So! 1800s, the Americas are throwing a fit but Europe’s not done colonizing and it
gobbles up all of Africa.
All of it except Ethiopia.
Prince Menelik II was born in 1844 in Angola...lla, a small town in the Kingdom of Shewa.
Now technically Shewa was part of the Ethiopian Empire, but there was kind of a warring states
thing going on, so Shewa was mostly autonomous, until recently when the emperor went from
being a figurehead position to this guy who was reconquering everything.
So Menelik’s dad was a bit busy resisting assimilation to his dying breath, but when
the imperial army came storming through and his own family gave up on his cause, and there
was nowhere left to run, he checked out and died of natural causes.
So emperor Tewodros yoinks the young Menelik and locks him far away.
It was one of those royal imprisonments, though, where they give you a big room with a nice
view and a free Tesla, Menelik even got to marry the emperor’s daughter, it was a pretty
good deal as far as kidnappings go.
Meanwhile, back in Shewa, Menelik’s uncle Mikael is acting as governor, and even though
he’s basically in the same position as the old King, he decides he doesn’t like being
called governor and launches a rebellion, which is immediately crushed because Tewodros
literally just conquered the kingdom.
So Tewodros says “Enough with this family, you!
You’re in charge now!” and can you guess what the first thing he does is?
He rebels against the emperor.
So while that’s going on, Menelik’s family with the help of Mohammad Ali - it wasn’t
the boxer or the Ottoman Pasha for that matter, but the only pictures of him are in obscenely
low quality, so we’re running with it - they bust Menelik out of prison and bring him back
to Shewa, where he easily claimed the crown.
Then he went a step further and laid claim to the entire Ethiopian Empire, since he was
allegedly a direct male descendant of King Solomon.
Yeah, that Solomon.
Ethiopia’s history is unique and strange and awesome, check out Epimetheus for a primer.
But anyway, he laid claim to the empire, Tewodros laid claim to Shewa, but Menelik didn’t
really act on his claim in part because Tewodros had become a father figure in the ten years
he’d spent in captivity and Tewodros didn’t make a move on Shewa because basically everybody
was rebelling, the Turks and Egyptians were attacking, but Menelik is busy winning friends
and influencing people so by the time Tewodros dies, and then the next guy dies, Menelik
is ready to stake his claim as the rightful male descendant of King Solomon - yes, that
Solomon - who you might remember as being a king of Israel nearly three thousand years
ago, but there’s this whole business with his wife who was Ethiopian, the early lineage
is a bit fuzzy but that family had been ruling since at least the 1200’s.
Ethiopia has a weird history with all sorts of unexpected connections.
Anyway, they fight, but a lot of nobles heard about Menelik’s awesome parties and he wins.
So now he’s got all of Ethiopia’s problems to worry about and starts touring the empire
forcing everyone to submit.
And generally he’s pretty cool with leaving existing power structures in place, except
when he has to spend a lot of time and effort conquering places, in which case he’s astonishingly
But he wins the empire, he builds a new capital around his wife, and everything’s beautiful.
And then all the cows die, and horses cost more and can’t plow the fields as well,
so now you’ve got famine.
And then there’s an epidemic.
So now you’ve got all these people starving and trying to relocate and people are raiding,
basically Ethiopia’s one horseman shy of the apocalypse.
Oh look, it’s the Italian army!
You see, a couple years earlier Ethiopia signed a treaty with Italy saying “Yeah, do whatever
with Eritrea, it’s not mine”.
But fun fact, when you translate that treaty into Italian it gives Italy more power than
it does in Amharic.
Menelik finds out, says “Hey, not cool, that’s not the treaty I signed”.
Italy tries to bribe him, but he’s not having it, so they go to the last emperor’s kid
hoping to stir up a little civil war, like you do with native populations, but it’s
1890-ish, Africa looks like this, and this kid’s smarter than he looks.
Out of the normal casus belli the Italian army falls back on modernized army diplomacy
and lines up on the border and they - well they have to put down a rebellion in Eritrea
first - and then they march into the empire.
And then, the Battle of Adwa happens.
[the battle of Adwa happens] [8 bit SFXplay]
And we would’ve gotten away with it too if it weren’t for my meddling superiors!
You haven't seen the last of us, we’ll be back!
Arrivederci, amico!
So yeah, they never got Ethiopia.
Menelik didn’t try to take Eritrea afterwards so no one had a good excuse for defending
Italy, he got support from Russia because they had a little Cold War thing going on
with Britain but with less nukes, and he got to work modernizing the country.
He cracked down on slavery, which had been illegal since the 50s but difficult to stamp
out, and he went hard on infrastructure.
He made a bank, a postal system, modern plumbing, railways, phones and lights and motorcars
and modern luxuries, he even started a currency that wouldn’t catch on for a few decades,
but hey, foundations.
Ultimately power started drifting away from him a little bit in his old age.One of his
wives tried to go a little Wu Zetian on him but funny enough they stayed together for
a while after.
Ultimately he suffered a stroke and power was handed to a regency council before he
passed away, leaving behind an Ethiopia that through war, famine, and only a few self-inflicted
atrocities, somehow persevered and came out stronger.
At least until the next time.
Well, that was Ethiopia, hopefully we’ll get back to Africa one of these days but if
you’ve got the itch for more, oh boy, check out the Project Africa playlist where 26 channels
have come together to proudly present over two thousand years of history.
If you’re already in the thick of it, Hi I’m Jack Rackam I make biographies, and
congratulations you’ve almost made it to the present!
Next is Hidden History’s coverage of one of Menelik’s battles, and if you’re working