What state existed from 1861, when King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, was the subject to the plotting of  an insurrection in Italian Eritrea by the government of Ethiopia?
Battle of Halai The Battle of Halai, or the Battle of Halay, which took place in December 1894, was one of the opening battles of the First Italo-Ethiopian War. In the 1890s, the government of Ethiopia began plotting an insurrection in Italian Eritrea to push back against Italian encroachment on their country. On December 15, 1894, Bahta Hagos, the "chief of Okule-Kasai province in northern Tigré," launched a rebellion against the Italian authorities. On December 18, a force of Italian troops, led by Major Pietro Toselli discovered that a small Italian fort at Halai (garrisoned by 220 men) was being besieged by 1,600 of Bahta's rebels. Toselli attacked with 1,500 men, hitting his enemy (who "had almost taken the fort") in the rear. Bahta was killed in the ensuing battle and his army fell apart. In total, eleven Italians were killed and twenty-two wounded in the action.
Gebrehiwot Baykedagn Gebrehiwot Baykedagn (1886-1919) was an Ethiopian doctor, economist, and intellectual. He was born in 1886 in Adwa, a northern Ethiopian town. In a trip to the port of Massawa, Gebrehiwot and his friends got permission from the captain of a German ship to visit the ship. On departure, he stowed away (this may not have been deliberate, according to Alemayehu Geda, 2004). On arrival, the captain entrusted the young boy to a rich Austrian family, who adopted him. This good fortune opened to him the opportunity to study the German language and to go to school. His exposure to Western education was thorough, and he pursued medical studies at Berlin University. He returned to his country and became private secretary and interpreter to the Emperor Menelik II, who defeated the Italian colonial army in 1896 at the Battle of Adwa. Later on, while the Haile Selassie was still the successor to the throne, he fulfilled important administrative functions. He served as inspector of the important Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway until his premature death in 1919.