WHY ETHIOPIA ESCAPED COLONIALISM
Ethiopia was the only country in Africa that escaped colonialism. By 19th century all African nations had been dominated by the colonialists save Ethiopia there are various reasons that explain why Ethiopia managed to escape colonialism, these include the following forces;
The defeat of Italy in the battle of Adowa in 1896 made other European countries to fear to colonize Ethiopia; they thought that they might be defeated like Italy.
The existence of powerful Emperors like emperor Theodore who once proposed to marry the queen of England, Emperor Yahannes 1867-1876, Emperor Menelik, these powerful leaders consolidated Ethiopia and made it strong enough to be colonized.
The existence of Ahamaric language which promoted solidarity and unity within the Ethiopian society that made it solid able enough to resist the European powers from colonizing her.
Poor geographical position and bad climatic condition such as- infertile soils; rocky lands and mountains of Ethiopia discouraged many Europeans to colonize it.
Accessibility the modern weapons from Europe. After the Brussels treaty of 1890 in Belgium, Ethiopia managed to get more weapons from Europe to defend her self.
The military strategic position of Ethiopia she is a mountainous country which could strategically able to defend her self from any intruder.
The existence of Christianity ever since even before the advent of colonialist in Africa. Christianity has been adopted as a state religion; it brought awareness, civilization and unity among the Ethiopians which made it impossible to be colonized easily.
Divisions among European powers during the colonization of Africa, every capitalist country was fighting alone to get more colonies, emperor Menelik used such chance to defend his country.
The weakness of Italian army. Italy had just unified was not strong enough, this enabled Ethiopia to defeat her at the battle of Adowa in 1896.
In other Way You can Explain Ethiopia was never colonized for the following reasons.
Unity. By the time Italy came to colonize Ethiopia in mid 1890s, the Emperor then had just finished expanding, uniting & reigning over present day Ethiopia. Under his leadership & call he was able to mobilize an army of 100,000 people (from different parts of the country) at that time.
Unity continued. When the Italians (like other European colonialists)attempted to implement their rather common method of ‘divide & conquer’, the Ethiopian Kings refused to fight & instead renewed their loyalties to each other . The Italians had suggested in multiple in occasions for Menelik II (King of Shoa then) to start war with Yohannes IV (King of Kings of Ethiopia based in Tigray). The two made ever lasting peace.
Political Genius. In hope of Menelik being the gateway for Italian colonization in Ethiopia, the Italians had sold guns & ammunition to him (a lot of it). They always thought that he’d use their guns to kill/conquer Emperor Yohannes IV. Instead he used their guns to beat them.
Military Genius. Most legendary stories of warfare & soldier were the ones from the battle of Adwa. The most qualified of generals were leading armies of anywhere between 1,000–30,000. Using the land & artistic methods of warfare to their advantage the chased the Italians out.
National sense of defiance. Most (if not all) Ethiopians cannot think of foreign dominion/occupation over them. It’s a nation of a very proud people, humble if unprovoked.
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