Why Ethiopia was not colonized

WHY ETHIOPIA ESCAPED COLONIALISM 

• Ethiopia was the only country in Africa that escaped colonialism. By 19th century all African nations had been dominated by the colonialists save Ethiopia there are various reasons that explain why Ethiopia managed to escape colonialism, these include the following forces; 

• The defeat of Italy in the battle of Adowa in 1896 made other European countries to fear to colonize Ethiopia; they thought that they might be defeated like Italy.

• The existence of powerful Emperors like emperor Theodore who once proposed to marry the queen of England, Emperor Yahannes 1867-1876, Emperor Menelik, these powerful leaders consolidated Ethiopia and made it strong enough to be colonized.

• The existence of Ahamaric language which promoted solidarity and unity within the Ethiopian society that made it solid able enough to resist the European powers from colonizing her.

• Poor geographical position and bad climatic condition such as- infertile soils; rocky lands and mountains of Ethiopia discouraged many Europeans to colonize it.

• Accessibility the modern weapons from Europe. After the Brussels treaty of 1890 in Belgium, Ethiopia managed to get more weapons from Europe to defend her self.

• The military strategic position of Ethiopia she is a mountainous country which could strategically able to defend her self from any intruder.

• The existence of Christianity ever since even before the advent of colonialist in Africa. Christianity has been adopted as a state religion; it brought awareness, civilization and unity among the Ethiopians which made it impossible to be colonized easily.

• Divisions among European powers during the colonization of Africa, every capitalist country was fighting alone to get more colonies, emperor Menelik used such chance to defend his country.

• The weakness of Italian army. Italy had just unified was not strong enough, this enabled Ethiopia to defeat her at the battle of Adowa in 1896.