The Italian flag started to wave on the shores of the Red Sea in 1882, after the  purchase of the port of Assab by a private company, which sold it later to the  Government. Eritrea colony, after the first months of Italian administration, started to grow,  increasing the area of influence among the surrounding tribes, thus starting the  struggle with the Empire of Ethiopia, or Abyssinia, and reaching the borders of  Sudan Some minor clashes between Italians and Dervishes, which in their effort to  expand had already defeated a large Ethiopian army at Metemma (1889), had  already occurred in the area of Agordat in 1890 (first encounter of Agordat, 27th  June 1890) where the Italian Colonial Troops, composed of mostly by Ascari,  won the day against raiding parties of Dervishes. After the clashes with the Dervishes, with the brilliant victory of Agordat (21st  December 1893), the Ascari encountered their natural foe, the Ethiopian Empire.  In the game they pass from the last victory against them at Coatit (12th January  1895) to the defeat at Amba Alagi (7th December 1895), where the entire IVth  Battalion was totally destroyed