During the late 19th century, during the scramble for Africa, the Italians had set their sights on the area around Ethiopia and somalia. After a number of small conficts Ethiopia and Italy signed the bi-lingual treaty of Wuchale. However, there was a translation error, in that in Ethiopian it said that they could deal with other European powers through Italy, in Italian it said that Ethiopia would become a protectorate of Italy. When the Ethiopians tried to fix this in the Italian version of the treaty, the Italians did not back down.

One of the major factors in the defeat of the Italians in Ethiopia is that the Ethiopians were receiving weaponry and medical supplies from the French, British, and Russians. The reason that the 3 nations were supplying the Ethiopians was mostly due to the fact that they did not want another colonial power spreading control over Africa, therefore ensuring more land to themselves.

The Ethiopian forces had been harrassing the Italians across Ethiopia, winning a number of small victorys throughout 1895. During February of 1896, the Italian general Oreste Baratieri had avoided combat with the much larger Ethiopian forces (17000 vs 120,000) knowing that the Ethiopians were putting heavy strain on their supply lines. However, the Italian prime minister Francesco Crispi ordered Baratieri to engage the larger Ethiopian forces. The prime minister believed that the Italian forces were more competent than the non-European forces they faced and thought that they would route the Ethiopians.

On march 1st, 1896. The battle of Adwa took place. The battle was a landslide victory for the Ethiopians, with 7000 Italians dead and another 1500 wounded, with 3000 taken prisoner. The italian forces retreated to Eritrea.

In the weeks to follow the Ethiopians signed the Treaty of Addis Ababa, which, among other things, made Italy recognize the independence of Ethiopia. Soon after the second treaty was signed, the French and British sent delegations to negotiate treaties with the newly proven power.

The battle and the campaign in general was a humiliating defeat for the Italians, as it was the worst Italian loss of life during the 19th century, and it was against a non-European nation. The events of the war were such that within 2 weeks of the loss the Italian government collapsed, further humiliating the new country, and the nation of Ethiopia being recognized as a sovereign nation by Europe. The original goal of the European powers was not to humiliate Italy but to stop it colonizing, which succeeded.