The British Expedition to Abyssinia: Lake Ashangi from the Antalo Road, 1868. Engraving of a sketch by ...our Correspondent, the Staff Officer. The British Expedition to Abyssinia was a rescue mission and punitive expedition carried out in 1868 by the armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire (also known at the time as Abyssinia). Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, then often referred to by the anglicised name Theodore, had imprisoned several missionaries and two representatives of the British government in an attempt to force the British government to comply with his requests for military assistance. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.