Ethiopia, one of the oldest countries in Africa, boasts a rich and complex history dating back thousands of years. This article explores the historical evolution of Ethiopia, from the rise of the Kingdom of Aksum to the consolidation of its modern borders before 1991.
Abyssinia, also known as "Ze Etiyopia," was ruled by the Semitic Abyssinians (Habesha), primarily composed of the Amhara, Tigrayans, and the Cushitic Oromo and Agaw peoples. The Eastern escarpment of the Ethiopian highlands and the lowlands were home to various Muslim groups that formed the Ifat and Adal sultanates, including the Argobba, Afars, Harari/Harla, and Somalis.
One of the first kingdoms to rise to power in the territory was the kingdom of D'mt in the 10th century BC, which established its capital at Yeha.
In the first century AD, the Aksumite Kingdom rose to power in the modern Tigray Region with its capital at Aksum and grew into a major power on the Red Sea, subjugating South Arabia and Meroe and its surrounding areas.
The Rise and Fall of the Aksumite Empire.
Stele of Ezana
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Aksum as an empire grew trade connections and subsequently expanded its territory. Strong Aksumite trading partnerships with other world powers gave prominence to its territorial expansion. The Red Sea had influenced trade routes since the first millennium BC and still did into the Christian era. Aksumite commodities were primarily elephant tusks, exported through the Mediterranean, Middle East and Levant, as traders swept west from the African interior.
In 330, Aksum besieged the Nubian city of Meroë, marking the beginning of its great expansion. An anonymous ruler undertook northerly conquest "beyond the Nile in inaccessible mountains covered with snow" where "Samien people" dwelled.
Not long after, the Aksumite empire fell into decline with the rise of Islam in the Arabian peninsula, which slowly shifted trade away from the Christian Aksum. It eventually became isolated, its economy slumped and Aksum's commercial domination of the region ended.
The Zagwe Dynasty and Solomonic Restoration
The downfall of Aksum led to a political vacuum in central and southern Ethiopia and paved the way for the establishment of Muslim sultanates in the region. The Aksumites gave way to the Zagwe dynasty, who established a new capital at Lalibela.
Church of Saint George, Lalibela
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The Zagwe dynasty emerged and ruled until 1270, when Amhara-Shewan Yekuno Amlak revolted against the last king, Yetbarak, commencing the Solomonic dynasty-led Ethiopian Empire. Around 1270, a new dynasty was established in the Abyssinian highlands under Yekuno Amlak, who, with aid from the neighbouring Makhzumi dynasty, deposed the last of the Zagwe kings and married one of his daughters.
Historical regions such as Wag and Lasta were a watershed to the shift into an Ethiopian state. The Ethiopian state generally extended between the rise of Yekuno Amlak and the death of Dawit II (Lebna Dengel) (1270-1540).
Many caravans of Arabs and other merchants travelled west, ranging from the Sultanate of Shewa to Kaffa and Sidama kingdoms. As the Sultanate of Ifat was established in 1277, the Mukhzumite sultanate came to an end in 1285 after a defeat by the sultan of Quraysh, who annexed its territory. The kingdom also conquered the nearby Muslim states and trading principalities, and advanced to the eastern escarpment of Shewa.
In the 14th century, Emperor Amda Seyon (1314-1344) was able to expand the nation into the south of Shewa by encouraging the northern population in Gondar, Bulga, Menz, Beta Amhara, Angot, Gayint, Agaw Midre, Tigray and Jirru. Economic transitions caused the sultanate to extend its territory westward after a serious clash with Damot Christian and other local populations. The other Muslim polities (Dawaro, Fatagar, Bali, Sidamo and Hadiya kingdoms) consolidated in the south when the Sultanate of Ifat established hegemony. The Muslim confederation stretched southward to the Great Rift Valley lakes, and strong trading and cultural enrichment flourished until it was challenged by a Christian Solomonic dynasty from the north.
Around 1316/1317, Amda Seyon conquered Damot, creating trade routes through the Gibe and Omo basins. Now expansion of his realm was countered by southeast Muslim polities, the Walashma dynasty and the conquered Sultanate of Ifat. In 1325, he established hegemony on the coast of Massawa and permeated Hadiya Sultanate in 1330, resulting in the subjugation of the Sidama principalities in the south. Amda Seyon overwhelmed the Muslim states in the east, including their trade routes, and annexed the Sultanate of Ifat in 1332.
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Imperial Expansion and Challenges
The empire reached its greatest extent under the emperors Amda Seyon I and Zara Yaqob. The expansion was widely considered religious and commercial but a few colonial motives also existed. Subsequent territorial expansion ushered in the formation and construction of new churches and monasteries in these Christian-inhabited areas and ample theocratical movement. As territorial expansion continued, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church became influential in colonization. Medieval reports mentioned new settlers arriving in Kembatta during the reigns of Zara Yaqob and Amda Seyon I.
After Zara Yacob's death, there ensued a brief decline of power. The nobility’s clashes aggravated the situation. Emperor Na'od was extremely intimidated and his weakened leadership gave the Adal Sultanate legitimacy in the region in 1415, with its capital in Dakkar (in present-day Somaliland).
The Adal rise to power resulted in a series of conflicts with the Ethiopian Empire, and eventually the Ethiopian-Adal War in 1529. Adal's general Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Ahmed Gran) quickly seized the Ethiopian Empire by conquering most of the Ethiopian Highlands, reaching northern Tigray Province in the Battle of Amba Sel in 1531. Dawit II then started a loosely organized resistance movement by mid-1530s. Slavery became the dominant market linking the Horn of Africa with the port of Zeila.
Zemene Mesafint and Tewodros II
Ethiopia was isolated and decentralized in a period known as Zemene Mesafint, starting with the rise of the Yejju Oromo dynasty after the Solomonic Emperor Iyoas I was deposed by the Tigray governor Ras Mikael Sehul on 7 May 1769. It was characterized by puppet monarchy, as Emperors became figureheads with minimal authority.
In 1852, Kassa (Tewodros II) defeated Gojjam's force, and Ras Ali fled Gondar and with his army made for Debre Tabor. Tewedros ended Zemene Mesafint and united the Ethiopian principalities (Gojjam, Gondar and Shewa) after defeating them all in the Battle of Takusa in 1852, and proclaiming himself Emperor of Ethiopia in 1855.
The Reign of Menelik II and Modern Borders
In 1896, Emperor Menelik II’s conquest strongly consolidated Ethiopia’s modern borders while eluding the 19th-century Scramble for Africa and Italian colonialism. In 1896, Emperor Menelik II expanded his realm southward and formed the modern borders of Ethiopia, referred to as Menelik II's conquests. The expansion has two motives: the first was to save Ethiopia from European colonialism, and the second to acquire sufficient resources.
Menelik II of Ethiopia
A tripartite agreement was signed between Ethiopia, Britain and Italy on 24 March 1891 which demarcated the Juba River and Blue Nile. The letter served as the basis of European interactions with and claims to the region of Ethiopia. Menelik’s expansion reached the area inhabited by numerous Oromo subgroups such as the Borena and the Arsi as well as the Somali territory of Ogaden.
Menelik suffered food scarcity that made him unable to feed his armies or meet the needs of the highland populations and their livestock and plowing. By raiding southern lowland pastoralists, he successfully halted the widespread famine in the highlands and expanded his empire. According to Bahru Zewde (1978), surplus livestock was sent to Menelik, who divided it among his mekuanenet nobility. Insufficient food to meet requirements led the soldiers to additional seizures; Ras Wolde Gabriel mutilated, robbed and destroyed the Arsi population. Slavery and taxation were commonplace and the subjugated people were overtaxed more than their flocks increased yearly.
On 31 July 1897, 15,000 imperial soldiers led by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis Dinagde subjugated Borena, and the first Ethiopian garrison was opened in Dirre and Liban with highly professional raiding parties in occupation. The British failure to be present in Borena led the Ethiopians quickly to the frontier to claim possession. Borena's chieftain Qallu Afalata Dido heard the news of the conquest and dispatched a delegation to the British on the coast of Kismayu, through which, according to Hickey, he painted a "gloomy picture of Ethiopian predation".
Beginning in 1874, an Ottoman-led Egyptian coalition invaded Ethiopia from three directions, penetrating through the port of Tajura in present-day Djibouti, but was repulsed by Aussa Sultanate. Harar was captured in 1875 and held until 1885 by Muhammad Rauf Pasha, but was defeated by an Ethiopian force at the Battle of Gundet. Again in 1876, an Egyptian force under American general Loring vainly attempted a second invasion and was defeated at the Battle of Gura. The Italian colony in 1885 took Egyptian-controlled Massawa, a port on the Red Sea, and declared it a protectorate.
Italian Occupation and World War II
After defeating the Ethiopian Army in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935, Italy proclaimed Ethiopia part of Italian East Africa in May 1936, consisting of the former colonies of Eritrea and Somaliland (occupied in 1940) covering over 666,000 square miles (1,725,000 square kilometres) with an estimated population of 12,100,000. The Ethiopian Empire consisted of four administrative divisions: Harar, Galla-Sidamo, Amhara and Scioa Governorates, the latter enlarged in November 1938. The governorates were under the authority of an Italian governor, answerable to the Italian viceroy.
During the Second World War on 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on Britain and France. In 1941, the British army and the Ethiopian Arbegnoch movement liberated Ethiopia in the East African Campaign, resulted in recognition of Ethiopia's sovereignty by the British under the 1944 Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement, though some regions were briefly administered by the British, no more than 10 years.
The Federation of Eritrea and Ethiopia
Eritrea was annexed by the Ethiopian imperial government under Emperor Haile Selassie in 1952, culminating in the Eritrean War of Independence. The British policy on Eritrea's status after Italy declared war on the Allies in 1940, was with the collaboration of Emperor Haile Selassie to help Eritrea to join Ethiopia.
In early 1941, British and American consultants discussed the future handling of Tigray Province in Eritrea. Early in the war, communication with Eritrean soldiers was conducted with printed leaflets by an intelligence group led by George Steer. The primary objective was to disintegrate the Italian colonial army, and cause the Eritrean Askaris to desert. In July 1940, an Ethiopian imperial decree was signed between Haile Selassie and Eritrean Minister of Foreign Affairs Lorenzo Taezaz, which addressed the admonition to struggle with "Ethiopian brothers". In May 1941, Eritrean leaders and elders formed "Mahber Fikiri Hager" (Association for the Love of Country), which functioned as what British described as the unionist and irredentist movement.
Efforts to unite the colonial boundaries of Ethiopia followed the defeat of Italy in 1941. Two alternatives were discussed; handing Tigray territory over to Ethiopia and establishing Greater Somalia. To assure the federative union of Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Unionist Party (UP) was established in Asmara on 5 May 1941, shortly after the Emperor returned to the throne after five years in exile.
On 2 December 1950, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 390 to federate Eritrea with Ethiopia as "an autonomous unit...under the sovereignty of the Ethiopian Crown". The UN General Assembly also elected Anze Matienzo ad UN Commissioner for Eritrea in order to consult with BA, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean people to draft an Eritrean constitution, and assist the Eritrean Assembly to consider the constitution.
The lack of democracy in the empire incited upheaval in Eritrean society. For instance, an infringement on Eritrean judiciary body neglected the Eritrean Constitution as the supreme law of the land, and a drastic increase in tariffs in Eritrea with a 20% increase in the cost of living, led to a strike in October 1952, denouncing the economic hardship imposed on the population. On 30 September 1952, Proclamation number 30 issued by Haile Selassie, inciting a violation of Article 85 of the Eritrean Constitution.
Formal opposition was generally repressed, citing corruption. However, resentment grew against the government of the Ethiopian Empire, and opposition was expressed primarily in song. In September 1960, a strike in Asmara demanded restoration of the Eritrean flag and seal, with 300-400 students participating. Protestors often were imprisoned; some were sent to Ethiopia to serve their prison terms.
The End of an Era
In 1991, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition who fought the Derg government during the Ethiopian Civil War, seized power over the Ethiopian government. A UN-monitored referendum was held in April 1993, with a majority of Eritreans favoring independence, and resulting in the recognition of an Eritrean government.
Maps of Ethiopia Through History
The following are maps of new and old Ethiopian regions, formerly known as Abyssinia and the Kingdom of Axum. It has a long and rich history dating back thousands of years. The Ethiopian region maps show how diverse the country is, in terms of vegetation, landscape, and populace.
- This is a map of Ethiopia, by Abraham Ortelius believed to be done in 1573 through to 1575. It was believed by Europeans that a powerful and wealthy ruler named Prester John ruled a mysterious Christian empire in Africa.
- Antique Map of Ethiopia by J.A.
- The following map is based on the beliefs of Pliny the Elder who had stated that Aethiopia was formally known as Atlantia. J.A.
- The following is an antique map of Prester John's Abyssinia and East Africa by Pieter Van der Aa, a Dutch publisher, artist, and engraver in 1706.
- The following is an old CIA map of Ethiopia in 1976.
Map of Ethiopia, Abraham Ortelius, 1573-1575
Key Events in Ethiopian History Before 1991
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1st Century AD | Rise of the Aksumite Kingdom |
| 4th Century AD | Christianity declared the state religion |
| 1270 | Commencement of the Solomonic Dynasty |
| 1529 | Ethiopian-Adal War |
| 1855 | Tewodros II proclaimed Emperor, ending Zemene Mesafint |
| 1896 | Consolidation of modern Ethiopian borders under Menelik II |
| 1936 | Ethiopia becomes part of Italian East Africa |
| 1941 | Liberation of Ethiopia by British forces and Ethiopian Arbegnoch |
| 1952 | Eritrea annexed by the Ethiopian imperial government |
| 1991 | EPRDF seizes power in Ethiopia |
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