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In the 4th century, Egyptian and Syrian missionaries came to Ethiopia and introduced Christianity. The rise of Islam in North Africa during the 7th century cut off Ethiopia from European Christianity. This formed a new type of Christianity, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which almost two-thirds of the country follow, the other one-third practicing Islam.

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In the 1500s, the Portuguese re-established contact with Ethiopia to control and convert Ethiopia to Roman Catholicism. Their use of torture, mass killings, and large-scale slavery caused Ethiopia to kick out all foreign missionaries in the 1630s.

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The Ethiopian Empire, aka the Solomonic Dynasty, was founded by King Menelik, who was the son of the Queen of Sheba and King Soloman. Emperor Marara was the first historically credited Emperor of Ethiopia, and he was the beginning of the Zagwe Dynasty which ruled Ethiopia until 1270. Yekuno Amlak overthrew the Zagwe Dynasty and the Solomonic Dynasty came back to power until 1974 when the last emperor stepped down.

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Ethiopia remained isolated from Europeans due to its hostility towards foreign Christianity in the 19th century. The “Era of Princes” refers to a 100 year period in the 1700s when Ethiopia had no central power, as the emperor only had limited power, and local rulers would compete against each other.

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Emperor Tewodros II came to power in 1855, with the main goal of creating a cohesive Ethiopian state, which he did by reforming the government. He also attempted to reform the church, but failed when he implemented taxes on church lands. He significantly unified the country, but didn’t live to see a full completion of his goal.

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In 1871, Emperor Yohannes IV seized power, but Egypt was invading, ruled by Isma’il Pasha and controlled by the Ottoman. In the Ethiopian-Egyptian war, Pasha wanted to increase the Ottoman Empire by expanding southward, so the first battle was in 1875 in Gundet. Ethiopia crushed Egypt, and again at the Battle of Gura in 1876.

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Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, the Mahdi, overthrew the Ottoman during an Islamic revolution in Sudan. He was backed by the Egyptian government, so when the British intervened, they were defeated initially. Nugses revolted, and messed up Yohannes’s plans. While he was winning the Battle of Gallabat, he was killed while charging behind enemy lines. Ethiopia left the war, but the Mahdists were eventually defeated by the British.

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A descendant of Soloman, Menelik II, became emperor when Yohannes IV died, and he was reposible for centralizing power in Ethiopia. He established the capital of Addis Ababa, and united Ethiopia, instead of it remaining fractured by people belonging to different tribes, religious and linguistic groups. He used his military to “reunify” the country, using torture, mass killings, and large scale slavery, which are very similar to the strategies of the Porteguese.

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During the Battle of Adwa in 1896, Ethiopia defeated Italy, which marks the first time an African country beat a colonial power. This ended the First Italo-Ethiopian War, and resulted in the treaty of Addis Ababa, which stated that Italy had to recognize Ethiopia and Eritrea as independent nations.

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The Second Italo-Ethiopian War began in 1935 during Haile Selassie’s reign, and while Ethiopian forces pulled off a “Christmas Offensive”, the Italians won and annexed Ethiopia. Haile Selassie appealed to the League of Nations, as the only African leader allowed to go in front of them and be apart of the League of nations. The British helped defeat the Italians in 1941 and Selassie returned to power. He was deposed in 1974 in a coup d’ etat, after modernizing the country, both politically and economically.

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After the coup, the country was unstable until Major Mengistu Haile Mariam became head of state and Derg chairmen. He used totalitarianism and had the Soviet Union and Cuba fund the country’s militarization, but after a brutal 17 years, it collapsed. Insurrections happened in the northern regions of Ethiopia, and the TPLF merged with the AOLF to form the EPRDF, which advanced on Addis Ababa, forcing Mengistu to flee to Zimbabwe.

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From 1998-2000, Eritrea and Ethiopia fought over Badme, and both spent millions of dollars on a war that ended in a stalemate, and meaningless border change. Eritrea invaded Ethiopia, so according to a ruling by an international commission, Eritrea broke international war. The Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commision said Badme belongs to Eritrea, but Ethiopia has ignored this and continues to occupy the land.