Menelik II exposed a mistranslated treaty, then beat Italy at Adwa
In 1889 Ethiopia and Italy signed one treaty in two languages. The Italian text made Ethiopia a protectorate; the Amharic merely let the emperor use Italian diplomats if he wished. Menelik II spotted the trick, renounced the deal, and in 1896 routed the invading Italian army at Adwa, keeping his country independent.
Born Sahle Maryam in Ankober, Shewa, in August 1844, he was the son of Haile Melekot, ruler of Shewa. His grandfather named him Menelik after the legendary son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, predicting a glorious reign. When Emperor Tewodros II overran Shewa in 1855 and 1856, the boy was captured and taken to the mountain fortress of Magdala. His captivity was oddly gentle: Menelik later said the man who had killed his father raised him with more affection than his own son, educating him in church learning, strategy and horsemanship and giving him a princess in marriage.
As Tewodros's grip weakened, Menelik slipped out of Magdala by night on 1 July 1865 with a handful of followers, reached Shewa, and in 1866 proclaimed himself king. He won over most of his rival's soldiers, pardoned the rival at first, and decreed that religious disputes were banned in a Shewa where all faiths were free. He submitted to Emperor Yohannes IV in 1878 while building his own strength, buying modern weapons through European contacts such as the Swiss engineer Alfred Ilg and conquering southern lands of the Oromo, Wolayta and Gurage peoples, financed partly by ivory, coffee, gold and slaves. After Yohannes died in battle in 1889, Menelik was crowned emperor at Mount Entoto that November.
The Wuchale dispute led to an Italian invasion in 1895. Menelik raised a united army of more than 100,000 and crushed the Italians on 1 March 1896, winning full European recognition. He then fixed borders by treaty with Britain, France and Italy, began the railway from Addis Ababa to Djibouti, and created ministries, schools and a state bank. Strokes from 1906 left him unable to rule by 1909, and he died in 1913.
His legacy is divided. Abroad he became an emblem of African resistance to colonialism and is widely called the founder of modern Ethiopia. Critics from the peoples he conquered point to forced assimilation, land seizures and cultural suppression that fed later ethnic tensions.
Source: Menelik II
