an alternate Adowa

Following the battle of Adowa the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik follows up with the invasion ad conquest of Eritrea. IOTL there were already attrocity stories circulating after the battle that Italian soldiers were castrated, although this seems to be a myth the ethiopians did horribly mutilate the
Italians native troops. Eritrea was ripe for the taking, there is a degree of conjecture about why it wasn;t particualrly as the ethiopian army had secured so much modern military equipment and amunition following the battle.
So Eritrea is captured, a black african leader has not only fought off invasion but followed it up with thte invasion and conquest of a bordering colony. Attrocity stories are already circulating and can only increase following the capture of a civillian populace. The Italians are humiliated. African nationalists have a very clear example of a european country being crushed and a colony "liberated". Would the conquest of a relatively small colony have a much bigger impact than the rebuff of an invasion? Would the neighbouring british presence just see it as the incompetance of the Italians and happily trade with Ethiopia or would the invasion of Eritrea force European intervention due to concerns over loss of prestige?
 
The problem is that at that point the massive Ethiopian army had consumed all its food and its soldiers were on the lasts rations. In fact, the day before the battle Menelik was planning to retreat in order to gather some more supplies. Then, the Italians attacked and the rest is History. Change for some reason the amount of supplies the Ethiopians have and perhaps they can think in invading Eritrea (which isn't a long shot, as Adowa is practically at the Eritro-Abyssinian frontier)

I'm not sure what the Europeans will think about a successful Ethiopian invasion of Eritrea, however. If I'm not wrong France was actually in very good relations with Ethiopia and many of the weapons that were used in Adowa came through the Djibouti-Abdis Ababa railway.

EDIT: I've been looking at the Menelik II article in Wikipedia and it claims that Ethiopia supported France during the Fachoda Crisis. I know the Ethiopian victory at Adowa freaked the British and encouraged them to exterminate the Mahdist in the Sudan. Maybe this victory panics even more the British Army in the region to the point of declaring war in support ofthe Italians.
 
Bump. One wonders, assuming this could work, what impact this would have on the Italians and the military if Italy in the following decades.
 

The Sandman

Banned
Well, what might be really interesting is the precedent if it's allowed to stand, and then the Russo-Japanese War occurs as per OTL. One example of non-Europeans decisively defeating a European power could be taken as a fluke, or attributed to some unique aspect of that particular non-European nation. Two decisive defeats of Europeans by non-Europeans, on the other hand, establishes a pattern.
 
In initially posting this I was trying to come up with a point of departure following a pub conversation revolving around a modern EU which kept its empires (yup its ASB but the beer was convincing). The closest vaguely feasible idea I came up with was where the various european empires worked much more closely together and averted a great war. In doing so I tried to come up with an outside threat that would unite them in a "european" identitiy. The obvious thought was an overmighty Russia and perhaps a joint western crusade against them, my big problem with that was that\russia has always been an aknowledged threat and part of the wests calculations, wildfire revolutions accross africa could force european co-operation in neighbouring colonies and greater Imperial understanding. French civilians saved by British troops (or vice versa) followed by joint reprisals, particularly if atrocity stories are circulating, could have a masive impact on the public of europe and perhaps foster an earlier european identity. As the economies of Europe were already massively integrated at this point a threat that made people feel european could push forward the idea of "europe" further.
So could this happen, and if so would a Russian or US threat have the same effect given the endemic racism of the time?
 
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