Kingdom of Ethiopia
Government: Absolute Monarchy
Ruler: Iyasu V and Empress Zewditu
Area: 440,000 SQ
Population: 13.5 million
Military: 24,000 standing army, 100,000 tribal levies,
The first kingdom known to have existed in Ethiopia was the kingdom of Damot otherwise
known as D'mt, with its capital at Yeha, It first rose to power around the 10th century
BC.
It was long believed that this state was heavily influenced by the Sabaean kingdom from Yemen,
and was possibly even an established colony.
Few inscriptions by or about this kingdom survive so how much influence they had is
unknown many believe it was minor, limited to a few localities, and disappeared after
a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort
of military alliance with the civilization of D?mt.
It is not known whether D?mt ended as a civilization before Aksum's early stages, or was a part
in creating or even itself becoming the Aksum Kingdom.
This kingdom expanded over a good portion of northern Horn of Africa and Southern Arabia
at its height.
In 324 King Ezana had converted to Christianity and the nation imposed protections over local
and some foreign communities of Christians for the next few centuries.
The kingdom lost a good bit of its power as the Islamic kingdoms rose to strength, losing
all of Arabia by the ninth century and being pushed further inland shortly after that point
giving up its coast-line and historic capital.
The Ethiopian state retained some form of control outside of the highlands as regional
powers in the areas weakened.
They established ties to the Europeans at the turn of the 16th century and was able
to secure aid from the Portuguese in their wars against the Adal sultanate who had occupied
Ethiopia throughout the 1530's.
From that point on you had a series of wars against local powers, annexation of various
sultanates, retreating to the highlands, minimal European support that turned into isolation
for the nation until 1805, a mass migration that heavily weakened the empire and destroyed
their main competitor, an era refereed to as the age of the princes where local war
lords pretty much had the power and were fighting amounst themselves that lasted until the 1880's.
One of the princes forged an alliance with the British but when Queen Victoria didn't
respond to a letter he sent her he captured a number of British residence which made them
come after him who got an ally from the Kingdom of Kaffa who was an autonomous kingdom within
Ethiopia who gave them weapons, ammo and cannons for supporting them and with that they were
able to defeat the now emperors forces and Yohannes IV became emperor in 1872.
He caught a stray bullet during the battle of Gallabat in 87 against Sudanese forces
which led to a good bit of political turmoil and saw Menelik the second ascend to the throne.
He signed a treaty with the Italians that gave them a portion of northern Ethiopia (present
day Erteria) for a mix of weaponry.
This treaty was the catalyst for the first Ethio-Italian war.
The Italians asserted that the wording of the treaty made Ethiopia a protectorate of
the Italian state, with them having full control over foreign relations and they would need
to guarantee any diplomatic efforts.
This led to some skirmishes between the two until 1895 when all out war was declared.
The Italians had initial success but were eventually driven out and defeated, protecting
Ethiopian territorial sovereignty.
Menelik died in 1913 and his grandson Iyasu V took the throne.
In the four years leading up to the emporors death, Iyasu and the Empress Taitu were constantly
at heads with each other.
She attempted to keep complete control over the throne and put her own children as heir,
while at the same time trying to hold Iyasu from gaining any more power then he had or
would get.
This was combined with several plots to overthrow his government.
Iyasu showed a pronounced lack of interest in the day-to-day runnings of the government,
leaving most of the work for the ministers to deal with.
The cabinet of ministers remained largely unchanged from the days of his grandfather,
even with constant threats of replacement, and by now the ministers wielded much power
and influence.
This attitude, plus constantly leaving the capital, gave the ministers the perfect environment
to plot his downfall.
Many of the Ethiopian nobility and commoners were impressed by the early successes of the
Central Powers, and both listened eagerly to German and Turkish propaganda.
Rumors circulated that, in return for Iyasu invading Sudan with 50,000 soldiers, he would
be rewarded with the port of Djibouti in French Somaliland.
Iyasu has supplied the Sayyid tribesmen with arms and other supplies, some from his own
supply and arms imported from German and Ottoman sources.
However, some reports indicate that Iyasu not only supported the Central Powers, but
that he converted to Islam as well.
This frightened the aristocrats that was further fueled by his constant friendship towards
the local Muslim community, in combination of him spending considerable time in Mosques.
This came to head in 1916 when his Aunt took the throne in a coup, Iyasu as well as his
father attempted to re-take the throne with their army of 80,000 but was repulsed twice.