Reasons why Ethiopia was never colonized
Ethiopia is one of the few countries in the world that was never colonized during the colonial times. There are various reasons that are attributed to this country not being colonized. The Italians came to colonize Ethiopia in the year 1890s but they were unsuccessful due to numerous reasons. One of the main reasons is that Ethiopia was favored by the terrain because of the mountains in the western Ethiopia region including Siemens Mountain that isolated it from the neighboring countries (colonization?, 2018). This made it difficult for the colonialists to invade this country.
Furthermore, Ethiopia is not well endowed with mineral resources such as fossil fuel, gold, and silver. Thus the lack of natural resources attracted a little or created no interests for the incoming colonialists since they were interested in countries that were rich in natural resources (centuries?, 2018). Again, by the time the Italians were coming to Ethiopia colonize, the then emperor had managed to unite the country and he rallied troops of more than hundred thousand soldiers to fight Italians and they defeated them. In Ethiopia, there was continued state of unity that made it difficult to implement the divide and rule strategy that had been used by other European colonialists in other countries. Their attempt to have Menelik II who was the King of Shoa to initiate war against the reigning Emperor Yohannes IV failed since the two had established a lasting peace.
Additionally, the Italians were deceived by Menelik to believe that he would assist them to get into Ethiopia and oust Emperor Yohannes IV (centuries?, 2018). They bought and provided him with the guns that would be used to fight the emperor. However, since Menelik was a political genius, he instead used the guns against them.
By the time the Italians were coming in to colonize Ethiopia, this country had well-established army soldiers with ingenuity. They managed to take advantage of the terrain to fight and defeat the Italian soldiers. Most of the warfare took place in Adwa. They were utilizing troops who were highly qualified generals and were leading between one thousand to thirty thousand soldiers. Again, the national sense of defiance among the Ethiopians could not allow the provocation from outside to influence them to change. Thus it was very challenging for Italians to colonize. There were more than three thousand five hundred I Italians living in Ethiopia between the years 1936 to 1941. They influenced cultural practices within this area.
Conclusion
In conclusion, many countries suffered under various colonial masters. These colonists were scrambling for Africa’s natural resources. However, Ethiopia managed to protect itself from being colonized. This was not achieved due to numerous supporting factors in Ethiopia. These include the mountainous terrain that made it difficult for Italian Soldiers to fight and lack of mineral resources. Menelik also tricked the Italian soldiers and they gave him guns were then later on used against them. However, despite not being colonized Ethiopia be one of the poorest countries in the continent. A lot needs to be done revive the economy of Ethiopia to compete with other countries in the continent.