The Battle of Sagallo: Downfall of Russia's African Colony

Upon his return from Abyssinia (Ethiopia), Nikolai Ivanovich Achinov sought a meeting with Tsar Alexander III of Russia. And, while this never occurred, the Cossack adventurer seemingly received an unofficial green light from Saint Petersburg for his venture in East Africa.
Achinov soon went on a fundraising tour with backing from Grand Duke Sergei Aleksandrovich, the tsar's brother. What's more, he would receive material support - including a ship - from Minister of the Navy, Admiral Ivan Shestakov. Slowly, but surely, the idea of a Russian colonial outpost in what nowadays is Djibouti gained more support, with the Governor General of Nizhny Novgorod, Nikolay Baranov, even suggesting that Achinov establish a "Russian African Company."
Despite this, many still questioned both Achinov's character and the feasibility of the project itself, most notably Russia's foreign minister, Nikolay Giers.
These critics were ultimately proven right, when, following a series of blunders, Achinov - along with the 150 Cossacks and other would-be colonists who joined him - found themselves under attack by the French. In what was the first and last Battle of Sagallo, the upstart colony fell to a unrelenting naval bombardment. Putting a close to a strange, but often forgotten chapter of European colonialism in Africa.
#russia #russianempire #africa #djibouti #history #ghostcountries
CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
01:22 Gathering Support in Russia
03:27 Alexander III's Contingency Plan and the French Connection
04:13 Achinov Sets Off for Africa
05:42 Sagallo, New Moscow, and the Making of Russia's African Colony
07:33 Things Fall Apart and the Battle of Sagallo
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Intro Animation / Character Design: Emily Clearwater (iamprettyawesome.co.nz)

[@GhostCountries]

Just a bit of context here: the black-yellow-white flag of Russia was in use between 1858 and 1896; however, the white-blue-red flag, such as the one used at Sagallo, was still used as a civil/merchant ensign during this period of time as well. It later fully replaced the black-yellow-white flag when it became the official national flag in 1896.

[@BlueBuckJS]

Was just looking that up on Wikipedia. Bit of a back and forth from like the 17th to 20th century there.

[@hitori3667]

Can’t believe the only casualties in the battle were all women and children… How did the cossacks even let them near the danger zone??

[@GhostCountries]

This is just my own guess, but during the bombardment I don’t think there was a lot of room to move around in Sagallo itself and, as far as I can tell, none of the buildings within the fort were well constructed. So, just one well placed strike could easily result in a number of deaths. If the women and children were centralized somewhere, like the chapel, that could just make it worse too.

[@ayafumogaming4151]

Eiki

[@johnecoapollo7]

Historically speaking, Russians were never the best of soldiers when they couldn't overwhelm the enemy, barring exceptions like Suvorov. This isn't surprising.

[@outerspace7391]

I think you're immediately assuming humans are very dumb. You seriously suspect women and children were put in the front lines??

[@mimishimura6314]

I found an Among us guy in the video 😂 Always enjoying little images you insert, which makes each video even more enjoyable to all! Looking forward to next one!

[@GhostCountries]

Oh, glad you spotted him; yeah, we don’t hide as many Easter eggs as we used to, but we still put a few things here and there!

[@kirbyward2001]

So glad this finally was posted!!! Excellent content, guys. I

[@GhostCountries]

Oh, really glad to hear it was worth the wait + you enjoyed the video!

[@Aydin-Adam]

Subscriber count more than doubled in, what, the past month? So happy to see that. Keep up this great content! 👍

[@GhostCountries]

Thank you so much man; yeah, Sagallo Part I kicked off a pretty nice growth period for the channel. 😁 Let’s just see how the algorithm treats Part II now!

[@user-cp9cp3hu5t]

Amazing video as always, hope that we will get ruso- Japanese war coverd, the Russian earlier invasion of China and the Japanese intervention in it in details.

[@GhostCountries]

Thank you so much and I personally would love to explore the Russo-Japanese War in greater detail here on the channel. We sort of touched upon it during our video about Tōgo Heihachiro / the Z Flag, but there's a lot more to explore! We do have plans for a few videos covering some East Asian ghost countries in the near future too.

[@user-cp9cp3hu5t]

@@GhostCountries Hoping to have it in details along side with the Russian taking over northern china / manchuria, as it's details is getting played over by the Japanese advanced on the region, also thanks for the effort your are putting in to the videos and I will be waiting for the next one.

[@Griff00]

a video on zheltorossiya would be super cool

[@BlueBuckJS]

@@Griff00 A bit of althist, but yeah, I think it would be cool too! Especially since you almost kind of had it at a few points in history.

[@GhostCountries]

@@user-cp9cp3hu5t Oh, definitely! There's honestly so much relating to that period of time I'd like to explore. Although, it's not exactly related - aside from Russian expansionism - but I've also been wanting to do a video on the conquest of conquest of Siberia at some point.

[@talpark8796]

nice balance of commentary and imagery. thx for the content.

[@GhostCountries]

Oh, thanks; glad you enjoyed the video! 🙌

[@mkmkmk9536]

WOW, super interesting history😮

[@GhostCountries]

Glad you liked the video Matt; yeah, Russia’s colonial ventures are definitely not as well known. So, I think we’ll be exploring others like Alaska, Hawaii, Madagascar, etc. 😉

[@blackfalcon1610]

I like little known history nuggets like this. Great channel hope you the best of luck.

[@draned8612]

Underrated video

[@jiayizhou323]

great episode!

[@GhostCountries]

Thanks as always Jiayi!

[@Artur_M.]

Great episode!

[@GhostCountries]

Thanks Artur and there’s plenty more to come!

[@user-HMKMat]

At first I thought "hey this colonial project could be successful if some little things had gone differently" but after watching the second part and how disastreous the expedition was, there's no way a Russian East African Colony could ever succeed...

[@GhostCountries]

You know, I think one big change that could've...well, changed everything here 😅 is if Achinov was not in charge or, at least, there was another partner on the ground with a leadership role that could've reined him in occasionally.

[@StoicHistorian]

Aye great video as always my guys

[@GhostCountries]

Hey, thanks; really appreciate it man!

[@ChancellorOfHistory]

Great Addition to your Channel!

[@GhostCountries]

Thank you so much; let’s see where the algorithm takes us with this one! 🤞 Regardless though, I definitely think we’ll be revisiting the subject of failed colonial ventures in future videos.

[@abdiabdi3225]

I was wondering if you could cover the history of greater somalia similar to how you did for Ukrainian groups in Russia

[@GhostCountries]

Hey, that would be really interesting! We've been planning for more Africa-related content later this year and I think something like that could work...maybe kind of like our "Forgotten Countries of the South Cone" video, but focused on the Horn of Africa? We could also just do something Somalia specific.

[@theculturedjinni]

Great video as usual!

[@GhostCountries]

Thank you so much Jinni; also, looking forward to our collab!

[@theculturedjinni]

@@GhostCountries Oh yes!

[@SpaceMonkeyBoi]

Keep going. You'll have 100k subs in no time.

[@GhostCountries]

Thank you so much; if that happens it’ll be crazy, but I really hope so and we have plenty more planned for the channel! 💪

[@Griff00]

super happy to see the continuatiob of this! for the future i'd love to see you guys look at some quasi-states like charles taylor's "greater liberia"/"taylorland", thats a really interesting story

[@GhostCountries]

Hey, thank you so much and that’s a great suggestion! Speaking of quasi-states, I know Republika Srpska and Azawad have been on our list for a while now. Definitely plan on getting at least one of them out this year.

[@Griff00]

@@GhostCountries awesome! cant wait to see it ^^

[@stephenchappell7512]

A Russian protectorate over Ethiopia would have made sense for both countries

[@thanhhoangnguyen4754]

The only problem is that do they really have the power to project it. Protectorate mean nothing if the protecter can't even reach their protectorate.

[@MuantanamoMobile]

@@thanhhoangnguyen4754 As opposed to whom? Belgium...? who occupied Congo? Don't in sult us by trying to re-write history. Great Northern War, lead to the defeat of the Swedish Empire and decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after they lost numerous naval battles to the Tsar. The Ottomans, were defeated for naval access to the black sea.

[@thanhhoangnguyen4754]

@@MuantanamoMobile I am not insulting i am just stating the fact the even if you win in history you will never got full access to the sea open without someone to block you. You won in the Great Northern war but you can’t escape from the Baltic to the Atlantic Ocean without being block by the Denmark and Sweden or British. You won against the ottoman but you can’t get access to the Mediterranean because the Ottoman still hold the entrance in the straight. Plus the other Western power aren’t keen to let your country have it especially British. As Belgium well I don’t expect much they have a few port that free to them without any problem. The only way i could think of is the Vladivostok but that would mean sailing to other nations. Plus it expensive. So yeah by logic , geography and other empire interest at state. Yeah Russia have holding in Ethiopia is very dumb. And even the Tsar know this.

[@thanhhoangnguyen4754]

@@MuantanamoMobile I am not insulting I am just stating the fact and truth of geography that Russia will never to reach Ethiopia without being block or prevented by someone. Especially the royal navy of the British.

[@unilajamuha91]

​@@MuantanamoMobileAs if Russia didn't have enough insults throughout it's history

[@EthiotendoEdits]

I'm ethiopian and we were never colonized I am proud of my history 🇪🇹 ♥ 🇷🇺

[@hybridarmyofthegdl2193]

very similar to what they do today in Ukraine....

[@nekilik7886]

For all of that he got only 3 years of exile in some random land within Russia. I was sure they were going to execute him. That man was a legend

[@littleowlbooks8514]

So much for Russians anti- colonialist credentials.

[@MuantanamoMobile]

Very deceptive, considering what you are saying is false. Nikolai Ivanovich Achinov, the guy who tried this - was a conman, monk and adventurer who was explicitly ordered by the Tsar not to do so., after he tried to get official support. He went any way, ended up attacked by Frenchiez at the very tiny village (you claim was a colony) which lasted less than a year, and was arrested, evacuated and imprisoned for disobeying the Tsar's orders not to try and form a settlement there. He spent the rest of his life either in jail and asylum.

[@Psyxic_Crimes]

Great content

[@yao4964]

Great episode!!

[@GhostCountries]

Thank you! 🙌