Chapter Seventeen - Ethiopia

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Ethiopia

NEVER COLONIZED (EXCEPT That One Time), Still Fighting Over Borders

Ethiopia is older than the idea of countries.

It traces its lineage to ancient Aksum —
a kingdom that minted coins when Europe was still figuring out farming.
Its emperors claimed descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Its scriptures were in Ge’ez, its mountains impenetrable, and its Christianity older than most churches in Rome.

So when European powers stormed into Africa during the Scramble,
Ethiopia wasn’t waiting.

In 1896, at the Battle of Adwa, Ethiopian forces under Emperor Menelik II obliterated an invading Italian army.

It was a global shock.
The myth of white invincibility cracked.
Ethiopia became a symbol of African pride — a nation that couldn’t be conquered.

But it wasn’t peaceful.

Ethiopia was an empire, not a unified ethnic state.

It expanded by conquest — absorbing dozens of groups, often violently.

Amharas ruled. Others obeyed.
Borders inside the empire shifted with power, not consent.

Then came the Italians again.

In 1935, Mussolini invaded.
This time, they brought gas, planes, and tanks.
They occupied Ethiopia, merged it with Eritrea and Somalia, and called it “Italian East Africa.”

It lasted five years.

In 1941, the British and Ethiopians kicked them out.
Haile Selassie — the Lion of Judah — returned to the throne.

But the scars remained.

After World War II, the empire held on… until it didn’t.

In 1974, Selassie was overthrown.
A Marxist military regime took over — the Derg.
Then came purges. Famine. Civil war.
The Eritrean independence movement grew unstoppable.

By 1993, after a 30-year war, Eritrea broke away — and Ethiopia lost its coastline forever.

The modern Ethiopian border is newer than most people realize.

But peace never really settled.

In 1998, Ethiopia and Eritrea went to war again — over a tiny border town named Badme.
Tens of thousands died.

They signed peace.
They stayed bitter.

In 2020, Ethiopia erupted again — this time internally.
The federal government clashed with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
What started as politics became civil war — complete with massacres, famine, and international condemnation.

The borders of Ethiopia haven’t changed on paper.
But the identity inside them? Always contested.

Because Ethiopia isn’t one people.
It’s many — held together by memory, myth, and sometimes, just force.