ANTONELLI, PIETRO

Pietro Antonelli (April 29, 1853-January 11, 1901), Italian traveller, diplomat, and politician, played an important role in early Ethiopian-Italian relations, particularly as the negotiator of the Wechalé (Uccialli) Treaty of 1889, the Italian text of which appeared to make Ethiopia a protectorate of Italy.

PHOTO CAPTION: Antonelli Pietro. SOURCE: EA Library

Pietro Antonelli’s first visit to Ethiopia, from 1879 to 1881, took him to the provinces of Shawa, Gojam, and Walaga. In 1882 he returned as the Italian government’s official representative, with instructions to conclude trade agreements with King Menilek of Shawa, later to become Emperor Menilek  [ruled 1889-1913], and Muhammad Hanfari, who ruled the Afar (Dankali) sultanate of Awsa (Aussa) from about 1862-1902. Menilek, who trusted Antonelli, signed a treaty with him in April 1883, and ratified the convention already accepted by Hanfari.

Because of these successes, Antonelli became Italy’s resident diplomatic agent at Menilek’s court. When the Italians occupied Massawa in February 1885, and war broke out between Italians and Ethiopians, he tried to break the alliance between Menilek and Yohannes IV [reigned 1872-89]. The Treaty of Wechalé, named for a village in Wallo, was drafted mainly by Antonelli in Rome.

By the time Menilek finally agreed to sign it, on May 2, 1889, Yohannes had fallen at the battle of Matamma in the Sudan, and Menilek had become emperor. Antonelli managed to gain some territory which became the nucleus of Italian Eritrea. But the Italians could not, as they had hoped, control Ethiopia’s foreign affairs through Article 17 of the Treaty of Wechalé, and thereby turn Ethiopia into their protectorate, because Menilek refused to accept any limitations on his sovereignty.

Antonelli, who knew Amharic, accepted the Amharic reading of Article 17, but did not change the Italian version to correspond with it. The Italian government therefore notified the other European powers of Italy’s “protectorate” over Ethiopia. Menilek protested, and Antonelli left Ethiopia for good in 1891. The dispute led ultimately to the battle of Adwa on March 1, 1896, at which the Ethiopian forces defeated the Italian invaders.

As a member of the Italian parliament, from 1890 onwards, Antonelli defended his early “pro-Shawan” policy, and maintained that he, and not Menilek, had been cheated. After a brief period as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in 1894, he became a career diplomat in South America in 1895, serving successively as Italian minister in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he died in 1901.

SVEN RUBENSON