Welcome to Ethiopia!
Ethiopia (Amharic: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōp yā) is Africa's third-most populous country (after Nigeria and Egypt), oldest independent country and one of only two (the other Liberia) never to be colonized, save for a short Italian occupation in the 1930s and 1940s.
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea and Djibouti to the north, Somaliland to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia has a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi) and over 117 million inhabitants and is the 12th-most populous country in the world and the 2nd-most populous in Africa. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates.The development of Ethiopian national identity traced back to classic antiquity, and its progressive territorial expansion influenced by socioreligious integrity since ancient times. In addition, the region what is now Ethiopia is proved to be the site of some oldest anatomically modern humans. Therefore it is widely considered as the region from which modern humans first set out for the Middle East and places beyond. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations settled in the Horn of Africa region during the ensuing Neolithic era. Kebra Nagast, a 13th century national epic claimed that the Ethiopian dynasty was founded by Israelite king Solomon and Queen of Sheba, via their child Menelik I. The Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region from the 1st century AD until its fall in the 10th century where "Ethiopians" was first coined during Ezana's reign in the 4th-century. Christianization was more reinvigorated by Agaw-ruled Zagwe dynasty, a contemporaneous insignificant kingdom dominated the northern parts of Ethiopia for over three centuries. In 1270, the Ethiopian Empire was formed by Abyssinian nobleman Yekuno Amlak, its dynasty thereby claimed as inherited Davidic line. In the Middle Ages, the empire began territorial enlargement to southward, albeit challenged by Muslim polities such as the Sultanate of Ifat and its successor, the Adal Sultanate, culminating in the Ethiopian–Adal war. The Adals were succeeded at the conquest of Ethiopian territory, but lost after a defeat by Ethiopia with assistance of Portugal, retrograding to precedent state after a final battle in 1543. In mid-18th century, Ethiopia experienced decentralization known as Zemene Mesafint– the empire predominantly conquered and partitioned by most Oromo and Tigray tribal lords. The empire reinstated to statehood by Emperor Tewodros II at the beginning of his reign, inaugurating modernization.During the late 19th-century Scramble for Africa, Ethiopia was the only African nation to successfully defend itself against European colonization, defeating Italy at the Battle of Adwa. This also enabled it to establish its modern borders through extensive conquest of territories to the east, west and south. Ethiopia was the first independent African member of the League of Nations and the United Nations. In 1935, Italy, under Mussolini's Fascist regime invaded Ethiopia and annexed with the former colonies of Eritrea and Somaliland to become Italian East Africa, before liberation and a short period of military administration by British forces amidst World War II. During Italian rule, the government made steps to abolish the centuries-old practice of slavery, eventually doing so in 1942, and urbanization steadily increased.Ethiopia was rapidly modernized under Emperor Haile Selassie. The later imperial shortcomings related to internal crisis and subsequent protests led the Emperor's deposition in 1974 and the monarchy's abolition six months later by the Derg, a communist military junta backed by the Soviet Union. Ethiopia then underwent 16 years of civil war between the Derg and Tigray-Eritrean separatist rebels as well as Somalia. In 1987, the Derg established People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, a civilianized government ruled under socialist republic. Prior to dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was overthrown by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) on 28 May 1991, entering provisional government phase until formal government established in 1995. The EPRDF coalition, dominated by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), marked as an authoritarian regime which brought the country into its current ethnicity-based federal system. The EPRDF coalition leadership was ended after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, merging its parties into the new multi-ethnic Prosperity Party in 2019. Although Abiy's government initially reformed and liberated the country's politics, human rights violations, particularly ethnic unrest, heightened, sparking hostility between Abiy's government and TPLF members, leading to the ongoing Tigray War in 2020.
Ethiopia is a multiethnic state with 80 different ethnic groups. Christianity is the largest religion followed by Islam. Having differential biomes and climate throughout its regions, Ethiopia is considered as a megadiverse country in Africa. This sovereign state is a founding member of the UN, the Group of 24 (G-24), the Non-Aligned Movement, the G77 and the Organisation of African Unity. Addis Ababa is the headquarters of the African Union, the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Standby Force and many of the global NGOs focused on Africa.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Ethiopian Civil War and communist purges hindered its economy but it has since recovered and, as of 2010, has the largest economy by GDP in East Africa. However, it remains one of the world's poorest countries, facing poverty, hunger, corruption, weak infrastructure, poor respect for human rights, and limited access to health and education, with a literacy rate of only 49%, ranking it in the worst quartile on the Human Development Index.