What were the main reasons that Italy lost a war to Ethiopia?

In 1896, Italian soldiers were defeated at the Battle of Adwa by the soldiers of the Empire of Ethiopia.





This was the final battle in the First Italo-Ethiopian War. Italy lost the war, and became the first European country to lose a war to Africans.





What were the main reasons for Italy's loss? Why did Italians fight so poorly in Africa compared to their British, French, and German counterparts?|||There were 4 main reasons:





Firstly, the Italians were hugely outnumbered; at Adowa 20,000 Italians faced over 100,000 Ethiopians.





Secondly, Britain and Russia had supplied the Ethiopians with modern rifles and even some artillery - Adowa was not a case of European troops shooting down tribal hordes armed with spears and shields. The large Ethiopian army was a well armed, properly organized,trained,drilled and uniformed all arms regular force.





Next Menelek, the Ethiopian emperor who led the army was an able general and leader. He devised a strategy whereby the separate Italian columns were attacked individually,each being quickly overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers,the whole Ethiopian army then moving on rapidly to attack the next deteachment before they became aware of what had happened to their comrades. Menelek thus defeated the Italian army in detail as part of a well thought out and executed campaign strategy.





Finally, oblivious of the size,organization, armament and leadership skills of the Ethiopian army,the Italian commander Baratieri was overconfident,believing the campaign would be a simple matter of walking in and defeating African tribesmen with superior European weaponry and organization. He failed to keep his forces concentrated or carry out proper scouting, and was caught by surprise by the Ethiopian offensive.|||The Italian soldiers were dragged into this war,which they certainly did not want to fight. Some of the Italians had quickly stricken up friendship with locals and many would actually get married there and stay in the country. Italians hated the war,apart from the fascist "Camiche Neri" and they saw no reason why they should go and kill innocent people for the greater glory of one Megalomaniac.


So they fought as little and as bad as they possibly could. Whole regiments refused to obey the orders they received when it involved hurting the local population. The same happened in Greece on Kefalonia (read Capitan Morelli's Mandolin) .


The Italians found themselves under a Fascist Regime without the majority of the people's agreement.They were therefore driven to fight a war they did not agree with. This the reason why they lost over and over again.|||Money. Italians were poorly equipped and organized, because Italy was a third world country at that time, from a purely economic point of view.|||Italy underestimating Ethiopians military capability