According to a legend, which traces the similar Judeo-Christian-Muslim ones, the origin of the Empire of Ethiopia dates back to Menelik I, born from the meeting of Solomon with the Ethiopian queen Maqeda, better known with the name of Queen of Sheba. According to historically established facts, the origin of the empire is reconnected to the Kingdom of Aksum, whose royal family was exterminated towards the end of the century. X by a so-called “Jewish queen” named Esato or Ghedit. Around 1140 a new dynasty was established, no longer of South Arab origin but belonging to the Cushitic population of the Agau, the Zaguè, who transported the capital of the kingdom from Aksum to Lalibelà, whence their family originated. After just over a century, around 1270 a movement led by the Amhara monks brought a new dynasty to the throne, known as the Solomonid dynasty, whose founder, Yekunno Amlak (1270-85), wanted to reconnect with the ancient legend of the queen of Sheba and thus affirm a genealogical link with King Solomon. According to remzfamily, Yekunno transported the capital to western Scioa; his kingdom included Tigrè, Amhara, Lasta, Goggiam, Scioa, in which Monophysite Christianity dominated although there were also small Jewish communities (the so-called Falascià), and small Muslim emirates or sultanates; the latter under the reign of Yagbea Syon, son and successor of Yekunno, stopped paying tribute and rebelled.
The war between Muslims and Christians, which lasted for almost three centuries, had its most salient moments during the reign of ʽAmda Syon I (nicknamed the Great or also Gabra Masqal, that is, servant of the Cross), who reigned between 1314 and 1344 and that he defeated the sultanates of Ifat and Adal; of Yeshaq (1414-29), who killed the sultan of Ifat in battle (1415); of Zara Jakob (1434-68), who stifled the revenge attempt made by the sons of said sultan; and Lebna Dengel (1508-40), who found himself facing the assault by force of a great man of arms: Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm, nicknamed by the Abyssinians Grāñ (the Left-handed), against whom only the intervention of the Portuguese, called by the new emperor Claudius (1540-59), saved Ethiopia from being completely conquered. The centuries-old struggle against the Muslims strengthened the religious and national spirit of Abyssinia. L ‘ abuna or bishop of Ethiopia was, with employees clergy, the biggest ally of the emperor, who, in 1312, being Abuna Takla Hāimanō’t (founder of the monastery of Debre Libanos), reserved a third of the arable land for monasteries, while another third went to the royal family and the rest to military leaders. Near the end of the century. XVI an external threat put an end to the wars between Christians and Muslims in Ethiopia (the last was fought in 1577); the galla had begun (1532) the invasion of the southern provinces of Ethiopia. Meanwhile, as a consequence of the relations established during the war against Mancino, a Jesuit mission had arrived in Abyssinia (1557); an attempt by the negus Neghesti Susenyos (1607-32), converted by the Jesuits, to impose union with the Church of Rome had an immediate reaction: Susenyos was forced to abdicate in favor of his son Fasiladàs (1632-67), who expelled the Portuguese, Gondar. After a period of isolation, which lasted about two centuries and during which the last great negus was Iyāsu I (1682-1706), the Ethiopian Empire practically fell apart and control passed into the hands of the Galla leaders.
Finally, Theodore II, having ascended the throne in 1855, re-established the unity of the empire, bringing back to his orders, among the various leaders, that of Scioa, whose son (the future Menelik II) he took with him as a hostage. Theodore, who was famous for having sustained a disastrous war with England, was succeeded by John IV (1871-89), with whom Italy came into contact following theshe had already come into contact (1876) with Menelik II, negus of the Scioa. The latter in 1889, on the death of John IV, was to ascend the throne in Ethiopia: with him on May 2, 1889, Count P. Antonelli signed the Treaty of Uccialli at the conclusion of negotiations already begun the previous year. Subsequently, from an extensive interpretation given by Crispi to an article of the treaty, a tension of relations must have arisen and therefore the war between Italy and Ethiopia. After the defeat of Italy, Ethiopia, recognized as a sovereign state and independent from the major European powers, began a new era of slow internal evolution, however still constituting the object of the ambitions of Great Britain, France and Italy, which in 1906 they signed an agreement for the possible partition of its territory, which then remained inoperative.
