The founder of modern Ethiopia, Emperor Tewodros 2th, started as a noble man named Kassa Hayla. The divided Ethiopia had many small rulers, squabbling princes. Kassa Hayla was one of them. After the dead of his father he was denied the fiefdom he expected to rule and instead became a shifta (bandit). It seems he had a bit of a Robin Hood image and in 1850, after he also led a few campaigns against Egyptian intruders, he got his land. He then started to fight against other princes. He defeated among others Ras Ali in Ayshal (1853),the prince of Simien ,Tigray and Dedjach Webe in Darasje (1855). Afterwards he crowned himself Emperor. Then he conquered the southern regions of Wollo and Shoa and from the last one he brought back a hostage: the young prince Menelik who grew up at his court.

Tewrodos was not a popular Emperor because of his brutality and ruthlessness. The strict discipline he imposed on his army led to a high rate of desertion. The Emperors efforts to abolish slave trade and the expropriation of church owned land for peasant farmers, got him in conflict with local leaders of the old fiefdoms . Tewrodos wanted to conquer the Eritrean capital Masawa from Egypt, to restore the entrance to the sea which got lost 3 centuries earlier. He requested the English for support but the English interest was with the Turkish-Egyptian alliance because of the Sues canal yet to be opened. In his frustration he took several British prisoners.

The British formed an army led by Sir Robert Napier. Napier got support from the Oromo leaders and made a treaty of neutrality with the princes of Tigray, Lasta and Shoa and in 1869 they encircled Makdela, Tewrodos capital. The embittered Emperor realised he was changeless, ordered his troops to leave Makdela and committed suicide.

In exchange for his neutrality Kasa Mercha of Tigray got arms from the British. With this superior weaponry he was able to defeat his brother in law Takla Giorgis the incumbent Emperor and crowned himself Emperor Yohannis 2nd . With the opening of the Sues canal the westerner imperials started there battles for control over the shores of the Red Sea. The Britain occupied Yemen, the France took Obock (Djibouti)and the Italians Eritrea. Also the Egypt's still had ambition to concur the source of the Nile and had invaded Sudan.

While Yohannis was fighting to regain land from the Italians; in 1887 the Ethiopians defeated a small contingent of Italians near Dogali , Menelik, who was allowed to return to Shoa had several contacts with the enemy on a diplomatic level which Yohannis was unaware of.

After Yohannis forced the Italians to retreat he had to fight the Egypt's who occupied Gondar. He had made a bargain with the English, the treaty of Adwa. The English who had occupied Egypt wanted support from the Emperor in exchange for the Ethiopian part that was occupied by the Egypt and free trade of arms and ammunition through the English controlled harbour of Masawa. In the battle of Matema on march 1889 he defeated the Egypt's but lost last his live. Yohannis kept his part of the deal and paid with his live but Britain broke theirs by handing over the control of Masawa to the Italians.

During the reign of Yohannis, Menelik had done much to unite Ethiopia and his own power. Harer, Arsi, the fiefdoms of the southwest, and great parts of Oromo country were captured. In 1886 Menelik moved his capital to the Intoto valley, nowadays Addis Ababa.

Menelik 2nd was crowned the new Emperor and in 1889 he made a treaty with Italy, in which Italy recognised the Ethiopian sovereignty in exchange for Eritrea, 28 canons and 38.000 rifles and the lending of large sums of money. The treaty didn't work out the way Menelik expected. There were two versions. In the Italian version Ethiopia became a Italian protectorate and in the Amharic version not. The diplomatic efforts to unsure the independence had failed and like his predecessor Menelik had to fight an imperialistic European country. In 1896 near Adwa, a small Tigrayen city, the final battle took place . The Ethiopian troops defeated the Italian colonial army and killed 12.000 men.

It was the first time that an European army was defeated by an African one. European countries were impressed and Menelik was no longer seen as a Negro-chief but as a respected Emperor. Ethiopia has never been colonised by them and the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia was settled in a new treaty.

It was at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th ,after the external treats were restrained, Ethiopia could invest in modern infrastructure; the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railroad, post and telephone services. The first ministers were appointed, a bank was founded, a hotel was opened and the first hospital. First initiatives for a modern educational system were taken. Ethiopia wanted to become a member of the Leaque of Nations but the existents of slavery gave Europe a pretext to block this.

Menelik died on December 13th 1913 and was succeeded by his grandson Lej Isayu. This Emperor only ruled for 4 years mainly because he wanted to abandon slavery, supported the often neglected Muslim minority and became a threat for the nobility and the powerful clergy. During the 1st worldwar Iyasu had sympathy for the Germans and Turks. It made possible that with the help of British, French and Italian diplomats, Iyasu was overtrown and his ant Zauditu, daughter of Menelik 2de, became Empress. In the settlement was agreed that Ras Tafari Makonen would be the official heir to the throne. Tafari was the son of Ras Makonen, the hero of the Battle of Adwa. The position of Zauditu wasn't a very strong one. It seems that she was supported by the Shoan nobility mainly because of her naiveté.

As a young prince Tafari Makonen got in touch with progressive intellectuals who wrote about slavery, the poor farmers and the necessity for fundamental reforms. He gave them a weekly magazine: the Berhanena Salam (Light and Peace) in which they could proclaim the need for education for all and the introduction of a constitutional government.

During the period between 1917 and 1930 Zauditu and Tafari Makonen had two palaces, two courts and two politics. The better educated, ambitious and more worldly Tafari immediately started with the elimination of his rivals.

He visited Palestine, Egypt, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Great Britain, Switzerland and Greece. He got the help of Belgian officers to train his bodyguards and loaned Swiss money to establish an army of 40.000 men. In 1923 he made Ethiopia a member of the League of Nations. He sent students to foreign Universities and decreed that slavery should be abolished.

In 1930 the husband of the Empress died in a civil battle and two days later she herself expired of heartbreak. Ras Tafari Mekonen was crowned the new Emperor Haile Selasie.

In the meantime fascism in Europe started to grow and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, after several diplomatic attempts to get economic control over Ethiopia, invaded the country in 1935. The reaction of the West European countries was weak; They didn't want to frustrate Italy and by that reinforce the alliance between Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy. In other words Ethiopia was sacrified. Some of the Tigray nobility didn't really resist and some others even took the side of the occupiers. Despite that the Italian forces didn't make a walk over. Eventually the stronger air power and the use of mustard gas proved decisive and in 1936 after the battle at Maychew the Italians could occupy Addis Ababa.

Haile Selasie went to Great Britain and afterwards to Sudan. In Ethiopia a resistance movement started a guerrilla and the Italians responded brutally. During ran riots in 1937 many people were murdered. Italian blackshirts haunted intellectuals and few survived. The Ethiopian nobility negotiated with the occupiers but merely to buy time than in acceptance. The ongoing resistance laid the foundation for the victory of the British army in the Allied liberation campaign in 1941. During 1936 and 1941 infrastructure improved tremendously and can be seen as a positive legacy. In some cities and villages the Italian influence is still evident today.

Haile Selasie returned to Addis Ababa and proceeded with modernisation of the country. The after war negotiations about the future of Somalia and Eritrea resulted in 1952 in the Eritrean-Ethiopian federation and the annexation in 1962 followed by 30 years of war between the two countries. The role of the nobility decreased and was replaced by governors and ministers but feudal landowners remained and considered there people as slaves. The modernisation of the country didn't change there fate. People revolted. In 1943 in Tigray, Sidamo 1960, Gojam 1968, Bale 1963-1970 and Wolo 1970.

In foreign policy Haile Selasie was successful. In 1958 Addis Abeba became the registered office for the Economic Commission for Africa and in 1963 the Organisation for African Unity was founded in the Ethiopian capital.

It was in 1973 that Jonathan Dimbleby, a British journalist made a film in which the world became aware of what was behind the grandeur of Ras Tafari. Famine wasn't new in Ethiopia. Between 1888 and 1892 as a result of ongoing wars, the greed of the Nobility and rinderpest brought in by Italian imported cattle, many people died and this period is known as Kefu Qan (The Evil Days). New was that the Ethiopian Emperor suddenly lost all his prestige that was so carefully build up. The pictures of hundred thousands starving people shocked the world.

There were several attempts to overthrow the Emperor. In 1946 Takala Walda-Hawaryat, who opposed the return of the exiled Emperor, was detained after the discovery of a anti imperial plot. A coup of 1960 by General Mengistu Naway and his brother Garwane Naway failed, but made clear that officers, students and intellectuals weren't buying the divide and rule games of the Emperor anymore. Starting in 1965 many student demonstrations were seen in the streets of Addis Ababa. The resistance of the ELF (Eritrean Liberation Front) and the EPLF (Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front) became a complete war for independence. In year 1974 was full of uproar, strikes and demonstrations, and not only in the capital. Local peasants revolted against their feudal exploiters.

September 12th 1973 the Emperor was overthrown by a military coup. The Solomonic dynasty whom according to their own legend ruled over Ethiopia for 3000 years ended, and the last Emperor was driven away from his palace in a Volkwagen Beetle. He was killed in August 1975 and buried in one of his former palaces, deep under the office of Mengistu Haile Maryam.

17 years of military government followed.