Menelik II GGCB, GCMG was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 to his death in 1913 and Negus of Shewa (1866–89). At the height of his internal power and external prestige, the process of territorial expansion and creation of the modern empire-state was completed by 1898, which expanded the Ethiopian Empire to the extent of the historic Aksumite Empire. Menelik was also remembered for leading Ethiopian troops against the Kingdom of Italy in the First Italo-Ethiopian War, where Menelik scored a decisive victory at the Battle of Adwa.
RasMäkonnen Wäldä-Mika'élGuddisa, or simply Ras Makonnen, a general and the governor of Harar province in Ethiopia, and the father of Tafari Mäkonnen. His father was Fitawrari Woldemikael Guddessa of a noble family of Oromo origin Woldemikael Woldemelekot of Shewa. Makonnen was a grandson of Negus Sahle Selassie of Shewa through his mother, Leult Tenagnework Sahle Selassie. As such, he was a first cousin of the Ethiopian Emperor, Menelik II.
The Emperor of Ethiopia was the hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, until the abolition of the monarchy in 1975. The Emperor was the head of state and head of government, with ultimate executive, judicial and legislative power in that country. A National Geographic Magazine article called imperial Ethiopia "nominally a constitutional monarchy; in fact [it was] a benevolent autocracy".
Tewodros II was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1855 until his death in 1868. He was born Kassa Hailegiorgis. His rule is often placed as the beginning of modern Ethiopia, ending the decentralized Zemene Mesafint.
Zewditu was Empress of Ethiopia from 1916 to 1930. The first female head of an internationally recognized state in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the first empress regnant of the Ethiopian Empire, her reign was noted for the reforms of her Regent and designated heir Ras Tafari Makonnen, about which she was at best ambivalent and often stridently opposed, due to her staunch conservatism and strong religious devotion. She was also the most recent empress regnant in world history.
Yohannes IV, born Lij Kahśa Mercha and contemporaneously also known in English as Johannes or John IV, was ruler of Tigray 1867–71, and Emperor of Ethiopia 1872–89. He is remembered as one of the leading architects of the modern state of Ethiopia.
RasAbebe Aregai was an Ethiopian military commander who, during the Italian occupation, led a group of resistance fighters that operated in Menz and Shewa. He later served as Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 27 November 1957 until his death. He was a victim of the unsuccessful 1960 Ethiopian coup.
The Solomonic dynasty, also known as the House of Solomon, is the former ruling Imperial House of the Ethiopian Empire. The dynasty's members claim patrilineal descent from the biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Tradition asserts that the Queen gave birth to Menelik I after her biblically described visit to Solomon in Jerusalem. In 1270, the Zagwe dynasty of Ethiopia was overthrown by Yekuno Amlak, who claimed descent from Solomon and reinitiated the Solomonic era of Ethiopia. The dynasty would last until 1974, ended by a coup d'état and deposition of the emperor Haile Selassie.
Haile Malakot was Negus of Shewa, a historical region of Ethiopia, from 12 October 1847 until his death. He was the older son of Negus Sahle Selassie and his wife Woizero Bezabish Wolde. Haile Melekot was half-brother to Darge Sahle Selassie.
Tekle Giyorgis II was nəgusä nägäst (Emperor) of Ethiopia from 1868 to 1871.
Princess Zenebework, also Zeneba Worq, was the second daughter of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, and his wife the Empress Menen Asfaw. Zenebework's full title was "Her Imperial Highness, Princess Zenebework Haile Selassie".
Debre Libanos is a monastery in Ethiopia, lying northwest of Addis Ababa in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region. Founded in the 13th century by Saint Tekle Haymanot, according to myth, he meditated in a cave for 29 years. The monastery's chief abbot, called the Ichege, was the second most powerful official in the Ethiopian Church after the Abuna.
Until the end of the Ethiopian monarchy in 1974, there were two categories of nobility in Ethiopia. The Mesafint, the hereditary nobility, formed the upper echelon of the ruling class. The Mekwanint were the appointed nobles, often of humble birth, who formed the bulk of the aristocracy. Until the 20th century, the most powerful people at court were generally members of the Mekwanint appointed by the monarch, while regionally, the Mesafint enjoyed greater influence and power. Emperor Haile Selassie greatly curtailed the power of the Mesafint to the benefit of the Mekwanint, who by then were essentially coterminous with the Ethiopian government.
Woizero Zenebework was the wife of Wossen Seged, Meridazmach of Shewa; the mother of Negus Sahle Selassie, the first Negus of Shewa; the grandmother of Negus Haile Melekot of Shewa; and the great-grandmother of Emperor Menelik II. Woizero Zenebework held the powerful districts of Menz and Tegulet as her personal fiefs.
Darge Sahle Selassie was an Ethiopian prince. He was the son of Negus Sahle Selassie of Shewa and half-brother to Negus Haile Melekot, and the uncle of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia.
Woizero Tesseme Darge was the daughter of Ras Darge Sahle Selassie, Prince of Selale, and granddaughter of Sahle Selassie, King of Shewa. She was a first cousin to Emperor Menelik II.
Sela Dingay is a town in central Ethiopia. In Amharic the name means the sharpened stone, named for a rock which rolled over the edge of the southern rim of the gorge of the Mofar River, and killed a group of people sitting on it. Located in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of 09°58′N39°38′E with elevations variously given as 2880 and 2915 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of Mojana Wadera woreda.
The article covers the prehistory and history of Ethiopia from its emergence as an empire under the Aksumites to its current form as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia as well as the history of other areas in what is now Ethiopia such as the Afar Triangle. The Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia) was first founded by Ethiopian people in the Ethiopian Highlands. Due to migration and imperial expansion, it grew to include many other primarily Afro-Asiatic-speaking communities, including Oromos, Amhara, Somalis, Tigray, Afars, Sidama, Gurage, Agaw and Harari, among others.
Mikael of Wollo, born Imam Mohammed Ali, was an army commander and a member of the nobility of the Ethiopian Empire. He was the father of the "uncrowned" Emperor Iyasu V. He changed his name to Mikael upon converting to Christianity.
