Truth
is we were only in Ethiopia for a short period of time, at the airport
in Addis Ababa, before flying on to Nairobi, Kenya. But terraforma
rules will allow us to count it. I would love to return one day and
visit the countries many parks and historical sites. |
Ethiopia's
history is rich, as humans
have been in East Africa for well over 100,000 years. One of the worlds
first known kingdoms arose in the region. The Kingdom of Axum traded
with the Egyptians, the Romans, and the people of India. Axum became a
Christian Kingdom in 300's and many of it's neighbors became Muslim in
the 700's. In the 1800's Ethiopia had issues with the Europeans early,
so they purchased modern weapons before Europe divided Africa between
itself in the late 1800's. This prevented them from being taking over
by the Italians in 1896. However, in 1935, Italy invaded again, this
time successfully. The country was liberated by the British in 1941.
The communist took power in 1974 and the country suffered a major
famine in the 1980's. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Ethiopia
became a republic and in 1993 Eritrea became independent. While
Ethiopia remains a poor country today, it is resource rich and holds a
lot of promise.
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