Menelik II

Menelik II was emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 to 1913 and a major state-builder in modern Ethiopian history. His forces defeated Italy at Adwa in 1896, preserving Ethiopian independence at a time of European colonial expansion in Africa.

Before becoming emperor, Menelik ruled Shewa and used diplomacy, warfare and alliances to expand his authority over large areas to the south and east, helping create the territorial framework of modern Ethiopia. His dispute with Italy over the interpretation of the Treaty of Wuchale led directly to war and the Ethiopian victory at Adwa. Menelik also promoted administrative and technological changes, made Addis Ababa the permanent imperial capital, expanded telegraph and road connections and supported the railway towards Djibouti, although his conquests also imposed Ethiopian rule violently on many incorporated peoples.

Lawrence James’ Empires in the Sun places the partition of the continent beside African resistance, including the survival of Ethiopia under Menelik II and the wars fought by the Zulu, Mahdist and Boer states. Thomas Pakenham’s The Scramble for Africa: The White Man’s Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912 moves across the Congo basin, the Nile valley, West Africa, Ethiopia and southern Africa to show that partition required diplomacy, deception and repeated military conquest. African rulers and commanders—including Menelik II, Samori Ture and Lobengula—negotiated, resisted or adapted under extreme pressure, while the Mahdist state and the Fashoda confrontation reveal the intersection of African politics with European rivalry. In Wilbur Smith’s King of Kings, Egypt and Ethiopia in the late 1880s and 1890s. Amber Benbrook leaves Penrod Ballantyne and travels to Addis Ababa with Saffron and Ryder Courtney, who hope to develop a mine under the protection of Emperor Menelik II.