Menelik II

Biography

Menelik II was born Sahle Maryam in Ankober, Shewa, in 1844, the son of Haile Melekot, the ruler of Shewa. After Emperor Tewodros II annexed Shewa in 1855-1856 he was taken to the mountain fortress of Magdala, where he was raised at court and given the rank of dejazmach. In 1865 he escaped, and in 1866 he returned to Shewa and proclaimed himself its negus.

As king of Shewa he consolidated his rule, avoided taking sides during the British expedition against Tewodros in 1868, and in 1878 submitted to Emperor Yohannes IV while keeping wide autonomy. He built up his army with modern firearms bought through European contacts and advisers such as the Swiss engineer Alfred Ilg, conquered large territories to the south, including Harar in 1887, and financed his expansion with trade in ivory, coffee, gold and slaves.

When Yohannes was killed in 1889, Menelik became emperor and was crowned at Entoto that November. In May 1889 he signed the Treaty of Wuchale with Italy, whose Italian text claimed a protectorate that the Amharic text did not; he repudiated the treaty, and when Italy invaded he mobilised a large army and defeated it at Adwa on 1 March 1896. The resulting Treaty of Addis Ababa recognised Ethiopian independence, and he went on to fix borders by treaty with Britain, France and Italy.

Menelik moved his capital to Addis Ababa in 1886, granted the concession for the railway to Djibouti, and introduced ministries, a national currency, a state bank, schools and hospitals. From 1906 a series of strokes left him incapacitated, and his wife Taytu Betul and then Ras Tessema Nadew acted as regents. He died in December 1913 and was succeeded by his grandson Lij Iyasu. He is remembered as the founder of modern Ethiopia and a symbol of African resistance to colonialism, while critics among the peoples he conquered point to forced assimilation and land seizures.