The Protectorate Paragraph of the Wichalē Treaty

Abstract

The problems connected with Article XVII of the Wic̣halē (Uccialli) treaty of 1889 form one of the most important issues in the history of Ethiopian-Italian relations. The Italian government claimed that this Article made Ethiopia an Italian protectorate. There was, however, a significant discrepancy between the Amharic and Italian versions of the Article. Minīlik refused to accept the ‘protection’ of Italy; diplomacy failed to solve the conflict, and the battle of Adwa followed. The absolute independence of Ethiopia was then recognized. But the idea that Ethiopia was an Italian protectorate from 1889 to 1896 has nevertheless been maintained by Italian authors and generally accepted by most writers on Ethiopian history to this day.A careful study of Italian-Ethiopian relations during the years preceding the Wic̣hale treaty, as well as of the immediate circumstances under which it was signed, reveals that the Italian negotiator Antonelli, and not Minīlik or his interpreter Yosēf, was guilty of creating the imbroglio. Antonelli was not ignorant of the Amharic language, and he had personally worded the Italian draft, which changed an earlier offer by the Italian government to act as the Emperor's ‘postman’ into an obligation for him to conduct his foreign affairs through Italian channels. Since this change was not introduced in the Amharic version, which had equal authority, the conclusion must be that the ‘protectorate paragraph’ never had any validity whatsoever. The Italian protectorate was not terminated by the battle of Adwa. It had never existed.