The Italian forces, numbering over twenty thousand…

The Italian forces, numbering over twenty thousand men, come in contact with the Ethiopian army in April 1888, but negotiations take the place of fighting, with the result that both forces retire, the Italians only leaving some five thousand troops in Eritrea, later to become an Italian colony.

Aseb, a port near the southern entrance of the Red Sea, had been bought from the local sultan in March 1870 by an Italian company, which, after acquiring more land in 1879 and 1880, had been bought out by the Italian government in 1882.

In this year, Count Pietro Antonelli had been dispatched to Shewa in order to improve the prospects of the colony by treaties with Sahle Maryam of Shewa and the sultan of Aussa.