The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in The Age of Empire

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About The Battle Of Adwa: African Victory In The Age Of

Product Description In March 1896 a well-disciplined and massive Ethiopian army did the unthinkable€”it routed an invading Italian force and brought Italy’s war of conquest in Africa to an end. In an age of relentless European expansion, Ethiopia had successfully defended its independence and cast doubt upon an unshakable certainty of the age€”that sooner or later all Africans would fall under the rule of Europeans. This event opened a breach that would lead, in the aftermath of world war fifty years later, to the continent’s painful struggle for freedom from colonial rule.Raymond Jonas offers the first comprehensive account of this singular episode in modern world history. The narrative is peopled by the ambitious and vain, the creative and the coarse, across Africa, Europe, and the Americas€”personalities like Menelik, a biblically inspired provincial monarch who consolidated Ethiopia’s throne; Taytu, his quick-witted and aggressive wife; and the Swiss engineer Al Review "Jonas has brought Adwa into the fold of transnational history, marrying the local and the global in lively, engaging prose in this excellent exercise in narrative history."  -- Teshale Tibebu, Temple University,  Choice (A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2012) "[Jonas has given] us a masterly account of one of the most dramatic moments in the modern history of Africa." - Bahru Zewde, University of Addis Ababa,  Africa Review of Books From the Author Winner of the Toyin Falola Africa Book Award for 2012 from the Association of Third World Studies About the Author Raymond Jonas is Giovanni and Amne Costigan Professor of History at the University of Washington.