Kingdom of AksumThe Kingdom of Aksum (መንግሥተ አኵስም, Sabaic: , Ἀξωμίτης), also known as the Kingdom of Axum , the City-State of Axum, or the Aksumite Empire, was centered in East Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in what is now northern Ethiopia, and spanning modern-day Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan, it extended at its height into much of Southern Arabia during the reign of Kaleb, King of Axum. Axum served as the kingdom's capital for many centuries but relocated to Jarma in the 9th century due to declining trade connections and recurring external invasions.
BahreyAbba Bahrey (Ge'ez: ባሕርይ bāḥriy, "pearl") was a late 16th-century Ethiopian monk, historian, and ethnographer, from the southern region of Gamo. He is best known for his 1593 work on the history of the Oromo and their migrations in the 16th century, the "History of the Galla" ("Galla" being a historical and now pejorative term for the Oromo; ዜናሁ ፡ ለጋላ zēnāhū lagāllā).
Tewodros IITewodros II (ዳግማዊ ቴዎድሮስ, baptized as Kassa, 1818 – 13 April 1868) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1855 until his death in 1868. His rule is often placed as the beginning of modern Ethiopia and brought an end to the decentralized Zemene Mesafint (Era of the Princes). Although Tewodros II's origins were in the Era of the Princes, his ambitions were not those of the regional nobility. He sought to re-establish a cohesive Ethiopian state and to reform its administration and church.
ZewdituZewditu (ዘውዲቱ, born Askala Maryam; 29 April 1876 – 2 April 1930) was Empress of Ethiopia from 1916 to 1930. The first female head of an internationally recognized country in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the first and only empress regnant of the Ethiopian Empire, her reign was noted for the reforms of her Regent and designated heir Ras Tafari Makonnen (who succeeded her as Emperor Haile Selassie I), about which she was at best ambivalent and often stridently opposed, due to her staunch conservatism and strong religious devotion.
ShewaShewa (ሸዋ; Shawaa; شيوا), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa (Scioà in Italian), is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is located at its center. The towns of Debre Berhan, Antsokia, Ankober, Entoto and, after Shewa became a province of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa have all served as the capital of Shewa at various times.
Ethiopian EmpireThe Ethiopian Empire (መንግሥተ ኢትዮጵያ), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (ˌiːθiˈoʊpiə; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōṗṗyā, , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: Itiyoophiyaa), was an empire that historically spanned the geographical area of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea from the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty by Yekuno Amlak approximately in 1270 until the 1974 coup d'etat of Emperor Haile Selassie by the Derg.
EthiopiansEthiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of the Horn of Africa. The first documented use of the name "Ethiopia" from Greek name "Αἰθίοψ" (Ethiopian) was in the 4th century during the reign of Aksumite king Ezana. There were three ethnolinguistic groups in the Kingdom of Aksum; Semitic, Cushitic, and Nilo-Saharan (ancestors of the modern-day Kunama and Nara).
Emperor of EthiopiaThe emperor of Ethiopia (ንጉሠ ነገሥት, nəgusä nägäst, "King of Kings"), also known as the Atse (ዐፄ, "emperor"), was the hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century 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 article from 1965 called imperial Ethiopia "nominally a constitutional monarchy; in fact [it was] a benevolent autocracy".
Habesha peoplesHabesha peoples (ሐበሠተ; ሀበሻ; ሓበሻ; commonly used exonym; "Abyssinians") is an ethnic or pan-ethnic identifier that has been historically employed to refer to Semitic language-speaking and predominantly Orthodox Christian peoples found in the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea between Asmara and Addis Ababa (i.e. the modern-day Amhara, Tigrayan, Tigrinya peoples) and this usage remains common today. The term is also used in varying degrees of inclusion and exclusion of other groups.
Oromo InvasionsThe Oromo Invasions were a series of expansions in the 16th and 17th centuries by the Boorana starting from 48-64 kilometers east of Lake Abaya and around the Bale Mountains. Over the centuries due to many factors, mostly the wars against foreign forces and internal conflicts which preoccupied Ethiopia, would further encourage the numerous Oromo tribes to expand towards central Ethiopia. Because the Oromo did not keep a written record of the expansion, this article must refer to Ethiopian, Portuguese and Arabic sources for the reasons behind the expansion.
