Category: Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a historic country in East Africa. There are 102 million residents (2016). The capital is Addis Ababa. In antiquity, Ethiopia was the land south of Egypt and was thus referred to by Homer. In the local tradition, the Ethiopian dynasty was founded by Menelik, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Christianity arrived in the 4th century. Until the 19th century, Ethiopia was an immense region, which covered much of Sub-Saharan Africa, with coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. In the 16th century, some geographers called the South Atlantic Ocean the Ethiopian Sea (Oceanus Æthiopicus). At that time, the Portuguese visited the Ethiopians. In the 19th century, part of the current territory of Ethiopia was known as Abyssinia. Ethiopia was occupied by Italy in 1936, but it was freed in 1941. In that period, together with Eritrea and Italian Somalia, they formed Italian East Africa. In 1952, Eritrea became a federal state to Ethiopia, by decision of the UN, but gained its independence in 1993.