Why were haitians and ethiopians the only ones to successfully revolt against slavery during colonization?

Question

I’m curious, Italians trying to invade Ethiopia failed because of Ethiopia’s military so it was never colonized and remained free and Haitians successfully revolted and became free by running the French out so why didn’t the same happen in other places?

I’m wondering the historical context.

NatJohnson · Accepted Answer

I'm not sure Ethiopia should really be in the same camp as Haiti but I agree it's a little strange there are so few examples.

The main thing Haiti had going for it was its distance from France, the fact France was busy with the Napoleonic wars in Europe, the tropical nature of the country making French expeditions lose many men to disease, and the fact it was an island.

Other areas such as the numerous slave revolts in the American South or Brazil were connected by land to other slave-holding areas, making suppression much easier. Haiti (at the time encompassing all of Hispaniola) only had to push the numerically small French forces from the island and then just wait them out, as invasion was far harder.

Gwenhwyfar · Accepted Answer

Ethiopia had been a powerful empire for centuries. Not sure why Haiti was the only place where a slave revolt succeeded but Madison Smartt Bell wrote an excellent book series about it.

Still-alive · Accepted Answer

Well i think at least im Ethiopias case their Terrain works as a good barrier for them. A large part of it is basically mountainous or on a huge plateau.

“Within Ethiopia is a vast highland complex of mountains and dissected plateaus divided by the Great Rift Valley, which runs generally southwest to northeast and is surrounded by lowlands, steppes, or semi-desert.”

So this makes them a not so easy target to invade and conquer.

another country i want to add that managed to never get colonized was Thailand. They staved it off diplomatically especially from Britain and France.

ohshee · Accepted Answer

I've always asked myself the same question why did they allow the ships to keep coming back I would have blown those ships up are somehow need them s i n k to the bottom of the ocean or all the men that came to the shore would have all died one way or the other

ODC2112 · Answer

Ethiopia and Haiti are incomparable. You have to study history before. Ethiopia was occupied for seven years when it has no more foreign support.

Ethiopia only won when it was overwhelmingly in numbers and better armed. In the defeat of Adua, the Italian army was in estream numerical inferiority about 1: 4 if we consider only those armed with firearms, while it was 1: 5 if we all consider the Ethiopian army. The Ethiopians had the strategic tactical support of Russia in the people of Nikilai Leontiev and Leonid Artamonov who heavily armed the Ethiopians and trained their army.

When instead it had to face a European army in the second Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935/36 it was conquered and annihilated. The Ethiopians no longer enjoyed any European support and all the weapons they had were the same as in the previous war.

The first act of the Italian colonial government was the liberation of the slaves. Ethiopia was a heavily slave society. It strongly means that according to an estimate by the British Anti-Slavery Society in Ethiopia in 1930 one in four inhabitants was in conditions of slavery; to use a term of comparison at the end of the civil war in the US slaves were 12.6% of the population.

It was the British not the Ethiopians who drove the Italians. The position of Italian East Africa made the colony, in fact, isolated in case of war against the British Empire. De facto Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea had no logistical connection with Italy that was not controlled by the British. The greatest allied contribution made by the British troops was that of the South Africans, secondly by the Indians. The Ethiopian contribution was irrelevant.

Haiti was the only slave revolt that led to the formation of a sovereign state. It is generally regarded as the most fruitful of America's slave revolts. The Haitian revolt was carried out with support from foreign powers, Spain and Britain.

Haiti was under British naval blockade which supported loyalist France to the king. For this alone she managed to have an independence the first time. However, it was a revolt made by the mulatto sons of the French masters against the motherland. The children of the French had a French cultural and military upbringing, they had only partially black skin. When Napoleon sent General Leclerc to reconquer Haiti, he won and conquered the island. However, the army was decimated by a yellow fever epidemic that killed Leclerc was reduced by twelve times reaching 2,000 men who were defeated by an army of 27,000 armed with the same weapons. Then il 1915 Haiti was colonized again by USA until 1934.

No decolonization war was successful without external support except the Algerian revolution (with a huge loss of population and escape of almost all Algerian Elite in France) and the Guinea Bissau war of independence. The Vietnam War against the French had Russian support, the three Portuguese wars of decolonization in Angola, Mozambique and guinea bissau took place with Russian and Cuban support, various Arab countries and the Warsaw Pact, the Yemeni War of Independence occurred with support Egyptian and Russian.

t-8900 · Answer

The Reason Italy failed in the invasion of Ethiopia were 3 fold
-They were vastly outnumbered
-They rushed the invasion (like with every invasion at that point by them, just look at Greece)
-Distance to Resupply

As for Haiti
-Vastly Outnumbered
-Distance To Resupply
-Lack of Steady/Reliable Communication to the Homeland

War is not simple. There's a reason the USA has been losing miserably in the last several wars while being the #1 super power.

Anonymous · Answer

I don't know the story with Ethiopia, but I know with Haiti, Napoleon send a bunch of Polacks to help quell the revolts, but instead they turned on him and allied themselves with the local slaves.

Yeah, they ran out the French and they sure are taking care of themselves quite well, aren't they?

Anonymous · Answer

I dont know but I wish that slavery never existed. and that slaves were never brought to Western countries. African would be much stronger then it is today because from what I read on the internet all black people are kings and queens. No wonder Africa has struggled so much.

It is a sad tragedy

disgustingweebtrash · Answer

tl;dr France was getting BTFO'd in the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars and couldn't hold onto American colonies, bringing about the rise of the era of the ETERNAL ANGLO

karaspara · Answer

Ethiopia was very strong already but didn't know about Haiti very interesting I will have to research it

Anonymous · Answer

Some just don't like to rebel, just like in America.

Anonymous · Answer

And they both went on to be fabulously wealthy and free societies! Oh, wait. . .

OddBeMe · Answer

The invention of revolvers was actually in response to slave revolts.

Anonymous · Answer

Have you been to Haiti or Ethiopia? No one is going to fight very hard to hold on to those places.

msc545 · Answer

No idea but it's good they both did that.

Why were haitians and ethiopians the only ones to successfully revolt against slavery during colonization?

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