbed with lanceolate shapes. Two-pronged spears like the Bident and Military fork were common and these would all be thrusted with or thrown like javelins both on foot and horseback. Yeshaq I, according to the historian al-Maqrizi, hired a group of Mamluks to train his army in gunnery. This is the earliest reference to firearms (Arabic naft) in Ethiopia.Richard Pankhurst, "Linguistic and Cultural Data on the Penetration of Fire-Arms into Ethiopia", Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1 (1971), pp. 47–82. In the 1520s, Lebna Dengel bought two swivel-guns from the Portuguese, as well as fourteen muskets acquired from Turks, he was thus ill equipped for the Ottoman backed invasion in 1527 which included thousands of Turkish and Arab flintlocks and matchlocks. By the time of Wayna Daga, however, the army was trained in gunfighting. During the Ottoman–Ethiopian War (1557–1589) the armies of Gelawdewos and Sarsa Dengel were able to defeat Turkish invasions with firearms obtained from the portuguese and captured from their Muslim foes.
During the Gondarine period guns became common among the royalty and aristocracy, and in the Zemene Mesafint, among the peasantry. Sahle Selassie of Shewa later imported several canons in 1839 and by 1840 a French envoy had brought Sahle Selassie a mill to manufacture gunpowder along with 140 muskets. A British mission in 1842 visited Shoa and presented the Negus with 2 cannons, 300 muskets, and 100 pistols. His contemporaries like Sabagadis Woldu and Wube Haile Maryam would use their proximity to the sea in the north to obtain many firearms from the Europeans which they would use to counter the Ottomans to the west in the Ethiopian–Ottoman border conflict. By the time of the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1887–1889 nearly all warriors carried the most modern rifles of the time such as Remingtons. In 1900 Powell-Cotton stated Menelik II could put 500,000 rifles into the field along with 100 pieces of artillery. When an Ethiopian delegation led by Dejazmatch Mashasha visited Hamburg in 1907, a British ambassador in Germany states their hosts "were much astonished at the technical knowledge displayed by them in handling the weapons, and at their announcement that they themselves were in possession of most of the models shown"Guns in Ethiopia - Richard Pankhurst, No. 20 (1965), pp. 26-33, https://doi.org/10.2307/2934388
British Expedition
In 1855, Tewodros II became the emperor and had the goal of unifying the Ethiopians into a centralized state in order to establish the country as a regional power. In 1856, he defeated Negus Haile Melekot, who ruled over the semi-autonomous Shewa region, and started military campaigns against the Oromo. During the 1860s, he used European missionaries to work in road construction and on building a siege weapon.
Tewodros II also centralized the military by creating a permanent standing army from its historical practice of temporarily raising regional armies to create a national army. He also created a military hierarchy with titles going upward from commanders of ten, fifty, one thousand, and larger amounts of soldiers. Tewodros II also created an arsenal of modern weaponry in Magdala with 11,063 rifles, 875 pistols, 481 bayonets, 83,563 bullets, 15 cannons, 7 mortars, and 55 cannon shells. The Sebastopol, a massive mortar created at the Gafat foundry, was a prized weapon, but when it was used against the British it misfired and was unable to be used.
In 1864, Tewodros II imprisoned British consul Charles Duncan Cameron and multiple missionaries and ignored British ultimatums sent ordering his release. The British sent an army, equipped with modern military supplies and artillery, under the leadership of Robert Napier to free Cameron. On 10 April 1868, Ethiopian infantry armed with rifles and spears met the British at the Battle of Magdala and were easily defeated. Tewodros II later committed suicide after negotiations with the British had failed, but the British left after freeing Cameron and the missionaries having no intention of conquering Ethiopia.
First Italo-Ethiopian War
During the latter half of the 19th century the size of the Ethiopian field army rose dramatically. The largest army raised by Tewodros II during his reign was 15,000. In 1873, Emperor Yohannes IV raised an army of 32,000 soldiers, by 1876, he raised an army of 64,000 soldiers, and by 1880, he raised an army of 140,000 soldiers with 40,000 armed with rifles. While serving as the King of Shewa, Menelik II raised 80,000 soldiers in 1878, although only 4,000 had rifles, but by the time of the first war with the Italians he raised an army of 150,000 soldiers with the majority being equipped with modern weapons.
In 1879, Alfred Ilg arrived in the court of Menelik, seeking employment similar to Werner Munzinger who had helped Khedive Isma'il Pasha with the modernization of the Khedivate of Egypt, and aided in the modernization of Ethiopia's infrastructure and military. In 1887, the Ethiopian army was estimated to consist of over 145,000 soldiers with 88,000 infantry and 57,000 cavalry. The soldiers were armed with 71,000 firearms and 28,000 breechloaders.