Comments by "Britta Kriep" (@brittakriep2938) on "Rifles of Emperor Menelik II: Ethiopian Gewehr 88 and Karabiner 88" video.

  1. Dan Nick : Not fully true. Ethiopia was a feudal state. This means: In peacetime the emperor, the princes ,Ras' and important noblemen had only bodyguards, the emperor perhaps a small guard/ household unit. In wartime both the emperor and the princes mobilzed their noble vassals, and they mobilized their nonnoble vassals. So the ethiopian ,army' was in fact a union of noble or tribal levies. Some warriors stil came with spears and shield (20%) or muzzle loaders (20%), but nearly 60% had all kind of breechloaders ( military and civilian, rifle and shotgun, singleshot and repeating). But many of these breechloader had not been the own arms of the warriors, but the weapons given by their lord. Different thing than your law. But in such feudal levy armies there is allways the problem of loyalty between the emperor and the princes, between the emperor / princes and the noblemen, and tensions between the leaders of the same rank. Those loyalty problems and tensions/ quarrels between the leaders had been the reason for many lost battles in medieval time.
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