Adwa’s 1896 victory kept Ethiopia off the Scramble map
Landlocked Ethiopia in the Horn borders Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan, and Sudan. Anatomically modern humans emerged in this landscape; Dʿmt and then Aksum built early states, and Christianity took root in Aksum centuries before most of Europe’s north converted.
The country covers 1,104,300 square kilometres, and with around 138 million people in 2026 it is the world's tenth most populous nation and Africa's second. Addis Ababa, the capital and largest city, sits a few kilometres west of the East African Rift, which divides the land between the African and Somali plates.
Around 980 BC the kingdom of D'mt ruled Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, and Aksum later held the region together for 900 years. Christianity reached Aksum in 330 AD, and Islam gained a foothold with the first Hijra in 615. After Aksum fell in 960 the Zagwe dynasty controlled the north-centre until Yekuno Amlak of Shewa overthrew it at the Battle of Ansata in 1270. He founded the Solomonic line, which claimed descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba through Menelik I. Amda Seyon I, reigning from 1314 to 1344, expanded the empire at the expense of Muslim neighbours.
Late in the nineteenth century Ethiopia beat off Egyptian and Italian invasions, and Menelik II extended its territory to roughly its present borders while staying independent. Mussolini's Italy conquered it in 1936 and folded it into Italian East Africa; British forces liberated it in 1941 and full sovereignty returned in 1944. In 1974 the Soviet-backed Derg junta deposed Haile Selassie, ending the dynasty, and ruled through a civil war for nearly 17 years until 1991.
More than 80 ethnic groups live here. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the largest denomination, followed by Islam. Ethiopia helped found the UN, hosts the African Union Commission and joined BRICS in 2024. Farming made up more than 37 percent of GDP in 2022. By tradition the name comes from Ityopp'is, a legendary son of Cush said in the fifteenth-century Book of Axum to have founded Axum.
Source: Ethiopia
