1
00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:09,240
Speaker 1: What's recording my this meeting? I'm Robert Evans, hosted Behind

2
00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:13,080
Speaker 1: the Bastards, ripping off the zoom robot lady who yells

3
00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:14,720
Speaker 1: at us at the start of every meeting to let

4
00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:19,600
Speaker 1: us know that it's being recorded. She'd she's been rebranded,

5
00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:22,960
Speaker 1: she's nice or now she doesn't say that they they

6
00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:25,439
Speaker 1: were like, you know, a little too intense, might sound

7
00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:34,839
Speaker 1: like a cop rebrand after like two weeks rebrand fucking cops, cops.

8
00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:39,720
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm going for here today. Our

9
00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:44,040
Speaker 1: guest is Joel Monique, producer here at I Heart Radio. Joel,

10
00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:46,920
Speaker 1: how are you doing today? Oh my god, I'm in

11
00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:49,320
Speaker 1: a very good mood to learn about some bad people

12
00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:53,040
Speaker 1: like I. I really want to feel the hate for people.

13
00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:56,560
Speaker 1: We're doing a bit of a different kind of episode

14
00:00:56,600 --> 00:00:59,720
Speaker 1: this week. Right the last episode you did with us,

15
00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:01,600
Speaker 1: we talked about Roy Cone, which is obviously we're going

16
00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:04,639
Speaker 1: very deep into the personal history of one influential, shitty person.

17
00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:07,760
Speaker 1: Today is more of a broader history podcast. There's a

18
00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,760
Speaker 1: lot of bastards, but really the bastard of this episode

19
00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:17,600
Speaker 1: is the Nation of Italy and the victor. Yes, fucking Italians.

20
00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:22,400
Speaker 1: We're finally taking it to I'm god, damn them all prepared.

21
00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:26,640
Speaker 1: Dan A little country, Well, let's do No, it's there's

22
00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,800
Speaker 1: one country. It's okay to hate all of and it's Italy. Okay, fine,

23
00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:38,200
Speaker 1: I should not Robert as Italian and you should. I

24
00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:47,200
Speaker 1: don't sunburn like it's we're we're a demon, people's sunburn, Okay. Um,

25
00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:50,920
Speaker 1: So Italy is the bastard and the victim of Italy

26
00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:54,760
Speaker 1: is a little country you might have heard of called Ethiopia.

27
00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:59,840
Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking a lot about yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

28
00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:04,320
Speaker 1: in yeah, I mean less than most of so, I mean,

29
00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:05,760
Speaker 1: we'll talk about this a bit later. But one of

30
00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:08,160
Speaker 1: the things that makes Ethiopia unique is that it's the

31
00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:11,720
Speaker 1: only African nation that wasn't colonized. It was, up until

32
00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:16,320
Speaker 1: the twentieth century, the only independent African nation after the

33
00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:19,360
Speaker 1: Scramble for Africa. Right there was kind of Liberia, but

34
00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:21,480
Speaker 1: Liberia kind of started as a US colony. Was a

35
00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:23,760
Speaker 1: different than a normal colony, right because we were It's

36
00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,000
Speaker 1: not quite the same as like you know, South Africa

37
00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:29,800
Speaker 1: or whatever. But Ethiopia was never conquered throughout the entire

38
00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:33,519
Speaker 1: colonialism here. Um, we're gonna talk about Ethiopian history is

39
00:02:33,520 --> 00:02:36,280
Speaker 1: actually fascinating. Part of why I'm doing this as I've

40
00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:38,920
Speaker 1: been trying to study up on the current conflict what

41
00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:41,799
Speaker 1: is probably a genocide at least an ethnic cleansing in

42
00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:45,480
Speaker 1: tigray Um, which is a part of the nation of Ethiopia.

43
00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:47,560
Speaker 1: A lot of people who want to be separatists there,

44
00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:50,600
Speaker 1: the tigray like a separate ethnic group. Um. We're not

45
00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:52,400
Speaker 1: going to talk a lot about that hit right now,

46
00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:55,040
Speaker 1: because again I'm part of my learning up on this

47
00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:58,040
Speaker 1: has been studying the last couple hundred years of Ethiopian history,

48
00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:00,600
Speaker 1: trying to get a build up a better base of understanding.

49
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:04,880
Speaker 1: And when you go through eighteen hundreds nineteen hundreds Ethiopian history,

50
00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:09,079
Speaker 1: the recurring bastard is the nation of Italy. So we're

51
00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:13,880
Speaker 1: talking about that today, Um, And I think we make

52
00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:16,079
Speaker 1: a lot of jokes about being anti Italian because it's

53
00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:19,799
Speaker 1: funny to talk about the spicy meat, the balls and whatnot. Um,

54
00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:23,440
Speaker 1: But I think it actually, for the most part, when

55
00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:26,600
Speaker 1: you're kind of looking at the imperial powers, Italy doesn't

56
00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:28,680
Speaker 1: really wind up on anyone's radar. Right France, You've got

57
00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:31,880
Speaker 1: a bunch of horrible and extensive Fuccorre in Indo, China.

58
00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:36,240
Speaker 1: Some really terrible ship they did, Like the British Empire

59
00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:39,800
Speaker 1: obviously carried out like Nazi level crimes against humanity and

60
00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:44,720
Speaker 1: multiple United States bunch of ethnic cleansings and mass murders

61
00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:48,720
Speaker 1: of the Philippines. Horrible, horrible shit. Italy, you know, you

62
00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:53,880
Speaker 1: had spicy meatball bit ready to go. Yeah. Mostly it's

63
00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:57,160
Speaker 1: the spicy the heel of all of these other major

64
00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:00,240
Speaker 1: powers for a long time, Like Brits were like, I

65
00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:02,520
Speaker 1: guess if you have to marry an Italian, you can,

66
00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:05,920
Speaker 1: but why you know, I've watched down Town Abbey the

67
00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:07,840
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks. A lot of hate for the

68
00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:10,600
Speaker 1: Italians and that thing. Uh, you know, And when they

69
00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:13,960
Speaker 1: came to America the same situation, ye yep. And and

70
00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:17,200
Speaker 1: the big European powers were all really competent, right. The

71
00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:19,920
Speaker 1: British Empire very good at what they did. That's why

72
00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:22,440
Speaker 1: they were the British Empire. The French you know, imperial,

73
00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:24,279
Speaker 1: very good at what they did up until you know,

74
00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:28,400
Speaker 1: it all fell apart. The Germans really scary nation in

75
00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:30,280
Speaker 1: terms of like the kind of ship that they were

76
00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:33,680
Speaker 1: able to pull off, like really frighteningly competent. Not the

77
00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:36,039
Speaker 1: same thing with the Italians. You know, they're part of

78
00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:39,320
Speaker 1: the access in World War Two. Nobody scared about the

79
00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:44,160
Speaker 1: fashion of the fascist Italians, right. The Nazis are Mussolini's

80
00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:46,960
Speaker 1: a joke, right, like Italy comes came off that war

81
00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:49,680
Speaker 1: as like the bumbling and incompetent partner to these like

82
00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:53,760
Speaker 1: nightmare warriors the Germans. Gone were the glory days of Rome?

83
00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:57,200
Speaker 1: For sure? Yeah, for sure. And it's um there's actually

84
00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:00,680
Speaker 1: this goes back in European history, back to really at

85
00:05:00,360 --> 00:05:04,040
Speaker 1: the hundreds. There's this like long standing. There's even a

86
00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:05,880
Speaker 1: Latin phrase for it that I don't have memorized. But

87
00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:09,600
Speaker 1: the joke is Italians can't fight. They're not good fighters,

88
00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:12,839
Speaker 1: which is gonna sound like if you know Roman history,

89
00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:14,160
Speaker 1: like one of the things I mean. And this this

90
00:05:14,200 --> 00:05:16,360
Speaker 1: does go back a bit because even in ancient Rome,

91
00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:21,000
Speaker 1: Italian Italians Romans in particular, were the best heavy infantry

92
00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:23,320
Speaker 1: the world had ever seen. Right, But an army includes

93
00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:25,080
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff that's not heavy infantry. You've got

94
00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:28,080
Speaker 1: you've got archers, You've got you know, sling throwers or

95
00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:30,880
Speaker 1: what not. You've got different kinds of cavalry. You've got skirmishers.

96
00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:33,200
Speaker 1: None of those were ever Italians. They always went with

97
00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:35,000
Speaker 1: That's part of why they colonize is they would take

98
00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:39,040
Speaker 1: these you know, Balaric slingers and arthur archers from you know,

99
00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:42,120
Speaker 1: Crete and all these different like Gallic cavalry and whatnot.

100
00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:44,720
Speaker 1: And that's what made the Roman Empire imposing the heavy infantry,

101
00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:46,640
Speaker 1: which were Italians were really good, but they had all

102
00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:49,360
Speaker 1: these different peoples that they would bring in to fill

103
00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:52,120
Speaker 1: these other roles that they just weren't very good at. Um.

104
00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:55,520
Speaker 1: They're really good at artillery, but you know they have

105
00:05:55,640 --> 00:05:57,960
Speaker 1: and they have a really significant period of military dominance

106
00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:01,120
Speaker 1: during Ancient Rome, and then they're kind of not that impressive, right.

107
00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:03,480
Speaker 1: Some of the Italian city states do some okay ship

108
00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:06,599
Speaker 1: and like you know the Renaissance period, the Medieval period,

109
00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:10,080
Speaker 1: but like they're not there. You know, when you're talking

110
00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:12,360
Speaker 1: about like the dominant military powers in Europe for most

111
00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:14,120
Speaker 1: of less thousand years, talking about the French, you're talking

112
00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:16,720
Speaker 1: about the German's, talking about the British, you know, Um,

113
00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:21,880
Speaker 1: nobody's all that impressed with Italy military might. Um. And

114
00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:25,200
Speaker 1: it's it's there's also some aspects of this that are

115
00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:28,400
Speaker 1: weird because like when Mussolini first came to power in

116
00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:30,440
Speaker 1: like twenty two, the first like ten years of his reigners,

117
00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:33,280
Speaker 1: so he was the fascist right, nobody cared about Hitler,

118
00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:35,800
Speaker 1: Nobody talked about Hitler. Hitler was kind of cribbing off

119
00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:38,680
Speaker 1: of him, and he was a very popular leader worldwide.

120
00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:41,719
Speaker 1: Mussolini was. He was super popular in the United States,

121
00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:44,880
Speaker 1: and we've kind of forgotten that because by the time

122
00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:47,760
Speaker 1: the war started, it fascist Italy was such a ship

123
00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:50,640
Speaker 1: show that like everybody just like wrote Mussolini off as

124
00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:53,760
Speaker 1: like Hitler's bumbling sidekick, when it really was the opposite

125
00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:57,920
Speaker 1: at the start. Um and this kind of bumbling reputation

126
00:06:58,000 --> 00:06:59,960
Speaker 1: has led to a lot of it's kind of benefit

127
00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:03,280
Speaker 1: did the Italian nation in the modern era, because we

128
00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:06,360
Speaker 1: don't remember all of the horrific crimes against humanity that

129
00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:09,320
Speaker 1: that steadily committed outside And part of that is because

130
00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:13,480
Speaker 1: the number one place fascisteadily committed crimes against humanity was Ethiopia,

131
00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:16,360
Speaker 1: a place where Westerners do not think about, they don't

132
00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:20,600
Speaker 1: care about it. Yeah, and that's what we're talking about today. Now,

133
00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:24,000
Speaker 1: our story begins in one thousand BC, because we're gonna

134
00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:27,200
Speaker 1: talk about where Ethiopia comes from. And one thousand BC

135
00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:30,160
Speaker 1: is about the time roughly when a bunch of folks

136
00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:33,480
Speaker 1: in Northeast Africa were like, what if we did an Ethiopia. Right,

137
00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:36,440
Speaker 1: that's kind of like when the what becomes the modern

138
00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:40,560
Speaker 1: nation of Ethiopia, Like, Ok, let's do an Ethiopia. It

139
00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:44,240
Speaker 1: seems like a good idea, and they're still doing in Ethiopia.

140
00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:47,440
Speaker 1: So clearly there were some some good ideas there. Um.

141
00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:49,320
Speaker 1: Now I'm gonna leave out some stuff, but the gist

142
00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:51,440
Speaker 1: of the stories that the nation of Ethiopia has existed

143
00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:55,800
Speaker 1: in some broadly recognizable form though for about three thousand years, right,

144
00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:58,520
Speaker 1: that's a long time for there's been a recognizable not

145
00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:01,320
Speaker 1: a nation in the modern sense, but in Ethiopian people

146
00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:05,000
Speaker 1: inhabiting and exerting political power in that area. But like

147
00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:08,600
Speaker 1: three thousand years, which is huge. You know, very few

148
00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:13,160
Speaker 1: other peoples that are in that. China would be one, right,

149
00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:15,000
Speaker 1: but not a lot of different peoples around the world

150
00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:16,960
Speaker 1: that could say three thousand years we've more or less

151
00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:20,320
Speaker 1: been an entity, you know, not the Brits, because even

152
00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:23,280
Speaker 1: the Brits where you know, it was the Anglo Saxons

153
00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:26,280
Speaker 1: and the Vikings just tearing at each other's throats. Um,

154
00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:30,960
Speaker 1: the thousand years is a dynasty, Yeah, because like modern

155
00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:32,880
Speaker 1: you know, people usually like the start of kind of

156
00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:34,720
Speaker 1: like what we recognize the Brits as being is like

157
00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:37,000
Speaker 1: ten sixty six. Right, the Battle of Hastings is kind

158
00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:40,040
Speaker 1: of when that starts to form. Ethiopia's two thousand years

159
00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:42,200
Speaker 1: old at that point, right, just for an idea of

160
00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:46,840
Speaker 1: like how far this this culture goes back? Um. And

161
00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:49,439
Speaker 1: again I'm not saying the modern nation of Ethiopias three

162
00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:53,360
Speaker 1: thousand years old, but something broadly recognizable in that way. Um. Now,

163
00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:55,880
Speaker 1: during this time, a shipload of different stuff went down. Right.

164
00:08:55,880 --> 00:08:58,400
Speaker 1: You had your Alexander the Greats, You've got your Roman Empire,

165
00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:01,320
Speaker 1: You've got a couple of different caliphates. You've got some Mongols,

166
00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:04,320
Speaker 1: you get another caliphate after the Mongols. And through sheer

167
00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:07,040
Speaker 1: cussedness and the fact that their homeland is what historians

168
00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:10,960
Speaker 1: call a natural fortress. It's huge, it's mountainous, it's difficult

169
00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:13,760
Speaker 1: to fight in if you're invading, right, you're in it's

170
00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:18,439
Speaker 1: a defensible position. Um. And because of this, Ethiopia manages

171
00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:21,040
Speaker 1: to stay more or less independent through all of these

172
00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:24,720
Speaker 1: different empires. Just rolling through the neighborhood. Right. You know,

173
00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:27,679
Speaker 1: Rome is in the Middle East and North Africa, Alexander

174
00:09:27,679 --> 00:09:31,360
Speaker 1: the Great Fox around and chunks of that area. Um caliphates,

175
00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:33,160
Speaker 1: you know, Mongols were not. All of these guys are

176
00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:34,839
Speaker 1: kind of sucking around in and around, but none of

177
00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:40,240
Speaker 1: them destroy Ethiopia. UM and staying continuing to exist through

178
00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:42,520
Speaker 1: all of this UM was not a simple matter, as

179
00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:45,920
Speaker 1: Emperor highly Selassie wrote in the early nineteen hundreds, quote,

180
00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:49,319
Speaker 1: throughout history, the Ethiopians have seldom met with foreigners who

181
00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:52,400
Speaker 1: did not desire to possess themselves of Ethiopian territory and

182
00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:55,200
Speaker 1: to destroy their independence. With God's help and thanks to

183
00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:57,160
Speaker 1: the courage of our soldiers, we have always come what

184
00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:01,480
Speaker 1: might stood proud and free upon our native mountains. Now,

185
00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:04,880
Speaker 1: the rise of Islam was probably the biggest challenge for

186
00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:08,040
Speaker 1: the Ethiopians and in terms of remaining independence, since for

187
00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:10,120
Speaker 1: most of their history, or most of the at least

188
00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:12,360
Speaker 1: their modern history, they've been kind of their own brand

189
00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:15,160
Speaker 1: of orthodox Christianity. Right, That's one of the things. You're

190
00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:17,360
Speaker 1: in the Middle East, North Africa very much much heavy

191
00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:22,000
Speaker 1: Muslim populations, and then there's Ethiopia, which is christian Um.

192
00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:26,120
Speaker 1: And that's that's difficult, right, because yeah, there's like seven

193
00:10:26,160 --> 00:10:28,280
Speaker 1: hundred years where you know, the Caliphates are kind of

194
00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:31,520
Speaker 1: the biggest power in the region, UM, and there are

195
00:10:31,559 --> 00:10:35,439
Speaker 1: attempts to take over Um Ethiopia by these folks. Um

196
00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:37,880
Speaker 1: Ethiopio was invaded constantly, and it existed as kind of

197
00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:40,440
Speaker 1: an island of Christianity in the middle of the Muslim world,

198
00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:42,560
Speaker 1: which was at that point that kind of the center

199
00:10:42,559 --> 00:10:45,959
Speaker 1: of Western military power. Uh. They were invaded by Albania

200
00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,400
Speaker 1: and Turkey in the early fifteen hundreds in a brutal

201
00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:50,600
Speaker 1: war that pushed the King of Ethiopia back to the

202
00:10:50,679 --> 00:10:54,520
Speaker 1: giant plateau that is the Ethiopian heartland. Disaster was only

203
00:10:54,600 --> 00:10:57,360
Speaker 1: narrowly avoided by the intervention of Portugal, who at that

204
00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:00,880
Speaker 1: point was probably the greatest power in Europe. This European

205
00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:04,040
Speaker 1: colonizers sent four hundredmen with early rifles to beat back

206
00:11:04,040 --> 00:11:07,880
Speaker 1: the Turks and Albanians, which they did, saving Ethiopia. Of course,

207
00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:11,680
Speaker 1: Portugal didn't leave, but they didn't succeed in properly colonizing

208
00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:14,640
Speaker 1: Ethiopia either. UM. And so again, one of the things

209
00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:17,640
Speaker 1: that makes Ethiopia weird is unlike a lot of the

210
00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:19,600
Speaker 1: rest of the region. There there are elements to which

211
00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:23,320
Speaker 1: they benefit from not colonization, but from colonizing powers because

212
00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:25,800
Speaker 1: portable kind of saves their bacon. And they do it

213
00:11:25,840 --> 00:11:27,920
Speaker 1: for selfish reasons. I mean they justify it, be like

214
00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:30,319
Speaker 1: were we have these people are Christians, we're Christians, We've

215
00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:32,720
Speaker 1: got to save them. They're also they have a financial

216
00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:36,680
Speaker 1: interest here. But for a variety of factors. Um, they

217
00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:39,480
Speaker 1: don't take power right, you know in Portugal. Does that

218
00:11:39,559 --> 00:11:44,280
Speaker 1: all throughout South America because it's not like just from

219
00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:47,160
Speaker 1: a distance first suspective Portugally, it seemed Portugal to be

220
00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:51,079
Speaker 1: like perfect, like already a strong Christian like hold here.

221
00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:54,040
Speaker 1: It's hard to cap sure, we're already on the inside,

222
00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:56,360
Speaker 1: and we know they were really about conquering ship like

223
00:11:56,400 --> 00:11:59,400
Speaker 1: that was their main sham. They did a lot of that. Yeah,

224
00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:01,480
Speaker 1: it's in a lot of that. That's why there's a

225
00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:07,720
Speaker 1: Brazil Yes, exactly. Quite astounding that they wouldn't just immediately

226
00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:11,600
Speaker 1: try to especially knowing how much uh the other European

227
00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:14,600
Speaker 1: powers were at the time conquering portions of Africa, and

228
00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:17,880
Speaker 1: like everyone would want to get their foothold. There hundreds

229
00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:21,440
Speaker 1: European powers weren't. This is like Europe hadn't really done

230
00:12:21,440 --> 00:12:24,280
Speaker 1: anything in Africa very much at that point. Some in

231
00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:27,160
Speaker 1: northern Africa, right, there's always been interchanged between Northern Africa

232
00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:30,319
Speaker 1: and Europe because it's not very far. But Um colonization

233
00:12:30,360 --> 00:12:33,160
Speaker 1: hadn't started in mass in Portugal fift hundreds. They don't

234
00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:35,520
Speaker 1: really have the resources to do it because number one,

235
00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:40,040
Speaker 1: after all this war against Turkey in Albania, Ethiopia is devastated,

236
00:12:40,280 --> 00:12:42,680
Speaker 1: so they don't have a like a functional state to

237
00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:45,440
Speaker 1: just kind of pick up. The terrain is really difficult,

238
00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:47,480
Speaker 1: it's very rugged, they don't have a lot of minutes

239
00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:49,679
Speaker 1: hard to get people there. It just doesn't wind up

240
00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:53,199
Speaker 1: being practical. So eventually the Portuguese kind of give up

241
00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:56,240
Speaker 1: and leave Um. And the next few centuries after this

242
00:12:56,320 --> 00:12:58,680
Speaker 1: are a chaotic period for Ethiopia. There's a number of

243
00:12:58,679 --> 00:13:01,480
Speaker 1: invasions and warlords um. And for a big chunk of

244
00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:03,960
Speaker 1: this time, there's an Emperor of Ethiopia, but he's basically

245
00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:06,400
Speaker 1: a token figure, and there's kind of these vying local

246
00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:08,680
Speaker 1: kings and war lords who were you know, one of

247
00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:10,400
Speaker 1: them will be more of the power than he is,

248
00:13:10,679 --> 00:13:13,040
Speaker 1: and this kind of continues off and on until the

249
00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:17,080
Speaker 1: mid eighteen hundreds. That's when an adventurer named Casa defeated

250
00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:19,920
Speaker 1: all of the different regional kings vying for power and

251
00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:24,680
Speaker 1: declared himself King of Kings. He took the name Yeah,

252
00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:26,840
Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds like there's a lot of movies

253
00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:28,240
Speaker 1: that should be made. I mean maybe there are a

254
00:13:28,240 --> 00:13:33,960
Speaker 1: couple of Yeah, So he takes the name Theodros. Some

255
00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:37,000
Speaker 1: people will call him Theodore, right, like it's usually anglicizes that,

256
00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:38,840
Speaker 1: But his name was theodros Is. His name was not

257
00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:42,120
Speaker 1: fucking Theodore um And he became the first modern Emperor

258
00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:46,360
Speaker 1: of Ethiopia um And like most emperors in history, Theodros

259
00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:49,800
Speaker 1: veered between kindly and wise and the narcissistic, murderous madman,

260
00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:52,240
Speaker 1: depending on whether or not he was having a good day. Right,

261
00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:55,600
Speaker 1: No one who wants to be the King of kings

262
00:13:55,679 --> 00:13:57,920
Speaker 1: is going to be a nice dude, right, doesn't matter

263
00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:02,040
Speaker 1: that they're pretty much ship get, you know, defying God

264
00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:05,199
Speaker 1: coming down to me like he should be your leader. Yeah,

265
00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:07,880
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes you got don't get to be king

266
00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:13,280
Speaker 1: of kings by handing out backrubs. You know. He maintained

267
00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:17,199
Speaker 1: power by virtue, of his mighty army. So he's got

268
00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:19,800
Speaker 1: a really good army. That's why he's in power. But

269
00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:22,040
Speaker 1: he fucks up, you know, after some time in power,

270
00:14:22,080 --> 00:14:23,760
Speaker 1: he focks up because he has these he has these

271
00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:25,480
Speaker 1: fits of rage and right, who knows, maybe he had

272
00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:27,920
Speaker 1: some head injuries from battles, maybe he was drinking lead,

273
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:33,160
Speaker 1: or there's all sorts of reasons people's death. Yeah, you

274
00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:34,880
Speaker 1: have all these This happens all throughout a lot of

275
00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:36,600
Speaker 1: You have a lot of Roman emperors like that were like, well,

276
00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:38,440
Speaker 1: he was prone to these fits of rage, and now

277
00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:40,200
Speaker 1: we know they're like, oh, well they were head lead

278
00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:42,120
Speaker 1: in the drinking water, Like there's all this ship that

279
00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:44,680
Speaker 1: might have been, like why this rage happened? Like who

280
00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:46,800
Speaker 1: knows what was going on? But he has a fit

281
00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:49,200
Speaker 1: of rage and he makes the mistake during one of

282
00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:52,480
Speaker 1: these of imprisoning a British envoy. And by this point

283
00:14:52,640 --> 00:14:56,120
Speaker 1: we're in the midds, Like the eighteen forties, the British

284
00:14:56,240 --> 00:14:58,720
Speaker 1: are the one people you don't want to piss off,

285
00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:04,080
Speaker 1: right fucking unless you're the United States, you don't want

286
00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:06,520
Speaker 1: to piss off Britain. In the early eighteen hundreds, it

287
00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:11,960
Speaker 1: doesn't end well for you Victoria's reigned by eighteen forty. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

288
00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:14,800
Speaker 1: this is the Victorian period, I think, um, yeah, yeah,

289
00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:18,080
Speaker 1: so yes, because um so he imprisons prisons of British

290
00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:20,640
Speaker 1: a British envoy, and he seems to have done this

291
00:15:20,680 --> 00:15:24,480
Speaker 1: because of a male dispute. So Emperor Theodorum sent a

292
00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:28,080
Speaker 1: letter to Queen Victoria and it didn't reach her. Um

293
00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:30,320
Speaker 1: And I don't think we know why it didn't reach her.

294
00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:32,080
Speaker 1: It may have been a slight. It may have just

295
00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:33,960
Speaker 1: at least the eighteen hundreds, right, it could have just

296
00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:36,720
Speaker 1: gotten lost, you know, that probably didn't make it to

297
00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:43,000
Speaker 1: his death. I don't know. There's a long history that

298
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:46,280
Speaker 1: we'll talk about later in this episode of like particularly

299
00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:49,600
Speaker 1: British monarchs being racist towards Ethiopian monarchs. But honestly, this

300
00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:51,400
Speaker 1: might have just been a funk up. It's getting a

301
00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:55,080
Speaker 1: letter from Ethiopian a UK in the eighteen forties not

302
00:15:55,160 --> 00:15:58,200
Speaker 1: an easy task. But this letter doesn't reach her, she

303
00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:00,880
Speaker 1: doesn't respond, and he feels in Alton because a fellow

304
00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:04,440
Speaker 1: monarch had neglected to respond to him. Um And this

305
00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:06,520
Speaker 1: may have also been a deliberate slight. We really don't know.

306
00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:09,920
Speaker 1: In any case, he arrested. The British consule. England sends

307
00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:12,640
Speaker 1: another envoy to ask him to release their first envoy,

308
00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:15,000
Speaker 1: and the emperor arrests this guy too, and then he

309
00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:18,440
Speaker 1: arrests sixty other Europeans in his country to boot. This

310
00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:21,000
Speaker 1: sparks a major debate within the halls of power in

311
00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:23,600
Speaker 1: the British Empire. Um, they did not have a meaningful

312
00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:25,640
Speaker 1: presence in Ethiopia, They did not have a whole lot

313
00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:28,560
Speaker 1: of soldiers anywhere near Ethiopia, And so there's this big

314
00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,520
Speaker 1: debate in parliament is it worth deploying an army to

315
00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:35,520
Speaker 1: free two dudes? Being the British Empire, they say yes,

316
00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:38,440
Speaker 1: like they like, yeah, this is worth it enough men,

317
00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:41,520
Speaker 1: let's go yeah, I mean, And to be honest, we

318
00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:43,400
Speaker 1: talk about like why the British are and empire. It's

319
00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:45,760
Speaker 1: because they make choices like this, right, It's because they're

320
00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:48,120
Speaker 1: willing to deploy power like this. It will get him

321
00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:50,920
Speaker 1: in trouble at points, but like these are the kind

322
00:16:50,920 --> 00:16:54,640
Speaker 1: of calls empires make. UM. In eighteen sixty seven, the

323
00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:58,480
Speaker 1: British send their first European invasion force into Ethiopia, and

324
00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:00,960
Speaker 1: it was twenty thousand men, which is a massive army

325
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:04,160
Speaker 1: for the day, especially in in in that part, especially

326
00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:07,399
Speaker 1: in Africa. Like, that's a huge army in eighteen forty

327
00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:09,800
Speaker 1: to send. And this army lands on the coast of

328
00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:12,080
Speaker 1: what is now Somalia. They marched through some of the

329
00:17:12,119 --> 00:17:14,639
Speaker 1: most rugged mountain terrain on Earth until in April of

330
00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:19,040
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty eight they reached the emperor's walled city of Magdela. Uh.

331
00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:20,880
Speaker 1: It was not much of a fight because the emperor

332
00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:24,400
Speaker 1: had alienated all of his vassals because he was a dick. Um.

333
00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:26,560
Speaker 1: So all of these different you know, it's a feudal system.

334
00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:29,520
Speaker 1: He relies on all these levies from different local kings

335
00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,720
Speaker 1: and lords and whatnot to fill his army. And none

336
00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:34,920
Speaker 1: of these guys are willing to fight against the British

337
00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:38,600
Speaker 1: for him. Um. And so Emperor Theodros winds up yeah,

338
00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:44,800
Speaker 1: shooting himself to avoid capture. Now yeah, yeah, So he's

339
00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:47,240
Speaker 1: out of the picture now and and ship like this

340
00:17:47,359 --> 00:17:50,280
Speaker 1: happens all throughout the colonial period, and usually it ended

341
00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:53,280
Speaker 1: with Great Britain owning another giant fucking chunk of the planet.

342
00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:56,440
Speaker 1: It doesn't in this case. Um. And it's worth worth

343
00:17:56,440 --> 00:17:59,240
Speaker 1: asking why, because the British obviously take anything that's not

344
00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:04,040
Speaker 1: fucking nailed. Um. I found a really fascinating right up. Um.

345
00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:06,320
Speaker 1: It's a master's thesis for the Department of History at

346
00:18:06,359 --> 00:18:10,320
Speaker 1: Kansas State University, written by an Ethiopian historian named two

347
00:18:10,359 --> 00:18:13,720
Speaker 1: Fairy tech lehman at Um who got his b a.

348
00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:16,679
Speaker 1: From highly Salassia University in Ethiopia and then went to

349
00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:18,639
Speaker 1: Kansas States. This is not like a white guy European

350
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:21,480
Speaker 1: view of history. This is an Ethiopian guys writing about

351
00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:23,639
Speaker 1: the history of his nation, which is what I wanted

352
00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:26,440
Speaker 1: for this. And here's what to ferry rights to explain

353
00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:30,639
Speaker 1: why England didn't stay and do you know British Empire

354
00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:35,520
Speaker 1: ship in Ethiopia quote. An interesting question now arises, why

355
00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:38,000
Speaker 1: did not the British colonize the country? There is, of

356
00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:41,320
Speaker 1: course no evidence that they had any that the general,

357
00:18:41,359 --> 00:18:43,640
Speaker 1: who they said had any orders to do so. In fact,

358
00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:46,360
Speaker 1: the British government was at that time not very keen

359
00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:49,760
Speaker 1: in further acquisition of colonial lands. But even if the

360
00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:52,200
Speaker 1: general had wanted, he could not have accomplished the task

361
00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:55,119
Speaker 1: to begin with. The expedition itself could very well have

362
00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:57,000
Speaker 1: failed if it were not for the indifference of the

363
00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:01,639
Speaker 1: regional rulers. Indeed their active disobedience and time of emergency

364
00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:04,919
Speaker 1: so to Ferry argues that these local chiefs gave aid, food,

365
00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:07,040
Speaker 1: and guidance to the British forces. They were so angry

366
00:19:07,080 --> 00:19:09,400
Speaker 1: at the empery. They helped these guys through the mountains, right.

367
00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:13,280
Speaker 1: But they also they didn't just help them. They made

368
00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:15,760
Speaker 1: certain to put on a display of their military might,

369
00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:19,000
Speaker 1: marching their soldiers past the British Empire, just to be like,

370
00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:23,200
Speaker 1: we're not going to fight you, but we could, right, Like,

371
00:19:23,359 --> 00:19:26,080
Speaker 1: we're cool with you now. We want like you suck

372
00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:28,120
Speaker 1: the emperor. You can take the emperor out, but if

373
00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:30,320
Speaker 1: you try to stick around, we have enough dudes to

374
00:19:30,359 --> 00:19:33,160
Speaker 1: wreck your ship, right right, and we would combine our

375
00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:37,560
Speaker 1: forces against you. So definitely watch out. I love them.

376
00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:40,520
Speaker 1: This is this is forward leaders with forward thinking power,

377
00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:44,399
Speaker 1: unlike the guy who literally shot the messengers. Yes yes,

378
00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:47,560
Speaker 1: um and two, Ferry goes under right. Quote. After the meeting,

379
00:19:47,560 --> 00:19:50,120
Speaker 1: this meeting where the Ethiopian show off their military power,

380
00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:53,399
Speaker 1: the British general proceeded to magdela Uh and, as he

381
00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:56,200
Speaker 1: put it, quote somewhat less confident than before, having seen

382
00:19:56,240 --> 00:20:01,600
Speaker 1: the bearing in arms of the Ethiopian soldiery. Um. So yeah,

383
00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:05,920
Speaker 1: the British go in here, um, and and they don't

384
00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:08,520
Speaker 1: they don't stay. And probably part of it is that,

385
00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:10,800
Speaker 1: you know, this is something that probably should be talked

386
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:14,040
Speaker 1: about more colonization. You know, it was never the thing

387
00:20:14,119 --> 00:20:16,440
Speaker 1: that even the British political class was whole log for

388
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:18,520
Speaker 1: a lot of guys through every stage of the expansion

389
00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:20,800
Speaker 1: of the British Empire keep saying this is a bad idea.

390
00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:23,960
Speaker 1: Now they don't win, um, but they're that like they

391
00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:25,840
Speaker 1: were kind of more dominant during this period. Maybe that

392
00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:28,520
Speaker 1: played a role. But there's also and this what Taffaria

393
00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:30,879
Speaker 1: is arguing is the British number one, they see the

394
00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:33,359
Speaker 1: kind of country. They're like, we're we only got through

395
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,400
Speaker 1: all these mountains because these locals led us through and

396
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:38,760
Speaker 1: there's a lot of them, and they're good fighters, and

397
00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:40,639
Speaker 1: if they wanted to make a problem for us, they

398
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:43,159
Speaker 1: could really wreck our day. It's it's not worth it,

399
00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:47,639
Speaker 1: you know. And that's why Ethiopia stays independent this entire period,

400
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:51,280
Speaker 1: is it's not worth it to funk with them. Um.

401
00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:54,480
Speaker 1: I love the idea of land having such an advantage,

402
00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:59,639
Speaker 1: like it's kind of I don't know if it. Impressive

403
00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:02,199
Speaker 1: is right word. But it's sort of miraculous almost that

404
00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:05,000
Speaker 1: there was any space in Africa that people were just like,

405
00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:09,280
Speaker 1: you know what, why bother with this one? It's it's

406
00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:11,879
Speaker 1: it's very similar. I see a lot of similarities when

407
00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:14,800
Speaker 1: I read about the Ethiopians to the Kurds. Right, you

408
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:18,600
Speaker 1: have these peoples who are continuously have are surrounded by enemies,

409
00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:21,240
Speaker 1: but never get quite wiped out because they have the mountains, right,

410
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:24,280
Speaker 1: and they know they're fucking mountains And if you come

411
00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:27,480
Speaker 1: into the mountains, you're probably not going to live, right.

412
00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:29,240
Speaker 1: You may not they may not be able to like

413
00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:32,159
Speaker 1: run what is a functional nation because they may not

414
00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:34,600
Speaker 1: have access to the sea or infrastructure, but you're not

415
00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:36,560
Speaker 1: going to wipe them wipe them out because they have

416
00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:39,960
Speaker 1: the fucking mountains um. And the Ethiopians have the goddamn

417
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:44,879
Speaker 1: mountains um and that is a huge asset to them. Um.

418
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,439
Speaker 1: So after the British leave, Ethiopia has another one of

419
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:50,199
Speaker 1: its periods of internesting conflict. Right the Emperor's gone, all

420
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:52,040
Speaker 1: these local leaders who weren't willing to fight for him

421
00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:55,639
Speaker 1: wind up fighting amongst themselves. Um. And after a period

422
00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:58,679
Speaker 1: of this, another guy, Casa of tig Gray wound up

423
00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:01,040
Speaker 1: and charged next and Tigray a mountainous region in the

424
00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:04,920
Speaker 1: north of Ethiopia. Right um, in eighteen seventy two, Cosa

425
00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:09,000
Speaker 1: is crowned Emperor Johannes the Fourth. Now almost as soon

426
00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:13,080
Speaker 1: as he comes to power, Egypt invades. The Ethiopians beat

427
00:22:13,119 --> 00:22:15,960
Speaker 1: Egypt into horrific battles. But they you know, this is

428
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,760
Speaker 1: like an ugly victory, right, they lose a lot of

429
00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:21,959
Speaker 1: men doing it. Uh, This is eighteen seventy eighteen seventy

430
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,840
Speaker 1: six um. And again, one of the things that should

431
00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:29,000
Speaker 1: make clear about Ethiopia that makes it unique is that

432
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:32,600
Speaker 1: during this time, when most other African nations are being

433
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:35,360
Speaker 1: in the eighteen seventies, were starting to see the scramble

434
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:38,320
Speaker 1: for Africa. They're starting to steal everything that's not nailed

435
00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:40,919
Speaker 1: down on the continent. While all of these colonizers are

436
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:44,760
Speaker 1: doing that to the rest of Africa. Ethiopia's main conflicts

437
00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:48,760
Speaker 1: are either internal or with other African nations, and Europeans

438
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:50,879
Speaker 1: had actually up to this point been more of a

439
00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 1: neutral or even sometimes beneficial force for their sovereignty, which

440
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:57,920
Speaker 1: is very unique, very very unique for for because again

441
00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:00,720
Speaker 1: everyone else is getting horribly fucked over. There's obviously there's

442
00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:02,240
Speaker 1: reasons for that. It's not out of the good of

443
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:05,119
Speaker 1: the European's heart. It's just practicalities and realities of the

444
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:10,240
Speaker 1: situation in the terrain. Um. Now, by the early eighteen eighties,

445
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:12,639
Speaker 1: Egypt had gotten fucked over by the Mahdi. And the

446
00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:16,800
Speaker 1: Mahdi was a Messianic Muslim leader who led a revolution. Um.

447
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:18,800
Speaker 1: He beat a couple of British armies, He beat a

448
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:22,080
Speaker 1: couple of Egyptian armies. He eventually gets crushed by the British.

449
00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:26,080
Speaker 1: But the Mahdi's army invades Ethiopia because Ethiopia is Christian

450
00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:30,119
Speaker 1: and the Maddy this is like a Messianica Islamist movement. Um.

451
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:34,320
Speaker 1: And Ethiopia beats them, you know, they win the battle

452
00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:38,480
Speaker 1: against the Maddy's army, but the Emperor Johannes dies fighting. Um.

453
00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:41,399
Speaker 1: And by the time this fighting is over, Ethiopia is

454
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:46,119
Speaker 1: just fucking exhausted, right, I mean, there's yeah, there's a

455
00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:51,520
Speaker 1: lot going on. Yeah. Um. Now, they had, however, been

456
00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:55,440
Speaker 1: fortunate that through this period they completely missed the Scramble

457
00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:59,520
Speaker 1: for Africa. Now, Scramble for Africa starts in the eighteen seventies.

458
00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:02,919
Speaker 1: And it starts because we talk about King Leopold of Belgium, right,

459
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:05,399
Speaker 1: the guy who stole the congo and killed thirteen million people.

460
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:09,760
Speaker 1: Horrified because suddenly one of the worst people who's ever lived,

461
00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:12,080
Speaker 1: one of the one in the top one percent of

462
00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 1: bad people on this show. Um, maybe the very top

463
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:20,399
Speaker 1: of the list. Um, real piece of shit. Uh he

464
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:24,760
Speaker 1: uh so he's you know, Belgium steals the Congo basically,

465
00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:26,640
Speaker 1: and all of the other European leaders freak out because

466
00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:29,080
Speaker 1: they're like, oh my god, Belgium took all of the Africa. Soon,

467
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:30,880
Speaker 1: we're going to run out of Africa. We'd better all

468
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:32,800
Speaker 1: steal a bunch of Africa. And so they steal a

469
00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:36,720
Speaker 1: bunch of Africa in the conference in Berlin. Yeah, it's

470
00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:38,919
Speaker 1: just it's a shady position to be in, just like

471
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 1: I have to be right under these assholes, Like god damn,

472
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:45,200
Speaker 1: I couldn't even get like the months of boat ride

473
00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:50,040
Speaker 1: to get from one space to the other. Yeah. And

474
00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:52,680
Speaker 1: and during this period, almost every inch of Africa is

475
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:56,520
Speaker 1: either conquered or claimed, but not Ethiopia. And to understand why,

476
00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:59,600
Speaker 1: it helps to understand how Europeans talked about Ethiopia In

477
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 1: this period, it, as one contemporary Western historian wrote, quote,

478
00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:06,000
Speaker 1: encompassed on all sides by the enemies of their religion.

479
00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:09,359
Speaker 1: The Ethiopians slept near a thousand years forgetful of the

480
00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:13,760
Speaker 1: world by whom they were forgotten. Now that's obviously not true,

481
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:16,240
Speaker 1: right because we just talked about all the people who

482
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 1: invaded them. Yeah, but that is how Europeans think about them. Yeah,

483
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:25,399
Speaker 1: it's a dark, mysterious land. It's forgotten. It's like you

484
00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 1: guys invaded it like twice. But like, yes, it's that's

485
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 1: the European enity. Yes, it was like whow you're writing

486
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:39,000
Speaker 1: this dude? Um? Yeah, but it is good for Ethiopia

487
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 1: though that Europeans tend to think about Ethiopia this right, right,

488
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:44,960
Speaker 1: because whenever they thought about a country a lot, they

489
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:47,280
Speaker 1: would suck it over right, like you don't want them,

490
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:49,639
Speaker 1: You don't want Europeans paying a lot of attention to you.

491
00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:54,639
Speaker 1: If you're an African nation, it doesn't end well. Um. Now, Unfortunately,

492
00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:59,240
Speaker 1: Ethiopias splendid isolation from colonialism was not going to last forever.

493
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:02,720
Speaker 1: From a right quarts quote at the Berlin Conference of

494
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:06,080
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty four to eighteen eighty five, fourteen European countries

495
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:09,120
Speaker 1: divided Africa among themselves. Before the conference, only about ten

496
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:12,520
Speaker 1: percent of Africa was controlled by Europeans. The remaining was

497
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:16,440
Speaker 1: ruled by indigenous and traditional rulers. Italy had a colonial

498
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:19,199
Speaker 1: possession over a sub port since eighteen eighty two. At

499
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,480
Speaker 1: the Berlin Conference, European colonial powers agreed that Italy could

500
00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:27,840
Speaker 1: take over Ethiopia as its future colony. So they don't

501
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:32,160
Speaker 1: take Ethiopia, but they have this port that's on the

502
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:34,400
Speaker 1: it's kind of in I think modern day Somalia. Right,

503
00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 1: they have this little bitty chunk of the African coast.

504
00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:39,640
Speaker 1: And while everyone's gobbling everything else up, Italy is like, well,

505
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 1: I guess we'll take Ethiopia because it's close to what

506
00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:44,000
Speaker 1: we already have. And the rest of Europe is like, yeah,

507
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:45,360
Speaker 1: it's a pain in the s to get there. It's

508
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:47,879
Speaker 1: a pain in the Yeah, if you guys can take Ethiopia,

509
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:50,480
Speaker 1: it's yours. You know. That's basically what they were. Just

510
00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 1: sitting down at a continent. They were like, all right,

511
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 1: I guess this part that No, it's sleepy, nobody has

512
00:26:56,320 --> 00:27:00,720
Speaker 1: really been there. We'll take it. That's ours now, Wow,

513
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:03,520
Speaker 1: just be a conversation. You haven't even tried militarily or

514
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:08,720
Speaker 1: really that is mind blowing that people can just think

515
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:11,879
Speaker 1: they can possess other people's land like that. That is

516
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:21,959
Speaker 1: it's wild, unhandished. I can't. But you know what won't

517
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:26,720
Speaker 1: divide up the nations of Africa between a handful of

518
00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:32,119
Speaker 1: European colonial powers for the profit of the Western world. Well,

519
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: what's that the products and services that support this podcast?

520
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 1: Can you guarantee that not a single, not a single

521
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:41,320
Speaker 1: one of our sponsors is the government of Belgium. That's

522
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,400
Speaker 1: say that we were getting those I don't even let

523
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 1: Belgians listen to the podcast. That is illegal. If you're

524
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 1: Belgian and you're listening, like, you know, get out of here,

525
00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 1: Get out of here Belgian listeners. I'm sorry, Yeah, we apologize.

526
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 1: It's on the Italians that we don't want listening. Um,

527
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:15,800
Speaker 1: all right, here's Samad's uh we're back and we're talking

528
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:19,840
Speaker 1: about Ethiopia. So at the Berlin conference, Italy is like,

529
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:22,399
Speaker 1: we'll take Ethiopia and everyone else's and I think it

530
00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:26,640
Speaker 1: might have been kind of like, yes, you're you'll take Ethiopia, right, yes,

531
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:35,040
Speaker 1: gets a little jest like yeah, okay, dude. Now, because

532
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:37,920
Speaker 1: Italians spend all their time making olive oil and eating

533
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 1: six hour dinners, they tend to be late for everything,

534
00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:44,640
Speaker 1: and they were extremely late for the scramble for Africa.

535
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:48,000
Speaker 1: Italy only managed to get two tiny colonies, one and

536
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:51,480
Speaker 1: what they called Italian Somali Land modern day Somalia, and

537
00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:53,440
Speaker 1: a little trading post that port we talked about on

538
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:57,360
Speaker 1: the Red Sea coast. These were not lucrative or large possessions. Uh.

539
00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:00,800
Speaker 1: And this hurt the famously a national pride of the

540
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 1: Italian people who remember that one time they had conquered

541
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 1: the whole known world at liked years ago, and they

542
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 1: thought that being rabid years ago still mattered, which it

543
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:18,000
Speaker 1: didn't do they still think that today, Robert, Yeah, um,

544
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: look just lean into the pasta. You're fine at pasta

545
00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:28,760
Speaker 1: bad at war, you're now. Both of Italy's colonial possessions

546
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 1: bordered Ethiopia, and Italy's laziest nationalists started saying, hey, we

547
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 1: should take that too, um. Now, While Italy had kind

548
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 1: of like gotten like, yeah, you can take this at

549
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: the conference, neither France nor England really wanted them, like

550
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 1: to take Ethiopia. Both France and England supported Ethiopian independence. Again,

551
00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:49,120
Speaker 1: not because France and England were like, yes, it's of

552
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 1: course these people have the right to national self determination

553
00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:55,480
Speaker 1: human beings. No, yeah, it's because the Suez Canal was

554
00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 1: a thing at that point, Um, and the British basically

555
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:01,560
Speaker 1: going to Egypt and they saw like this, So because

556
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:03,960
Speaker 1: of the way the Nile is built and ship not

557
00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:07,120
Speaker 1: built is the wrong over because of the geography, Ethiopia

558
00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:09,200
Speaker 1: has the ability if they were to damn things to

559
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,600
Speaker 1: choke Egypt off from like the like, they could funk

560
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 1: up the channel by like fucking with the way the

561
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:17,160
Speaker 1: water works. Right, It's a thing that was possible. And

562
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 1: so the British were scared of France scanning influence here,

563
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:22,840
Speaker 1: right because Britain and France, like literally until World War

564
00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 1: One starts, are like at each other's throats constantly, like

565
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:28,240
Speaker 1: up until like like everyone kind of assumed the big

566
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:31,400
Speaker 1: European war would be between them, right. Um, So the

567
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:34,040
Speaker 1: British are scared. The British one Ethiopia to be independent

568
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:35,680
Speaker 1: because they don't want France to get it and to

569
00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:39,000
Speaker 1: get the ability to choke off Egypt. Um. And the

570
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 1: Brits or and the French didn't want the British to

571
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:42,800
Speaker 1: get Ethiopia because they didn't want the British to have

572
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:44,920
Speaker 1: any more power than they already had, and the would

573
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:49,360
Speaker 1: a power in that specific I'm seeing it, yeah. So

574
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:52,520
Speaker 1: as a result, both powers were fine with Ethiopia staying

575
00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:55,280
Speaker 1: independent because it was just easier for them than figuring

576
00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:57,880
Speaker 1: out something else. So the Italians had to be sneaky

577
00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:01,000
Speaker 1: about things, as is in their conniving nature. They started

578
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 1: their plans when Ethiopia was already deeply in meshed in

579
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 1: war in eighteen sixty nine, by having a private company

580
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:10,000
Speaker 1: purchased a trading post on the coast from a local sultan.

581
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 1: This company then sold said post to the Italian government

582
00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:16,560
Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty two uh and during the modest uprising

583
00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:19,560
Speaker 1: the the Italians took another chunk of coastline, and like

584
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:23,480
Speaker 1: most of their colonial possessions, Italian Africa wasn't apartheid state.

585
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:27,320
Speaker 1: Um Italian and Native housing was strictly separate. Different schools

586
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:29,920
Speaker 1: were established for Italians and natives. There was also a

587
00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:34,880
Speaker 1: system called mada mismo, which was basically codified sex trafficking.

588
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:39,120
Speaker 1: Italian officials, soldiers, and other citizens were allowed to take

589
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:43,120
Speaker 1: Native wives or mistresses and these women had no rights

590
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 1: under the law. Um. Oh yeah, so just sex sleeve's

591
00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:54,800
Speaker 1: great super slash domestic sleeve, I guess, oh god, yeah

592
00:31:54,600 --> 00:32:00,160
Speaker 1: yeah perfect. So Ethiopia is a landlocked country, right and

593
00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:02,200
Speaker 1: this has been a real problem for Ethiopia for a

594
00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:04,240
Speaker 1: while because you don't want to be landlocked, you want

595
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:06,720
Speaker 1: to have sport, not to your advantage. Absolutely kind of

596
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:09,240
Speaker 1: a big deal. Have an report. Um. And during the

597
00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:11,440
Speaker 1: fighting with the Mahdi. This again, the Mahdi is a

598
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:13,680
Speaker 1: big problem for the British Empire there. They fight a

599
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 1: bunch of battles against him. Um. Ethiopia work fights alongside

600
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: the British against the Mahdi because he's fucking with them too,

601
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,360
Speaker 1: and they make an arrangement with the British and basically

602
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:26,360
Speaker 1: we're like, the British need Ethiopian helped to evacuate a

603
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,479
Speaker 1: bunch of Egyptian garrisons, and the Ethiopians do this for

604
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:32,520
Speaker 1: them in exchange for the British promise them free access

605
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 1: to a coastal port. Now, the Ethiopians fulfill their end

606
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:38,960
Speaker 1: of the bargain and save these garrisons, but the British

607
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:41,440
Speaker 1: do not fulfill their end. Of the bargain um, and

608
00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:44,920
Speaker 1: so Ethiopia gets screwed out of access to this port um,

609
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 1: in part because Italy is gobbling up a bunch of

610
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: this coastline. Right, never trust the British um seven Italy

611
00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:54,760
Speaker 1: invades Ethiopia for the first time. They send in a

612
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:57,920
Speaker 1: scientific mission, that's what they call it, a five hundred

613
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:01,040
Speaker 1: armed men to occupy a piece of ethio be in territory.

614
00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:03,840
Speaker 1: And this is a thing that European powers do a lot, right.

615
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:06,520
Speaker 1: You send in a small group of armed men, you

616
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 1: take a little area, you hang out there. Usually the

617
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:11,600
Speaker 1: leaders don't funk with you, right because they don't want

618
00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:14,800
Speaker 1: to deal with the hassle. And once you get that foothold,

619
00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:16,360
Speaker 1: then you could take another piece, and another piece and

620
00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 1: another piece. Eventually work straight a war and you take

621
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:23,000
Speaker 1: it all. Yeah, yeah, just a slow invasion of the body, horrifying,

622
00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:26,360
Speaker 1: and their hope had been that has often happened in Africa.

623
00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:29,160
Speaker 1: The locals would launch an ill equipped counter attack which

624
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:32,000
Speaker 1: would be easily defeated by modern Italian guns, and the

625
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:35,440
Speaker 1: bloodshed would service the justification for a more comprehensive Italian

626
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 1: land grap But the Italians forgot one crucial thing, Joel,

627
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 1: was it the mountains Italians? No, it's it's that Italians

628
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:50,920
Speaker 1: suck acid war and Ethiopians don't pretty good. So Italy

629
00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 1: is defeated decisively at a battle called dega Ali. Now

630
00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:58,120
Speaker 1: from this experience, Italy learned that in Ethiopia is not

631
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:00,720
Speaker 1: an easy thing to steal. The next to the strategy

632
00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:05,000
Speaker 1: then of under my yeah ship, they really want to

633
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:11,000
Speaker 1: keep being Ethiopia. We didn't anticipate this. It's too spicy

634
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:15,400
Speaker 1: if meat the ball the last word of many an

635
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:20,680
Speaker 1: Italian soldier bleeding in the dust of spicy meat the ball.

636
00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:24,839
Speaker 1: I feel like spicy meat ball is going to end

637
00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:28,040
Speaker 1: up on the behind the bastards bingo board that fans make.

638
00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:31,759
Speaker 1: We could do like a little photoshop of Ethiopia as

639
00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:33,960
Speaker 1: a meat ball and like an Italian choking on it,

640
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:37,480
Speaker 1: like that's a spicy meat the ball. I was thinking

641
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:40,959
Speaker 1: more like a drinking game or something that doesn't like

642
00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 1: no death. Oh okay, well now, uh so Italy gets

643
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:50,759
Speaker 1: rebuffed in this first attempt, so they sat next to

644
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:53,560
Speaker 1: they establish a new strategy. And this strategy is kind

645
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:55,400
Speaker 1: of more like what the British would try to do,

646
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:58,439
Speaker 1: right because the British. There's sometimes where they use brute force,

647
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:00,640
Speaker 1: they rarely start with that. They're a usually a lot

648
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:03,920
Speaker 1: more cunning. Um and Italy adopts the same strategy. The

649
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:07,400
Speaker 1: idea is to undermine Ethiopian unity, Um, because this is

650
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:10,360
Speaker 1: a known vulnerability. Right. There's a lot of infighting in Ethiopia.

651
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 1: All these different regional lords don't always work together. They

652
00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:14,760
Speaker 1: like to fight for dominance. So the Italians like, okay,

653
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 1: what if we try to play these different tribal groups

654
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:19,600
Speaker 1: and local leaders against one another and the emperor and

655
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,680
Speaker 1: kind of fragment Ethiopia and then we can take, you know,

656
00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:25,880
Speaker 1: eat it up piecemeal, right, um, which is a better strategy,

657
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:28,359
Speaker 1: And they were much more successful at this. The guy

658
00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:30,880
Speaker 1: they chose to reach out and bribe was a local

659
00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:35,800
Speaker 1: king named Menelik two ferry rights quote. As king of Shoa,

660
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,120
Speaker 1: away from the central government in the north, Menelik enjoyed

661
00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:42,400
Speaker 1: unlimited power over his kingdom. He conquered Gali lands to

662
00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:44,959
Speaker 1: the south and expanded his territory greatly through his large

663
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:48,959
Speaker 1: and relatively well armed forces. Thus, conscious of his growing power,

664
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:51,239
Speaker 1: Menelik became less and less obedient to the emperor and

665
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:55,439
Speaker 1: the Italians were not slow in noticing this. Accordingly, after

666
00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:58,880
Speaker 1: the presentation of gifts and tempting promises, the Italians were

667
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:01,400
Speaker 1: able to have Menelik sign in a secret treaty in

668
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:04,160
Speaker 1: which he was promised money, arms, and the province of

669
00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:06,920
Speaker 1: Tigray and in recognition is the king of Kings if

670
00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:10,640
Speaker 1: he allied with them in attacking Emperor Johannes the Fourth.

671
00:36:10,880 --> 00:36:14,040
Speaker 1: This is while Johannes is still alive. Um to this,

672
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:17,879
Speaker 1: Menelik agreed and the treaty was signed in eighteen eighty eight.

673
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:22,319
Speaker 1: Uh that the Italians would benefit. What the Italians would

674
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:24,480
Speaker 1: benefit from this was little. It meant the annexation of

675
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:28,000
Speaker 1: Eritrea in the northernmost province. But the Italians were solidifying

676
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,360
Speaker 1: their hold and they were ready to wait for further demands.

677
00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:33,520
Speaker 1: So Italy gets this guy on board. They're like, well,

678
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:35,279
Speaker 1: back this guy, this guy is the most powerful king.

679
00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:37,440
Speaker 1: Will back him against the emperor, will let him take

680
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:39,920
Speaker 1: a big chunk of Ethiopia. But if we get this emperor,

681
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 1: we can take other chunks and eventually we'll eat this

682
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:44,640
Speaker 1: guy up to right, will either make him into a

683
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:46,840
Speaker 1: rump kingdom or like that's the plan, right, they're going

684
00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:49,400
Speaker 1: to use this guy to fragment Ethiopia, to let him

685
00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:51,040
Speaker 1: be independent, probably for the rest of his life, and

686
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:53,720
Speaker 1: then take it over right whenever he passes, right whatever.

687
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:59,359
Speaker 1: Pretty standard. Yeah, this happens all the time. Yes, they're

688
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:08,720
Speaker 1: they're natural backstabbing people, the Italians. Um. So no, Now,

689
00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:11,640
Speaker 1: this basic tactic is one a bunch of European powers

690
00:37:11,680 --> 00:37:13,879
Speaker 1: would use all over the world during the age of colonization,

691
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,719
Speaker 1: most local rulers around, not just Africa, but we're talking

692
00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:19,719
Speaker 1: like Southeast Asia, a bunch of places, and you know

693
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 1: it earlier. Very versions of this are done in like

694
00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:27,280
Speaker 1: Central and South America. To most local rulers in mental

695
00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:30,560
Speaker 1: exposition kind of would agree to do help whatever power

696
00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:33,200
Speaker 1: would overthrow the ruler um and they would be called

697
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:37,240
Speaker 1: either betrayed immediately or bribed off and used to oppress

698
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:39,360
Speaker 1: their fellows for the profit of England or France or whatever.

699
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:43,720
Speaker 1: But so this was generally a successful strategy. But Italy

700
00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:46,720
Speaker 1: made a mistake, and the mistake was picking Menelik because

701
00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:50,799
Speaker 1: Menelik was really fucking smart, way smarter than any of

702
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:56,080
Speaker 1: the Italians trying to manipulate him. Um. Yeah, So right

703
00:37:56,160 --> 00:37:59,360
Speaker 1: after the Italians signed this secret contract. Right, the Modests

704
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:02,399
Speaker 1: invade again and the Emperor Johannes you know, dies fighting them,

705
00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:06,280
Speaker 1: which means the emperor that Menelik had agreed to fight

706
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:09,520
Speaker 1: alongside the Italians isn't the emperor anymore? Um. And as

707
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:11,839
Speaker 1: soon as the Italians here that Johannes is dead, they

708
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:14,120
Speaker 1: send a telegram to Mendelick, who again they think is

709
00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:17,239
Speaker 1: their boy, and their exact phrasing was something like, it's

710
00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:20,240
Speaker 1: time for our two countries to establish a more solid friendship,

711
00:38:20,239 --> 00:38:23,239
Speaker 1: which is colonizers speak for we're coming right, We're gonna

712
00:38:23,239 --> 00:38:26,719
Speaker 1: take the ship. And it seemed initially that Menelik was

713
00:38:26,760 --> 00:38:30,160
Speaker 1: falling for their sneaky tricks. He signed a treaty with Italy,

714
00:38:30,200 --> 00:38:33,040
Speaker 1: which the Italians claimed would just officially lay out their

715
00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:37,399
Speaker 1: separate territories and enshrine Ethiopian independence into international law. This

716
00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:40,400
Speaker 1: was a lie because there were discrepancies between the version

717
00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:42,440
Speaker 1: of the treaty written in Italian, which is the one

718
00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:46,759
Speaker 1: that Europeans are going to consider value. And this again,

719
00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:48,440
Speaker 1: they do this all the time. This is something the

720
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:51,120
Speaker 1: US does. A ship load to the indigenous people's right,

721
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:55,400
Speaker 1: classic colonizer move. Right. It's so se like base level,

722
00:38:55,520 --> 00:39:00,080
Speaker 1: like you the way you just what is whatever for

723
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:05,919
Speaker 1: inventialize your your enemy is just embarrassing. Yeah, and so

724
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:08,880
Speaker 1: there's a difference between the Italian version and the MRK

725
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:13,480
Speaker 1: is the is the language that in the Ethiopia. Um,

726
00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:16,120
Speaker 1: I think amhrek is how it's pronounced. It's a m

727
00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:19,160
Speaker 1: h A R I C. Now, the Italian version of

728
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:22,120
Speaker 1: the of the treaty included an article that read, quote

729
00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:25,279
Speaker 1: his majesty, the King of Kings of Ethiopia consents to

730
00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:28,879
Speaker 1: avail himself of the Italian government for any negotiations which

731
00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:32,799
Speaker 1: he might enter into with other powers. Now what that

732
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:36,000
Speaker 1: means is under the Italian version of the treaty, Menelik

733
00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:39,640
Speaker 1: is agreeing that he has to ask the the Italian

734
00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:43,400
Speaker 1: government for permission before making any arrangements with other countries.

735
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:46,920
Speaker 1: This would make Ethiopia into what is known as a protectorate,

736
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:49,839
Speaker 1: which is not an independent nation. A protectorate is under

737
00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:53,840
Speaker 1: the government governance of another country. Um. Because if you

738
00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:56,920
Speaker 1: can't make your own contracts and treaties foreign countries, you're

739
00:39:56,960 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 1: not really independent. That what that line is the Italian

740
00:40:00,200 --> 00:40:05,600
Speaker 1: is trying to steal Ethiopian sovereignty in a very clever way, right. Um. Now,

741
00:40:05,640 --> 00:40:08,360
Speaker 1: the Amharic version of the treaty, which mentally gets, is

742
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:11,920
Speaker 1: crucially different. It just says that the emperor might, if

743
00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:15,239
Speaker 1: he desired, avail himself of Italian help and foreign matters.

744
00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:17,680
Speaker 1: So his version of the treaty is like, since we're friends,

745
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:19,400
Speaker 1: if yeah, if you want to make a deal with

746
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 1: the European nation, hey where European will help you with it?

747
00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 1: You know, we might write exactly crucial difference. One of

748
00:40:27,160 --> 00:40:28,759
Speaker 1: them is a nice thing that a friend would do,

749
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:30,680
Speaker 1: and one of them is somebody stealing your fucking house,

750
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 1: you know. Um yeah. So the Italians, of course, as

751
00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:38,279
Speaker 1: soon as this treaty has signed, the Italians informed the

752
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:41,200
Speaker 1: rest of Europe like, hey, we've basically we've acquired one.

753
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:44,920
Speaker 1: Ethiopia slightly used like congratulations, look at how who we are?

754
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:49,399
Speaker 1: Um now to Ferry, that Ethiopian scholar who a big

755
00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:51,600
Speaker 1: basis of this junk of the history, seems to think

756
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:54,720
Speaker 1: that Menelik was legitimately fooled by this, that he thought

757
00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:57,000
Speaker 1: he'd signed a friendship treaty and was shocked when the

758
00:40:57,040 --> 00:41:00,279
Speaker 1: Italians were like, we own you now. But other schollers

759
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:02,880
Speaker 1: disagree now to Ferry's pieces, very good, which is why

760
00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:04,440
Speaker 1: I've used it, but it's also rather old. It's a

761
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:06,719
Speaker 1: couple of decades old. It's not a new piece of scholarship.

762
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:10,240
Speaker 1: There's a two thousand eleven book by Cambridge historian Raymond

763
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:12,439
Speaker 1: Jonas that makes a different argument, and I'm gonna quote

764
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:14,799
Speaker 1: from a writeup of his book by Ohio State University's

765
00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:19,600
Speaker 1: Origins Project. Quote Jonah suggests that Menelick used his protectorate

766
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:22,279
Speaker 1: status to his advantage, such as a loan of four

767
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:25,160
Speaker 1: million lira from Italy, used to purchase weapons until his

768
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:27,840
Speaker 1: position was strong enough to claim there was a mistranslation.

769
00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:31,560
Speaker 1: So by this interpretation of events, the emperor knew Italy

770
00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:33,839
Speaker 1: was trying to funk him over. But he also knew

771
00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:36,840
Speaker 1: that the etho Opian army was exhausted and was badly

772
00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:39,680
Speaker 1: outgunned by any European force. Because all these worth they fought,

773
00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:41,960
Speaker 1: to have any hope of victory against a full invasion,

774
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 1: they would need refitting. So he was like, if the

775
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 1: Italians think I'm a protectorate, they'll give me a loan.

776
00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:49,560
Speaker 1: I can use that loan to buy guns, and I

777
00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:53,640
Speaker 1: can use those guns to kill Italians. Listen, I love

778
00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:59,719
Speaker 1: the double play that we're grad Yeah, this is a

779
00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:06,360
Speaker 1: very very smart guy. So Italy strategy here is to

780
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:10,040
Speaker 1: gradually move forces further and further into Ethiopia, which they

781
00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:12,360
Speaker 1: start to do. They sent in soldiers and they occupy

782
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:14,480
Speaker 1: a city called Addagat for a full year, and the

783
00:42:14,520 --> 00:42:17,000
Speaker 1: emperor doesn't do anything. And again, the last time they

784
00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:19,440
Speaker 1: tried this, they immediately got counterattacked and pushed out. So

785
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:21,399
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, it's working, it's working. This guy's gonna

786
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:25,920
Speaker 1: let us in spicy yeah. Um, right, So they think

787
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:27,560
Speaker 1: Ethiopia is going to be a big push over. They

788
00:42:27,560 --> 00:42:30,319
Speaker 1: think they finally cracked cracked the nut. Now they had

789
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 1: further reason to believe that Ethiopia would be easy pickings

790
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:35,279
Speaker 1: because they also brought a horrible plague with them when

791
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:40,280
Speaker 1: they invaded the first time. Um, the historical record shows

792
00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:43,160
Speaker 1: that when the Ethiopians wiped out that first expeditionary force

793
00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:45,839
Speaker 1: and rated its camp, they stole cattle that had been

794
00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:48,919
Speaker 1: infested with a disease called the render pest. This pest

795
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:51,719
Speaker 1: quickly spread throughout the country, wiping out all cattle in

796
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:54,839
Speaker 1: Ethiopia and causing a nightmarish famine. So this is all

797
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:57,680
Speaker 1: happening at the same time. Right. I'm gonna quote from

798
00:42:57,680 --> 00:43:01,160
Speaker 1: a write up by the Aromo Studies Association. This historical

799
00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:03,640
Speaker 1: period is recorded in the collective memory of the Aroma

800
00:43:03,719 --> 00:43:07,759
Speaker 1: people as Bara Nama Niata the period of human eater,

801
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 1: bara Uxia, Rukisa the period of extreme famine, and Cina

802
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:15,720
Speaker 1: the period of termination. So those are the three periods

803
00:43:15,719 --> 00:43:18,520
Speaker 1: of this plague. Um we have no evidence that the

804
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:22,279
Speaker 1: Italians had deliberately introduced our PV into Abyssinia. However, the

805
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:25,440
Speaker 1: colonial public health history made clear that the colonizers knowingly

806
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:28,560
Speaker 1: and with wittingly neglected the needs of the colonized people,

807
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:30,600
Speaker 1: and this is evident in the case of our PV

808
00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:33,360
Speaker 1: in Ethiopia. As we know today, the practice of quarantine

809
00:43:33,400 --> 00:43:36,240
Speaker 1: began in Italy during the fourteenth century. It was started

810
00:43:36,239 --> 00:43:38,960
Speaker 1: in an effort to protect coastal cities from plague epidemics.

811
00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:42,560
Speaker 1: Italy and many European countries practiced quarantining. For example, in

812
00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:45,640
Speaker 1: thirteen seventy seven, the Great Council of Ragusa and Southern

813
00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:48,719
Speaker 1: Italy passed a law establishing a trentino or thirty day

814
00:43:48,760 --> 00:43:51,560
Speaker 1: isolation period. This made Italy the first in Europe to

815
00:43:51,719 --> 00:43:54,800
Speaker 1: organize institutional responses to disease control that began during the

816
00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:57,759
Speaker 1: plague epidemic of thirteen forty seven to thirteen fifty two.

817
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:00,359
Speaker 1: Ships arriving in Italian ports were required to sit an

818
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:03,239
Speaker 1: anchor for forty days before landing. Although the Italians had

819
00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:05,880
Speaker 1: practiced quarantining ships arriving in their reports ever since the

820
00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:08,520
Speaker 1: fourteenth century, when they brought the infected cattle to the

821
00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:11,080
Speaker 1: Red Sea coast, they did not take the necessary quarantine

822
00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 1: steps and caused the RPV epidemic. Whether or not it

823
00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:17,760
Speaker 1: was deliberate, the Italian Army introduced the deadly RPV infection

824
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:21,480
Speaker 1: to Africa. Carried by just three infected cows. RPVs spread

825
00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:24,880
Speaker 1: from Ethiopia's east coast across the Sahela Desert, killing in

826
00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:30,440
Speaker 1: just one year of the domesticated cattle plus countless whild, buffalo, giraffe,

827
00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:33,480
Speaker 1: and antelope. RPVs swept from the Horn of Africa west

828
00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:35,680
Speaker 1: to the Atlantic and south to the Cape of Good Hope.

829
00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:39,000
Speaker 1: Ethiopia lost of its cattle and most of the human

830
00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:42,920
Speaker 1: populations starved to death. According to Yoma, thirty to sixty

831
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:50,000
Speaker 1: of Ethiopia's population started at that year. Oh my god,

832
00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:54,239
Speaker 1: that's devastating. And it's important to note the Italians know

833
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:56,719
Speaker 1: how to quarantine, which is why some people suggest they

834
00:44:56,760 --> 00:44:59,480
Speaker 1: did this on purpose. They introduced this plague to prepare

835
00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:02,080
Speaker 1: the area, to basically wipe out the population and prepare

836
00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:04,200
Speaker 1: the area for colonization. We don't know that. We do

837
00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:07,960
Speaker 1: know they knew how to quarantine and shows not to

838
00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:10,480
Speaker 1: and that's why this plague spreads and kills as many

839
00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:13,560
Speaker 1: as sixty percent of the people in Ethiopia. And that's

840
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 1: happened right as this as the EI, as the Italians

841
00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:19,160
Speaker 1: are moving in, as they take this city. So Menelik

842
00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:21,640
Speaker 1: is not just dealing with recovering from all these wars,

843
00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:24,360
Speaker 1: like fucking half of his population has just gotten wiped

844
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:27,880
Speaker 1: out by this devastating, fucking plague. So by the early

845
00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:32,040
Speaker 1: eighteen nineties, Ethiopia is in bad shape, right, this is

846
00:45:32,520 --> 00:45:35,440
Speaker 1: they're about as vulnerable to colonizations you could possibly be,

847
00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:39,680
Speaker 1: you know, like that's a bad position. Um, and the

848
00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:42,680
Speaker 1: Italians tried to take further advantage of the situation by

849
00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:45,840
Speaker 1: using the desperation of the famine to drive divisions between

850
00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:49,799
Speaker 1: Menelik's kingdom Showa and the Northern Tigray Kingdom the two

851
00:45:49,800 --> 00:45:52,400
Speaker 1: most because these are the two most powerful chunks of Ethiopia.

852
00:45:52,880 --> 00:45:55,880
Speaker 1: But in this they were outflanked because Menelik married the

853
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:59,600
Speaker 1: Empress Tattoo from Tigray, which effectively united the two great

854
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:03,520
Speaker 1: power walks in the country. He also used the Italians

855
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:05,840
Speaker 1: during their early stages of investment in the country to

856
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:08,960
Speaker 1: crush local princes and warlords who were threats to his power.

857
00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:12,279
Speaker 1: In effect, he used the army he would one day

858
00:46:12,320 --> 00:46:14,719
Speaker 1: have to fight to crush resistance to his rule and

859
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:17,720
Speaker 1: ensure that when the big fight came, Ethiopia was united

860
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:20,640
Speaker 1: behind him. The Italians were willing to do this because

861
00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:22,719
Speaker 1: this was a normal colonialism thing. Right, you fight these

862
00:46:22,719 --> 00:46:24,600
Speaker 1: little powers so you don't have to fight the big war.

863
00:46:24,760 --> 00:46:28,240
Speaker 1: Right Um. They thought they're sinking their teeth into this country,

864
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:31,359
Speaker 1: wrapping their Italian tentacles around it, but they're really being

865
00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:35,320
Speaker 1: used by Menelik. In eighteen ninety three, Italy announced to

866
00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:38,120
Speaker 1: the rest of Europe that Ethiopia was their protectorate. They

867
00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:40,760
Speaker 1: did not bother making an announcement to Metelk. He found

868
00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:44,080
Speaker 1: out during the course of his normal diplomatic correspondence when

869
00:46:44,080 --> 00:46:46,680
Speaker 1: he reached out to a European nation and was informed

870
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:49,160
Speaker 1: by their emissary that they would not treat with him directly.

871
00:46:49,400 --> 00:46:53,080
Speaker 1: All communication would have to go through Italy. So Menelik

872
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:55,440
Speaker 1: wrote a letter to the King of Italy. Quote, when

873
00:46:55,440 --> 00:46:57,480
Speaker 1: I made the treaty of friendship with Italy in order

874
00:46:57,520 --> 00:46:59,839
Speaker 1: that our secrets might be guarded and that undertaking should

875
00:46:59,840 --> 00:47:02,160
Speaker 1: not be spoiled. I said that, because a friendship, our

876
00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:04,239
Speaker 1: affairs in Europe might be carried on with the aid

877
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:06,200
Speaker 1: of the Sovereign of Italy. But I have not made

878
00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:08,480
Speaker 1: any treaty which obliges me to do so, and today

879
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:10,440
Speaker 1: I am not the man to accept it that one

880
00:47:10,480 --> 00:47:12,640
Speaker 1: independent power does not seek the aid of another to

881
00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:16,280
Speaker 1: carry on its affairs. Your Majesty understands very well. Basically,

882
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:18,279
Speaker 1: you're a king and you wouldn't put up this with

883
00:47:18,280 --> 00:47:21,520
Speaker 1: with this, why would you expect me to? Yeah, okay,

884
00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:24,799
Speaker 1: laid down the la like I love the respect being commanded.

885
00:47:24,960 --> 00:47:29,839
Speaker 1: This is amazing. You know what else is a king

886
00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:33,480
Speaker 1: of Italy? Is the king of the sovereign of Italy.

887
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:40,040
Speaker 1: Is it that? Yes, we are supported by the Italian crown?

888
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:47,759
Speaker 1: I thought, okay, all right, I mean they're looking they

889
00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:49,600
Speaker 1: like to be kings of other things. So you know,

890
00:47:49,640 --> 00:47:51,759
Speaker 1: if you're looking for a king, you know, if you

891
00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:55,000
Speaker 1: if you would like to be a king um, or

892
00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:56,520
Speaker 1: if you would like to have a king, you know,

893
00:47:56,719 --> 00:47:59,839
Speaker 1: consider the sovereign of Italy. You know, you could do worse. Right,

894
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:03,600
Speaker 1: there's worse kings. Not a lot of worse things, but

895
00:48:03,719 --> 00:48:15,240
Speaker 1: there's a couple. Yeah, anyway, we'll take it. Uh, we're back.

896
00:48:15,680 --> 00:48:18,399
Speaker 1: I hope you all enjoyed. Um, I hope you all

897
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 1: enjoyed this. Those ads from the King of Italy. Um.

898
00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:29,600
Speaker 1: Italy it's a country technically, So for the next three years,

899
00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:34,839
Speaker 1: the Italians wage a shadow war against Ethiopian independence. They

900
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:37,239
Speaker 1: reached out to Menlik's rivals to try and turn other

901
00:48:37,280 --> 00:48:39,680
Speaker 1: kings against him. They tried to trick him into further

902
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:43,759
Speaker 1: treaties with tricky language, but everywhere they're out maneuvered because

903
00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:47,320
Speaker 1: mental Wick is just smartest shit. Like, it seems silly

904
00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:52,279
Speaker 1: to me to be like that first contract mistake. Let's

905
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:57,560
Speaker 1: try it again. Yeah. The thing that I love about this, dude, well,

906
00:48:57,560 --> 00:48:59,640
Speaker 1: this is such a cool story. Um. This part of

907
00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:01,759
Speaker 1: it as a cool stories because this whole period is

908
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:05,200
Speaker 1: all of these different African leaders just getting completely fucked

909
00:49:05,200 --> 00:49:09,040
Speaker 1: over by Europeans, um and and and and brute with

910
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:11,680
Speaker 1: a huge body counts as a result. And this this

911
00:49:11,760 --> 00:49:14,840
Speaker 1: guy though, he's just so much fucking smarter than them,

912
00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:18,440
Speaker 1: Like he's just running circles around these motherfucker's And it's beautiful.

913
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:22,960
Speaker 1: Um it's it's a it's a really gratifying story compared

914
00:49:23,000 --> 00:49:25,960
Speaker 1: to everything else happening between Europeans and Africans in this

915
00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:30,880
Speaker 1: period of time, which is mostly you know, genocide. Um so, yeah,

916
00:49:31,040 --> 00:49:32,880
Speaker 1: we might as well enjoy the good story while we

917
00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:34,680
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a genocide here too. They killed half

918
00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:38,960
Speaker 1: the country. Uh so, I don't know. You take the

919
00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:41,880
Speaker 1: winds when you get them. You gotta find your victory

920
00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:46,800
Speaker 1: somewhere for ye, So he out maneuvers them, um and. Finally,

921
00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:49,680
Speaker 1: in eighteen nine, Italy decides they have no option but

922
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:52,320
Speaker 1: to invade with a real class army, and they assemble

923
00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:56,040
Speaker 1: a full modern European army of twenty five thousand men

924
00:49:56,160 --> 00:49:59,399
Speaker 1: under the command of a general named Baratieri, and they

925
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:03,640
Speaker 1: invade for Mauritrea. Now, unbeknownst to Italy, Menelik had started

926
00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:06,319
Speaker 1: preparing for war in earnest in eighteen ninety three, He'd

927
00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:09,240
Speaker 1: ordered the creation of food depots across the country, leading

928
00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:12,040
Speaker 1: to a place called Adwa, where he believed the Italians

929
00:50:12,040 --> 00:50:15,040
Speaker 1: would advance towards next From a write up in Quartz,

930
00:50:15,719 --> 00:50:18,840
Speaker 1: on September seventeenth, eighteen ninety five, Menelik declared a total

931
00:50:18,920 --> 00:50:22,040
Speaker 1: mobilization of war against Italy. He called on all Ethiopians

932
00:50:22,040 --> 00:50:24,520
Speaker 1: to defend their country, family, and religion. He ordered every

933
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:27,000
Speaker 1: capable person to fight and those incapable to pray for

934
00:50:27,040 --> 00:50:31,200
Speaker 1: Ethiopia's victory. Ethiopians from every tribe, culture, and community answered

935
00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:34,680
Speaker 1: Mendelick's call. Regional leaders from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds

936
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:38,120
Speaker 1: responded unanimously, creating an army of one hundred thousand. They

937
00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:42,080
Speaker 1: had inferior weapons but a strong cause. The first showdown

938
00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:45,560
Speaker 1: occurred at Amba Alagi on December seventh, eighteen ninety five,

939
00:50:45,640 --> 00:50:48,920
Speaker 1: where a relatively smaller Italian army was wiped out. The

940
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:51,800
Speaker 1: next encounter was at Mcelly, where the Italians were stationed

941
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:54,880
Speaker 1: behind a strong fort. The Ethiopians surrounded the Italians for

942
00:50:54,920 --> 00:50:58,080
Speaker 1: two weeks, and, upon Empress Tattoo's advice, cut off the

943
00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:01,200
Speaker 1: fort's water supply. The Italian in commander agreed to surrender

944
00:51:01,239 --> 00:51:03,120
Speaker 1: if they would be allowed to leave with their firearms.

945
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:06,080
Speaker 1: Menelik agreed that they could leave the garrison unharmed, but

946
00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:09,080
Speaker 1: the Italians remained in their strongholds, fortifying their position at

947
00:51:09,080 --> 00:51:11,799
Speaker 1: Adigrat and Saria. Menelik was not in a hurry to

948
00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:14,680
Speaker 1: attack these forts. After two weeks of an activity, General

949
00:51:14,719 --> 00:51:17,840
Speaker 1: Baratieri decided to advance for a surprise attack. It was

950
00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:21,160
Speaker 1: marched first eighteen ninety six, or according to the Ethiopian

951
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:25,840
Speaker 1: counter Yakati, eighteen eighty eight, the day of St. George.

952
00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:28,839
Speaker 1: The priests carried the Taboau, a replica of the Ark

953
00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:31,680
Speaker 1: of the Covenant, a religious icon that symbolizes the sanctity

954
00:51:31,719 --> 00:51:35,200
Speaker 1: of Ethiopia, to the battlefield. The twenty thousand Italian and

955
00:51:35,239 --> 00:51:38,319
Speaker 1: Italian trained native troops, who advanced in three columns, fought

956
00:51:38,320 --> 00:51:40,680
Speaker 1: bravely with their cannons and machine guns before facing a

957
00:51:40,719 --> 00:51:46,880
Speaker 1: decisive defeat. Casualties were severe on both sides. So the

958
00:51:47,640 --> 00:51:50,080
Speaker 1: you know, there's this kind of like ongoing war and

959
00:51:50,160 --> 00:51:51,640
Speaker 1: it comes to a head at this place of Ottawa,

960
00:51:51,840 --> 00:51:56,400
Speaker 1: and the Ethiopians smash this Italian army of twenty thousand people.

961
00:51:56,960 --> 00:51:59,680
Speaker 1: This is we'll talk about that a sex. So it

962
00:51:59,760 --> 00:52:02,880
Speaker 1: is us noting before we move on that during this battle,

963
00:52:03,440 --> 00:52:05,359
Speaker 1: the Ethiopians are one of the things that I don't

964
00:52:05,360 --> 00:52:06,760
Speaker 1: know if I wouldn't say it makes them a unique

965
00:52:06,760 --> 00:52:07,840
Speaker 1: but one of the things that's worth noting is that

966
00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:09,680
Speaker 1: there were a significant number of women fighting in the

967
00:52:09,719 --> 00:52:12,960
Speaker 1: Ethiopian army. This is a thing in Ethiopian military history,

968
00:52:13,239 --> 00:52:17,520
Speaker 1: including a tatool the empress who led a unit of

969
00:52:17,600 --> 00:52:20,919
Speaker 1: six thousand cavalry into battle. And also, as we talked about,

970
00:52:20,960 --> 00:52:23,600
Speaker 1: she was a major strategic leader of the army. She

971
00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:26,320
Speaker 1: has all these plans for cutting off water supplies and stuff.

972
00:52:26,360 --> 00:52:30,919
Speaker 1: She's a big part of this um the Battle of Ottawa. Sorry,

973
00:52:30,920 --> 00:52:32,279
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, I love how all of

974
00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:38,000
Speaker 1: these like high ranking um monarchs or queens and kings

975
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:41,840
Speaker 1: and emperors are like dying on the battlefield, which seems

976
00:52:41,920 --> 00:52:44,839
Speaker 1: very to history to that they're fighters, rare, that they're

977
00:52:44,880 --> 00:52:48,239
Speaker 1: like in the front on the front lines. Yeah, I

978
00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:50,360
Speaker 1: mean it happened like if you go to the European

979
00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:52,520
Speaker 1: Europe a thousand years before, right the Battle of Hastings,

980
00:52:52,520 --> 00:52:54,520
Speaker 1: the monarch dies in the field. That happens in European

981
00:52:54,520 --> 00:52:57,960
Speaker 1: history a lot earlier. Um. But yeah, like fucking Menelik

982
00:52:58,120 --> 00:53:00,319
Speaker 1: is on the field, as is his wife. They're both

983
00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:03,440
Speaker 1: fighting in this battle, which I've never heard of before.

984
00:53:03,520 --> 00:53:05,640
Speaker 1: Like it like a like an emperor and an empress

985
00:53:05,680 --> 00:53:08,520
Speaker 1: fighting like side, like a side by side. Because she

986
00:53:08,520 --> 00:53:10,200
Speaker 1: was leading the cavalry. I think he had another gig.

987
00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:12,120
Speaker 1: But like they're both fighting in the same battle, which

988
00:53:12,160 --> 00:53:16,239
Speaker 1: is pretty fucking rad. Um. So, the Battle of Ottawa

989
00:53:16,400 --> 00:53:21,000
Speaker 1: is the first defeat military defeat, like major military defeat

990
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:24,839
Speaker 1: of a European power by indigenous Africans. It was the

991
00:53:24,920 --> 00:53:29,200
Speaker 1: only such defeat during the Scramble for Africa that also

992
00:53:29,320 --> 00:53:31,960
Speaker 1: led to the complete victory of the native people. Right.

993
00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:34,239
Speaker 1: There's other times where like a small European army will

994
00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:37,839
Speaker 1: like lose, but they always win the war, right, that

995
00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:41,399
Speaker 1: doesn't happen here, they win the war, um, And this

996
00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:43,439
Speaker 1: is the only time that happens. This is a huge

997
00:53:43,520 --> 00:53:46,720
Speaker 1: victory not just within a you know, African military history,

998
00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:50,360
Speaker 1: but within the annals of global military history. Menelik's campaign

999
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:54,960
Speaker 1: against the Italians covered more miles than Napoleon's advance into Russia. Um.

1000
00:53:55,000 --> 00:53:58,960
Speaker 1: This is like a really fastening, extremely influential battle Um.

1001
00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:01,960
Speaker 1: The news of the Italian defeat spreads rapidly, um. And

1002
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:04,719
Speaker 1: this is this hits European news like a bomb because

1003
00:54:04,800 --> 00:54:08,719
Speaker 1: a full European army has just gotten fucking annihilated by

1004
00:54:08,719 --> 00:54:14,280
Speaker 1: an indigenous army. Be afraid. Yeah, that's exactly how it's taken.

1005
00:54:14,440 --> 00:54:18,960
Speaker 1: And Ethiopia becomes an international symbol of black resistance to colonialism.

1006
00:54:19,440 --> 00:54:21,640
Speaker 1: This battle is celebrated by men like W. E. B.

1007
00:54:21,800 --> 00:54:24,840
Speaker 1: Dubois and Benito Sylvain of Haiti Um. And this is

1008
00:54:24,840 --> 00:54:27,800
Speaker 1: in spite of the fact that many Ethiopians themselves didn't

1009
00:54:27,800 --> 00:54:30,759
Speaker 1: see themselves as part of a Pan African resistance to

1010
00:54:30,760 --> 00:54:34,279
Speaker 1: Western imperialism. Menelik was not an idealist. He was a

1011
00:54:34,320 --> 00:54:38,080
Speaker 1: pragmatic emperor. Before the war, when he was gathering up forces,

1012
00:54:38,280 --> 00:54:40,600
Speaker 1: he had appealed to the common blackness of the different

1013
00:54:40,600 --> 00:54:44,680
Speaker 1: peoples of Ethiopia against the white invader. But when Benito Sylvain,

1014
00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:47,359
Speaker 1: who was a Haitian Pan Africanist, got to sit down

1015
00:54:47,360 --> 00:54:50,640
Speaker 1: and talk with Menelik about their common struggle, the emperor

1016
00:54:50,680 --> 00:54:54,040
Speaker 1: informed Benito that while he sympathized with the black struggle

1017
00:54:54,120 --> 00:54:57,600
Speaker 1: struggle mental it, considered himself Caucasian. So again, this is

1018
00:54:57,640 --> 00:55:06,440
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of weird dimension here. Yeah, some picture, sir, Sorry,

1019
00:55:06,480 --> 00:55:09,360
Speaker 1: but you look good. You look really I got a

1020
00:55:09,360 --> 00:55:12,799
Speaker 1: pretty faith for an emperor who's actually doing battle on

1021
00:55:12,800 --> 00:55:15,440
Speaker 1: a battlefield. You could have been, uh, you know, a

1022
00:55:15,480 --> 00:55:17,120
Speaker 1: wealthy prince who was like, I'm just not gonna bother

1023
00:55:17,239 --> 00:55:21,040
Speaker 1: with any of these things. But definitely black. But but

1024
00:55:21,040 --> 00:55:22,640
Speaker 1: but a big part of I think part of why

1025
00:55:22,680 --> 00:55:24,719
Speaker 1: he's saying that, And there's others, Like one of the

1026
00:55:24,719 --> 00:55:28,200
Speaker 1: things is that like the Ethiopians considered themselves different because

1027
00:55:28,239 --> 00:55:30,680
Speaker 1: they were never colonized, right, they were never like taken

1028
00:55:30,680 --> 00:55:33,600
Speaker 1: out of their homeland and mass or anything like that. Um.

1029
00:55:33,640 --> 00:55:38,279
Speaker 1: Also the kings of Ethiopia. Um, I don't know if

1030
00:55:38,280 --> 00:55:40,680
Speaker 1: you could say this is genealogically true, but they are.

1031
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:44,440
Speaker 1: They believe they are descended directly from King Solomon. Right,

1032
00:55:44,520 --> 00:55:47,400
Speaker 1: that's the that's the lineage of the royal lions of Ethiopia.

1033
00:55:47,400 --> 00:55:49,799
Speaker 1: They are the descendants of King Solomon. So that may

1034
00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:52,120
Speaker 1: have that may play a role in it, but it's

1035
00:55:52,160 --> 00:55:55,920
Speaker 1: so Menelik himself doesn't really see himself as like a

1036
00:55:55,960 --> 00:55:59,799
Speaker 1: representative of this global struggle against white imperialism, but he's

1037
00:56:00,040 --> 00:56:02,640
Speaker 1: in that way in this battle is seen that way internationally,

1038
00:56:02,680 --> 00:56:06,440
Speaker 1: in a very big way. The first Afro Brazilian newspaper

1039
00:56:06,600 --> 00:56:10,040
Speaker 1: was named oh Menelik. The green, yellow and red Ethiopian

1040
00:56:10,040 --> 00:56:13,040
Speaker 1: flag was later adopted by multiple African nations when they

1041
00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:17,000
Speaker 1: finally threw off the colonial yoke. And of course Ottawa. Yeah,

1042
00:56:17,040 --> 00:56:19,000
Speaker 1: so yeah, that's why that is that, that's why that

1043
00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:20,840
Speaker 1: flag means. What it does is the Battle of Ada

1044
00:56:21,360 --> 00:56:25,319
Speaker 1: is at this time where the where Africans stopped a

1045
00:56:25,320 --> 00:56:29,400
Speaker 1: colonial power from from you know, facori um. And of

1046
00:56:29,440 --> 00:56:32,440
Speaker 1: course the Battle of Ittawa had great but much darker

1047
00:56:32,480 --> 00:56:36,600
Speaker 1: significance to Europeans to ferry rights quote. In some quarters

1048
00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:39,440
Speaker 1: in Europe, the news was received with alarm. Germany complained

1049
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:42,360
Speaker 1: that England should have come to Italy's aid. General Kitchener

1050
00:56:42,400 --> 00:56:44,720
Speaker 1: expressed his desire to support Italy, but that the British

1051
00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:46,920
Speaker 1: government would not allow him to do so, and the

1052
00:56:46,960 --> 00:56:49,960
Speaker 1: Times of London limited in an editorial, you may be

1053
00:56:50,080 --> 00:56:52,120
Speaker 1: sure that from one part of Africa to the other,

1054
00:56:52,120 --> 00:56:54,399
Speaker 1: the defeat of Italy has already known, or we will

1055
00:56:54,400 --> 00:56:57,759
Speaker 1: be tomorrow that Africa has conquered Europe. This is the

1056
00:56:57,800 --> 00:57:00,560
Speaker 1: reason why the whole business is so serious and nothing

1057
00:57:00,560 --> 00:57:02,880
Speaker 1: could be more heedless than to rejoice at the defeat

1058
00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:08,720
Speaker 1: of the Italians. That defeat is also ours Europe. Europe.

1059
00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:15,040
Speaker 1: Let's let's sidebar and have a quick conversation. One smaller

1060
00:57:15,080 --> 00:57:21,560
Speaker 1: sized country defending itself is not conquering. And I think

1061
00:57:21,640 --> 00:57:24,760
Speaker 1: you know that you did a lot of conquering, you

1062
00:57:24,760 --> 00:57:28,120
Speaker 1: you're That's a weird way to find conquering. Is someone

1063
00:57:28,200 --> 00:57:30,479
Speaker 1: broke into their house and they kicked him out, Like,

1064
00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:32,880
Speaker 1: I don't know if the conquer is the right word.

1065
00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:38,960
Speaker 1: Just defeated Italy, Like, let's really get some context here, yeah, wild,

1066
00:57:39,800 --> 00:57:42,800
Speaker 1: So Italy gets beaten so badly. And again, one of

1067
00:57:42,800 --> 00:57:45,120
Speaker 1: the things that's really unique here, there are other European

1068
00:57:45,200 --> 00:57:48,720
Speaker 1: armies defeated in Africa. The Europeans always win. In the end,

1069
00:57:49,160 --> 00:57:52,440
Speaker 1: Italy basically capitulates right away. They sign a treaty with

1070
00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:57,480
Speaker 1: Ethiopia that officially recognizes Ethiopian independence. Obviously, of course, the

1071
00:57:57,520 --> 00:58:00,920
Speaker 1: fact that this happens means nothing to the other crownheads

1072
00:58:00,920 --> 00:58:03,720
Speaker 1: of Europe. Right they don't care that Ethiopia has been

1073
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:07,640
Speaker 1: is independent that same year um or sorry not that

1074
00:58:07,640 --> 00:58:11,560
Speaker 1: that's nineteen o six. Britain, France and Italy meet to

1075
00:58:11,640 --> 00:58:14,800
Speaker 1: hold a conference to decide the fate of Ethiopia. UM.

1076
00:58:14,880 --> 00:58:17,920
Speaker 1: And there were no representatives of the Ethiopian government at

1077
00:58:17,920 --> 00:58:20,640
Speaker 1: this And during this conference, three European powers agree in

1078
00:58:20,760 --> 00:58:23,640
Speaker 1: essence that they will not take any further actions towards

1079
00:58:23,640 --> 00:58:26,360
Speaker 1: Ethiopia unless they all agree on it. So whatever happens

1080
00:58:26,360 --> 00:58:29,800
Speaker 1: to Ethiopia next, Britain, France and Italy agree they have

1081
00:58:29,920 --> 00:58:33,000
Speaker 1: to all come to an accord before doing anything. UM.

1082
00:58:33,040 --> 00:58:37,680
Speaker 1: So again zero recognition of Ethiopian independence by European governments,

1083
00:58:38,520 --> 00:58:40,920
Speaker 1: although there is a treaty with Italy, right, so they've

1084
00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:44,120
Speaker 1: you know, as we end part one, this is maybe

1085
00:58:44,160 --> 00:58:48,680
Speaker 1: the brightest spot we've ended, uh, one of our episodes

1086
00:58:48,720 --> 00:58:52,480
Speaker 1: on um. They've defeated the imperial power. Things are looking great.

1087
00:58:53,000 --> 00:58:55,919
Speaker 1: Um gonna be a real bummer in part two. I'm

1088
00:58:55,920 --> 00:59:02,920
Speaker 1: sorry to say it is behind the bastards. Uh. It's

1089
00:59:02,920 --> 00:59:06,240
Speaker 1: still a really important story in a really inspiring story,

1090
00:59:06,280 --> 00:59:08,120
Speaker 1: so I think it's it's worth telling, even though it's

1091
00:59:08,120 --> 00:59:10,480
Speaker 1: going to get a lot darker in part two. Listen.

1092
00:59:10,560 --> 00:59:15,000
Speaker 1: As a fantasy writer and lover a fantasy, I'm really

1093
00:59:15,040 --> 00:59:18,320
Speaker 1: big on pulling from monarchs of the past to create

1094
00:59:18,440 --> 00:59:21,240
Speaker 1: you know, modern fantasy as we've seen half of our

1095
00:59:21,240 --> 00:59:23,480
Speaker 1: cross you know, a Lord of the Rings. You can

1096
00:59:23,680 --> 00:59:28,360
Speaker 1: look at any of Georgia Martin stuff. Uh. This guy

1097
00:59:28,800 --> 00:59:31,080
Speaker 1: is brilliant and I really hope to pull him into

1098
00:59:31,120 --> 00:59:33,520
Speaker 1: some of my fantasy lit. Uh. First of all, his

1099
00:59:33,640 --> 00:59:37,800
Speaker 1: style is banging. Uh. I know he's fucking rad looking

1100
00:59:37,920 --> 00:59:41,439
Speaker 1: right Listen. Not only does he looks like a very

1101
00:59:41,560 --> 00:59:44,480
Speaker 1: like cool hit model and or that teacher you all

1102
00:59:44,480 --> 00:59:47,320
Speaker 1: had a crush on, but also all of his clothes

1103
00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:52,120
Speaker 1: are bomb like he's got Flago style. Uh. And I

1104
00:59:52,200 --> 00:59:56,840
Speaker 1: would I would just and t outsmart empires and sort

1105
00:59:56,840 --> 00:59:59,520
Speaker 1: of be funny in his cunningness. Like, I just feel

1106
01:00:00,160 --> 01:00:01,720
Speaker 1: like I would like to learn. I'm definitely gonna learn

1107
01:00:01,720 --> 01:00:09,160
Speaker 1: more about metal. Like he's a badass. Yeah, he's fucking rad. Um.

1108
01:00:09,200 --> 01:00:12,480
Speaker 1: So that's gonna do it for us here at behind

1109
01:00:12,520 --> 01:00:17,200
Speaker 1: the Bastards. Um until next time, which will happen Thursday,

1110
01:00:17,240 --> 01:00:19,400
Speaker 1: when it'll get a lot sadder. You know, go go

1111
01:00:19,480 --> 01:00:23,760
Speaker 1: out into the world and I don't know, um, uh,

1112
01:00:24,320 --> 01:00:27,200
Speaker 1: really sock it to an Italian, find an Italian and

1113
01:00:29,040 --> 01:00:37,520
Speaker 1: make him pay what Sophie Robert Look, they're never gonna

1114
01:00:37,640 --> 01:00:40,000
Speaker 1: learn if we don't all start fighting back against deadly.

1115
01:00:42,680 --> 01:00:44,640
Speaker 1: Give him a spicy meat, a ball of their own.

1116
01:00:44,720 --> 01:00:47,880
Speaker 1: That's all. I'm sac knew it was coming. Okay, we

1117
01:00:47,920 --> 01:00:52,240
Speaker 1: needed one more, all right, all right? Go oh yeah,

1118
01:00:52,280 --> 01:00:56,120
Speaker 1: I have Joel. You got you got puble doubles. Oh yeah,

1119
01:00:56,840 --> 01:00:58,920
Speaker 1: y'all already know me. I'm Joel Monique. Can find me

1120
01:00:58,960 --> 01:01:01,240
Speaker 1: all over the internet at Juan Monique. It's j O

1121
01:01:01,320 --> 01:01:03,960
Speaker 1: E L L E M O N I q u E.

1122
01:01:05,640 --> 01:01:08,760
Speaker 1: So many podcasts we come to my Twitter and you

1123
01:01:08,760 --> 01:01:13,800
Speaker 1: will learn about them. Hell yeah, I have a novel.

1124
01:01:14,000 --> 01:01:16,040
Speaker 1: It's called After the Revolution. You can find it in

1125
01:01:16,120 --> 01:01:18,880
Speaker 1: podcast form anywhere. Just type in After the Revolution to

1126
01:01:18,920 --> 01:01:21,400
Speaker 1: whatever podcast app you have. It will be there. You

1127
01:01:21,440 --> 01:01:24,480
Speaker 1: can also find the full text, uploaded of three new

1128
01:01:24,560 --> 01:01:26,959
Speaker 1: chapters every week at a t r book dot com

1129
01:01:27,080 --> 01:01:30,120
Speaker 1: as an e pub again a t r book dot com.

1130
01:01:30,360 --> 01:01:36,000
Speaker 1: You can find the book there, so check it out please. Um.

1131
01:01:36,120 --> 01:01:38,440
Speaker 1: You can also find it on Reddit at our slash

1132
01:01:38,480 --> 01:01:40,760
Speaker 1: after the Revolution. There's a fan reddit open. People are

1133
01:01:40,760 --> 01:01:42,600
Speaker 1: talking about it if you want to chat with people

1134
01:01:42,600 --> 01:01:45,560
Speaker 1: about my novel. So there you go. All right, We'll

1135
01:01:45,600 --> 01:01:47,960
Speaker 1: be back whenever. At some point