Arakal Bey, the young nephew of Nubar Pasha (the Christian Armenian Premier of the Khedive) joined the expedition and was killed in battle.Ībout 2000 Egyptians perished with him and his two six gun batteries and six rocket-stands fell into the hands of the enemy. Its leaders were, apart from the already mentioned Danish artilleryman and Major Dennison, an American, Major Durholtz, a Swiss, late of the Papal army, and Major Rushdi Bey, a Turk. It amounted to scarcely more than some 4,000 troops and had no cavalry. Īrrendrup's expedition was hopelessly inadequate for the tasks he set out to do. This encounter ended in the complete annihilation of the Egyptian expeditionary force led by Colonel Arrendrup and in the death of its commander. The mass of Ethiopian warriors sallied forth from their hiding places up the slope and swiftly charged down upon the shocked Egyptian columns, nullifying the latter's advantage in firepower and causing many of the unenthusiastic fellahin soldiers to rout. Not only were the Egyptians vastly outnumbered, they were also taken completely by surprise as they were marching through a narrow mountain pass. Following some skirmishes, the armies of Yohannes and Isma'il met at Gundet on the morning of 16 November 1875.
The Egyptians under Arakil Bey and Danish Colonel Adolph Ahrendrup invaded from their coastal possessions in Massawa, in what is now Eritrea. He worked on modernizing his army, some of whom were trained by the British adventurer John Kirkham. Meanwhile, King Yohannes IV became the King of Tigray in 1872 after defeating Tekle Giyorgis II in battle. Amongst Egypt's army were many European and American officers, whose training and experience further strengthened Isma'il's confidence. Whilst Ethiopia's history mirrored that of Egypt in many respects, with both having ancient, continuous civilizations home to both Muslims and Orthodox Christians, the rapid modernization of Egypt under Muhammad Ali, and Isma'il's own enormous modernizing projects, convinced the Khedive that war with Ethiopia would result in certain Egyptian victory. In addition to expanding into modern-day Chad, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and Uganda, he wished to absorb within his empire the entirety of the Nile Valley, including Ethiopia, the source of the Blue Nile. It was Isma'il's intention that Egypt forge a contiguous African empire that would both rival the empires of Europe, and allow Egypt to escape the territorial ambitions of those same European great powers. Īfter annexing Darfur in 1875, he turned his attention to Ethiopia. Muhammad Ali's grandson, Isma'il Pasha, became Khedive in 1863, and sought to expand this burgeoning empire further southwards.
Whilst nominally a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt had acted as a virtually independent state since Muhammad Ali's seizure of power in 1805, eventually establishing an empire to its south in Sudan.
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