Yohannes IV

Yohannes IV held Ethiopia together against Egypt, Italy and the Mahdists in turn, and was killed in the third of those wars at the moment he was winning it. He was born Kassa Mercha in Tigray, a nobleman and a grandson of a ras, and he made his career by choosing sides accurately: he guided Napier's expedition to Magdala in 1868 and was paid in modern rifles and artillery, which made him the best-armed man in the country when Tewodros died. He defeated the Emperor Tekle Giyorgis at Assam in 1871 and was crowned in 1872. His method of rule was the opposite of Tewodros's: rather than break the regional lords he left them in place as vassal kings under his own imperial authority, which is why Menelik of Shewa submitted to him in 1878 and survived to succeed him. He beat the Egyptian invasions decisively at Gundet in 1875 and Gura in 1876, two of the largest defeats a European-officered army suffered in Africa in that century, and got almost nothing diplomatically for either. The Italians took Massawa in 1885 with British encouragement, cutting Ethiopia off from the sea, and his general Ras Alula destroyed an Italian column at Dogali in 1887. Then the Mahdist state in Sudan invaded and burned Gondar. He met them at Gallabat in March 1889 with his army breaking through their fortifications and was shot in the chest by a stray bullet at the point of victory. His army carried the news and the body away and the battle dissolved. Menelik, who had been in correspondence with the Italians, took the throne within weeks.

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