Ethiopia

The African state that defeated a European invasion and was never colonised, with a written history going back further than most of Europe's. Aksum was a major trading power by the first century and adopted Christianity in the fourth, making Ethiopia one of the oldest Christian states anywhere, with its own church, calendar, alphabet and liturgical language in Ge'ez. The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela were cut in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Menelik II's army destroyed an Italian invasion at Adwa in March 1896, the only decisive African victory over a European power in the scramble, and it made Ethiopia a symbol across the Black world. Italy returned in 1935 with aircraft and mustard gas and occupied the country for five years; Haile Selassie's appeal to the League of Nations went unanswered and is still quoted. He was deposed in 1974 by the Derg, whose Red Terror and mismanaged famine in 1984 killed enormous numbers. Eritrea separated in 1993 after thirty years of war. A federal system organised on ethnic lines has produced repeated crises, including the Tigray war from 2020. Addis Ababa hosts the African Union. Coffee originated here. The country has over a hundred and twenty million people, the second most in Africa. Amharic is the federal working language, with Oromo the most widely spoken. The Ethiopian calendar runs seven to eight years behind the Gregorian and has thirteen months. Nine of its sites are World Heritage listed. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile is the largest in Africa.

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