Summary
Overview
This episode chronicles the extraordinary 1868 British Abyssinian Expedition, sparked when Ethiopian Emperor Teodros II took dozens of European hostages, including British diplomats and missionaries. What begins as a diplomatic mission to free captives escalates into one of Victorian Britain's most audacious military campaigns, featuring a charismatic but increasingly unstable emperor, cultural misunderstandings, and mounting paranoia that transforms friendship into imprisonment.
The Mad Campaign and Emperor Teodros II
The episode opens with General Harry Flashman's memoir describing the strangest campaign in British military history - the 1868 Abyssinian Expedition. While not widely known today, this expedition left treasures in major British museums and involved rescuing European hostages from Emperor Teodros II, who held them in his mountain citadel of Magdala. Ethiopia, the second-oldest Christian country after Armenia, had been isolated for centuries and was ruled by an emperor claiming descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
- The Abyssinian Expedition resulted in treasures now held in the British Museum, V&A, Bodleian, and even Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum
- Ethiopia is the second oldest Christian country in the world after Armenia, embracing Christianity in 330 AD
- Emperor Teodros II held nearly 60 European hostages in his mountain fortress of Magdala
" the screaming charge of long-haired warriors swinging their hideous sickle blades against the Sikh bayonets, the huge mound of rotting corpses under the precipice at Islamji, the ghastly forest of crucifixes at Gondar "
" The transformation of an urbane, cultivated monarch into a murderous tyrant, shrieking with hysterical glee as he slashed and hacked at his bound victims "
British Contact and the Rise of Teodros
In 1843, young British adventurer Walter Plowden arrived in Abyssinia and fell in love with the medieval character of the country. He became Britain's first consul and witnessed the rise of Kassa, a former bandit who crowned himself Emperor Teodros II in 1855, claiming to be the prophesied messiah who would unite Ethiopia and march to Jerusalem. Plowden found Teodros impressive but noted his violent temper, unyielding pride, and religious fanaticism. Despite these flaws, the emperor initially seemed like a modernizing reformer who wanted to build roads, establish justice, and fight the slave trade.
- Walter Plowden, aged 23, became Britain's first consul to Abyssinia in 1848 after falling in love with the country's medieval character
- Kassa crowned himself Emperor Teodros II in 1855, claiming to fulfill the prophecy of a messiah descended from Solomon
- Plowden described Teodros as having untiring energy and boundless courage, but also violent anger, unyielding pride, and fanatical religious zeal
- Teodros was obsessed with the Crimean War and couldn't understand why Christian Britain allied with Muslim Turkey against Christian Russia
" there is no parallel to it in this steaming and telegraphing world "
📚 6 more sections below
Sign up to unlock the complete summary with all insights, key points, and quotes
Get this summary + all future The Rest Is History episodes in your inbox
100% Free • Unsubscribe Anytime
Sign up now and we'll send you the complete summary of this episode, plus get notified when new The Rest Is History episodes are released—delivered straight to your inbox within minutes.