Ethiopian Postal Service 100th Victory Anniversary of The Battle of Adwa

ETHIOPIAN POSTAL SERVICE on 2nd March 1996 issued a series of six commemorative stamps marking the centennial victory of the Battle of Adwa. The cachet on this envelope depicts the then victorious Emperor of Ethiopia, Menelik II. Designer was Bogale Belachew. The printer was Harrison & Sons Ltd. Perforation was comb13½ x 14½ using an Offset Lithography printing method.

The Battle of Adwa  was the climactic battle of the First Italo-Ethiopian War. The Ethiopian forces defeated the Italian invading force on 1 March 1896, near the town of Adwa. The decisive victory thwarted the campaign of the Kingdom of Italy to expand its colonial empire in the Horn of Africa. By the end of the 19th century, European powers had carved up almost all of Africa after the Berlin Conference; only Ethiopia and Liberia still maintained their independence. Adwa became a pre-eminent symbol of pan-Africanism and secured Ethiopian sovereignty until the Second Italo-Ethiopian War forty years later.

Source: Wikipedia