Battle of Magdala

The Battle of Magdala was fought in April 1868 between British and Abyssinian forces at
Magdala, 390 miles (630 km) from the Red Sea coast, which at that time was the capital city of
Abyssinia (now known as Ethiopia). The British were led by Robert Napier, while the
Abyssinians were led by Emperor Tewodros II.In March 1866 a British envoy had been
dispatched to secure the release of a group of missionaries who had first been seized when a
letter Tewodros II had sent to Queen Victoria requesting munitions and military experts from the
British, delivered by an envoy, Captain Cameron, had gone unanswered. They were released;
however Tewodros II changed his mind and sent a force after them and they were returned to the
fortress and imprisoned again, along with Captain Cameron.The British won the battle, and
Tewodros committed suicide as the fortress was finally seized.

The battle
Before the force could actually attack Magdala, they had to get past the plateau at Arogye, which
lay across the only route to Magdala. It certainly looked formidable to attack. The British could
see the way barred by many thousands of armed Abyssinians camped around the hillsides with
up to 30 artillery pieces.The British did not expect that the Abyssinian warriors would leave their
defences to attack them and paid little regard to their defensive positions as they formed up to
deploy. But the Emperor did order an attack, with many thousands of soldiers armed with little
more than spears. The 4th Regiment of Foot quickly redeployed to meet the charging mass of
warriors and poured a devastating fire into their ranks. When two Indian infantry regiments
contributed their firepower, the onslaught became even more devastating. Despite this, the
Abyssinian soldiers continued their attack, losing over 500 with thousands more wounded during
the ninety minutes of fighting, most of them at a point little over 30 yards from the British lines.
During the chaotic battle, an advance guard unit of the 33rd Regiment overpowered some of the
Abyssinian artillerymen and captured their artillery pieces. The surviving Abyssinian soldiers
then retreated back onto Magdala.
In his dispatch to London, Lord Napier reported: "Yesterday morning (we) descended three
thousand nine hundred feet to Bashilo River and approached Magdala with First Brigade to
reconnoitre it. Theodore opened fire with seven guns from outwork, one thousand feet above us,
and three thousand five hundred men of the garrison made a gallant sortie which was repulsed
with very heavy loss and the enemy driven into Magdala. British Loss, twenty wounded."Two of
the British soldiers wounded in the attack would later die from their injuries.
The following day as the British force moved on to Magdala. Writing later, Clements Markham
recalled "a curious phenomenon" that occurred on the day of the final assault: "Early in the
forenoon a dark-brown circle appeared round the sun, like a blister, about 15 in radius; light
clouds passed and repassed over it, but it did not disappear until the usual rain-storm came up
from the eastward late in the afternoon. Walda Gabir, the king's valet, informed me that
Theodore saw it when he came out of his tent that morning, and that he remarked that it was an
omen of bloodshed."

Tewodros II sent two of the hostages on parole to offer terms. Napier insisted on the release of
all the hostages and an unconditional surrender. Tewodros refused to cede to the unconditional
surrender, but did release the European hostages. The British continued the advance and
assaulted the fortress. (The native hostages were later found to have had their hands and feet cut
off before being sent over the edge of the precipice surrounding the plateau.)
The bombardment began with mortars, rockets and artillery. Infantry units then opened fire,
covering the Royal Engineers sent to blow up the gates of the fortress. The path lay up a steep
boulder-strewn track, on one side of which there was a sheer drop and on the other a
perpendicular cliff face, leading to the main gateway, known as the Koket-Bir, which included
thick timber doors set into a 15-foot-long (4.6 m) stone archway. Each side of the gate was
protected by a thorn-and-stake hedge. After this gate was a further uphill path to a second
fortified gateway, which led onto the final plateau or amba.
Magdala, sentry post over gateOn reaching the gate there was a pause in the advance, as it was
discovered the engineer unit had forgotten their powder kegs and scaling ladders and were
ordered to return for them. General Staveley was not happy at any further delay and ordered the
33rd Regiment to continue the attack. Several officers and the men of the 33rd, along with an
officer from the Royal Engineers, parted from the main force and, after climbing the cliff face,
found their way blocked by a thorny hedge over a wall. Private James Bergin, a very tall man,
used his bayonet to cut a hole in the hedge and Drummer Michael Magner climbed onto his
shoulders and through the gap in the hedge and dragged Private Bergin up behind him as Ensign
Conner and Corporal Murphy helped shove from below. Bergin kept up a rapid rate of fire on the
Koket-Bir as Magnar dragged more men through the gap in the hedge.
As more men poured through and opened fire, as they advanced with their bayonets fixed, the
defenders withdrew through the second gate. The party rushed the Koket-bir before it was fully
closed and then took the second gate, breaking through to the amba. Ensign Wynter scrambled
up onto the top of the second gate and fixed the 33rd Regimental Colours to show the plateau
had been taken. Private Bergin and Drummer Magner were later awarded the Victoria Cross for
their part in the action.
Tewodros II was found dead inside the second gate, having shot himself with a pistol that had
been a gift from Queen Victoria. When his death was announced, all resistance ceased. His body
was cremated and buried inside the church by the priests. The church was guarded by soldiers
from the 33rd Regiment although, according to Henry M. Stanley, looted of "an infinite variety
of gold, and silver and brass crosses" along with filigree works and rare tabots.

Aftermath
Abyssinian War MedalOn 19 April, having first blown up the fortress and burned the city,
Napier commenced the return march. According to historian Richard Pankhurst, fifteen elephants
and almost two hundred mules were required to bear the loot across the Bashilo River to the
nearby Dalanta Plain. A grand review was held, and then an auction of the loot; the money raised
was distributed amongst the troops and no written list was made of who purchased the various
items. Some books and artifacts held aside from the auction were presented to the Queen, whilst

others were taken by the troops and officers, but not classed as loot, most of which are still held
in public collections such as the British Museum, and in private collections such as Queen's
library at Windsor Castle.For the victory in the campaign Lieutenant-General Napier was
ennobled by Queen Victoria, and became Baron Napier of Magdala.
The AFROMET (Association For the Return Of the Madgala Ethiopian Treasures) campaign
now lobbies for the return of these objects to Ethiopia.Officers and soldiers who took part in the
campaign were awarded the Abyssinian War Medal.

Battle of Gur Amba

The Battle of Gur Amba was fought on 27 September 1852 between the forces of the Ethiopian
regent, RasAli II, and the rebel forces of Kassa Hailu. Kassa was victorious, and Goshu Zewde
of Gojjam, the commander of the regent's forces, was killed. This was the first of a series of four
victories which led to Kassa becoming Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia.
This battle followed three years of peace between Kassa and Ras Ali, which ended in 1852 when
Kassa refused to respond to Ras summons. Ras Ali dispatched a large army to Agawmeder after
his rebellious vassal, and Kassa responded by moving to a fortified position near Dengel Ber.
Ras Ali's officers found Kassa's position too strong to attack, so they bypassed it by moving to
Dembiya, where they waited out the rainy season. Ras Ali then decided to give the job of
destroying Kassa to another of his vassals, Goshu Zewde, and announced at the start of
September he had given Kassa's lands to Goshu, Sven Rubenson noting that "Ali probably did
not care whether his overt enemy or his ally would be destroyed."
The two armies spent much of September maneuvering for position until at last Kassa brought
his men down into the plains of Dembiya. Amazed that Kassa would make what appeared to be
an obvious mistake, Goshu's men immediately charged, and after a full day's combat in which
both sides suffered heavily Kassa killed his opposing general and completely routed his
opponent's men, who fled back to Gojjam.

Battle of ayshal
Course
A battle b/n kassa hailu and ras ali 2nd
It took place on june 29 1853 in eastern gojjam
Kassa hailu won the battle and ras ali retraeted
Cause
- the death of dej-goshu
Consequence
- The retraet of ras ali 2nd
- End of yeju dynasty.

Battle of gor gor bichen

Biru aligaz and three other important vassals of ali vs. Kassa
On April 12 1853
Kassa defeated joint army

Battle of Derasge
The Battle of Derasge was fought on 9 February 1855 between Kassa Hailu's forces and the forces
of the warlord Wube Haile Maryam. Kassa won the battle, and two days later crowned Tewodros II of
Ethiopia at the church of Derasge Mariam near Mekane Berhan.

Battle of bereket Course

A battle b/n haile melkot vs. Tewdros
Tewdros won b/c haile melkot died before the battle started.
Cause- centralization strategy of tewdros

Battle of quara
Course
A battle b/n menen with yohannis 3rd and kassa hailu
Kassa hailu won the battle.
In
Couse- the miss tertement of kassa hailu
Consequence Battle of guramba and death of goshu.

Battle of sabarkusa
Course
A battle b/n common alliance and michael sehul.
Common alliance won the battle.
Took place in 1771.
Cause- dis satisfaction of common alliance michael sehul becoming a king maker
- there was revenge that common alliance has to full fill that means the death of their sons
and daughters
Consequence the retreat of michael sehul in to tigray.
Beginning of yejju dynasty

Battle of Dogali
The Italians (after their unification in 1861) wanted to create their own colonies in Africa and started to
occupy coastal Eritrea. Soon they were at war with the Ethiopians in 1885.On his own
initiative, Ras Alula Engida, then governor under Emperor Yohannes IV, attacked the Italian-controlled
town of Sahation the day prior. Hundreds of his men were slaughtered by cannon and rifle fire, while only
four Italians were injured, forcing Ras Alula to pull his men back.The besieged Italians needed
ammunitions and requested supplies.
On January 26, a battalion of 500 men (mostly Italians and a few Eritrean Askari)
under Colonel Tommaso De Cristofori, sent to reinforce the Italian garrison at Sahati, were attacked while

in march by Ras Alula's men at Dogali. Although the 500 Italians fought back bravely against 7,000
Ethiopians, holding out for hours until they exhausted all ammunition, nearly all were then killed, except
for eighty wounded men who were able to escape notice by the Ethiopians and be successfully rescued.
Although a small victory for the Ethiopians, Haggai Erlich notes that this incident only encouraged the
Italians to intrigue with Yohannes' rival, Menelik II, then ruler only of Shewa, and encourage his
insubordination towards his Emperor.
Italians felt that the battle of Dogali was an insult to be avenged, and then started to attack Ethiopia in the
following years in order to get revenge. This would later lead to the First Italo-Ethiopian War which
ended in their defeat at Adwa. In 1936, they finally obtained their revenge with the Second ItaloEthiopian War with a brief occupation only to be defeated by a joint British and Ethiopian liberation
force.

Battle of Shimbra Kure

The Battle of Shimbra Kure ("chickpea swamp") was fought in March of 1529 between the
forces of Adal led by ImamAhmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi, and the Ethiopian army, under Dawit II
(Lebna Dengel). The army of Imam Ahmad prevailed, and were in control of the field at the end
of the battle. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. Despite this success, and his desire to capture
and hold the Emperor's palace at Badeqe, Imam Ahmad, in part to appease his restive men,
withdrew from the highlands and did not return to directly engage the Ethiopian army for two
years.
Some authorities, such as Richard Pankhurst, attribute Imam Ahmad's success to the presence
amongst his followers of an elite company of matchlockmen. If this is the case, then this battle
was the first time Ethiopian forces had to fight against a force armed with firearms.

Battle of Wayna Daga

The Battle of Wayna Daga (Amharic for "Grape-cultivating altitude") occurred on 21 February
1543 east of Lake Tana in Ethiopia. Led by the EmperorGalawdewos, the combined army of
Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeated the Somali-Ottoman army led by ImamAhmad ibn
Ibrihim al-Ghazi. Tradition states that Ahmad was killed by a Portuguese musketeer, who had
charged alone into the Muslim lines. Once the Imam's soldiers learned of his death, they fled the
battlefield.

Battle of Wofla
The Battle of Wofla was fought on August 28, 1542 near Lake Ashenge in Wofla (or Ofla) in the
modern Ethiopian Region of Tigray (previously part of Wollo; its incorporation into Tigray
instead of Amhara is therefore disputed), between the Portuguese under Cristvo da Gama and
the forces of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi. Reinforced with a superiority not only in
numbers but in firearms, Imam Ahmad was victorious and forced the Portuguese, along with

Queen Sabla Wengel and her retinue, to flee their fortified encampment and leave their weapons
behind.
While fleeing the battlefield with 14 soldiers, Gama, with his arm broken from a bullet, was
captured that night by followers of Imam Ahmad, who had been led into the brush they had taken
refuge in by an old woman. He was then brought into the presence of the Imam Ahmad, who
tortured his capturewd opponent, then in the end the Imam drew his sword and beheaded Gama.

The battle
Once the Ethiopian-Portuguese army found the army of Imam Ahmad, they set up camp nearby;
Emperor Gelawedewos advised against engaging the enemy right away, hoping that the 50
missing Portuguese soldiers would arrive soon as "in that country fifty Portuguese are a greater
reinforcement than one thousand natives." Over the following days, each camp preceded to
harass the other with cavalry raids. The allied side had the better of the exchange, keeping their
opponents from venturing from their camp for supplies, until the Somalis managed to kill the
leading Ethiopian soldier, Azmach Keflo, which demoralized the Ethiopian troops. Faced with
the potential desertion of his force, Galawedewos decided he could wait no longer and prepared
for an assault the next day.
The two forces started the main battle early the next day, with the Somali-Ottoman force divided
into two groups. At first, the Muslim side succeeded in driving the allied side back, until a charge
by the Portuguese and Ethiopian cavalry broke up the charge. At this point Imam Ahmad ibn
Ibrihim al-Ghazi, with his son at his side, took to the field and led a renewed assault. It was in
this charge that the Imam was killed by a bullet to his chest which threw him from his horse,
although the sources differ in how he died.
According to Castanhoso, the Imam was recognized by the Portuguese arquebusiers, who
directed their combined firepower at him, and one of the arquebuses in the group fired the fatal
shot. Although he was an eyewitness to the battle, Castanhoso constantly emphasizes in his
account the corporate identity of the Portuguese expion after Gama's death: "We bore before us
the banner of Holy Compassion (Sancta Misericordia); the Preste had sought to appoint one of
us Captain, but we desired none save the banner of himself to lead us, for it was not to be
anticipated that we should follow another, having lost what we had lost."
There is another tradition, at least as old as Joo Bermudes, and repeated by every other nearcontemporary source (e.g., Gaspar Correia, Jernimo Lobo), that gives the cr of Imam Ahmad's
death to one Joo de Castilho; Joo charged into the Somali troops so he could fire upon Ahmad
Gragn at point-blank range, an audacious act resulting in his death. Both Castanhoso and the
story of Joo de Castilho return to agreement about Imam Ahmad's fate after this point: at the
end of the battle, when Emperor Galawedewos offered his sister's hand in marriage to the man
who killed the Imam, an Ethiopian soldier presented the Imam's head as proof of the deed; but a
subsequent investigation revealed that the Portuguese had wounded him before the soldier had
cut off the Imam's head, "thus he did not give his sister to that man, nor did he reward the
Portuguese, as it was not known who wounded him".

Aftermath
As they heard of the death of the Imam, his followers fled the battlefield. Armies of that time and
place tended to pledge their loyalty to a leader, not to a cause; most of his followers
pragmatically looked to their own well-being. An exception was the captain of the Ottoman
arquebusiers, who seeing that the Moors were giving way, he determined to die; with bared arms,
and a long broadsword in his hand, he swept a great space in front of him; he fought like a
valiant cavalier, for five Abyssinian horsemen were on him, who could neither make him yield
nor slay him. One of them attacked him with a javelin; he wrenched it from his hand, he houghed
another's horse, and none dared approach him. There came up a Portuguese horseman, by name
Gonalo Fernandes, who charged him spear in rest and wounded him sorely; the Turk grasped it
[the spear] so firmly, that before he could disengage himself the Moor gave him a great cut
above the knee that severed all the sinews and crippled him; finding himself wounded, he drew
his sword and killed him.
Imam Ahmad's wife Bati del Wambara managed to escape with a group of the surviving
Ottoman arquebusiers, 300 horsemen of her personal guard, and as much of the Imam's treasure
as they could carry. The moment they left their camp, the victorious Ethiopian army poured in,
slaughtering everyone they encountered except for women and children. Amongst the women
were numerous Christian captives and, as Castanhoso tells the story, "some found sisters, others
daughters, others their wives, and it was for them no small delight to see them delivered from
captivity."
According to Bruce, there remained one enemy leader with a sizable force still at large, under
one Joram. This Joram had driven Gelawadewos "from his hiding-place on Mount Tsalem, and
forced him to cross the Tacazze on foot, with equal danger of being drowned or taken." Joram
had been unable to join the Imam before the battle, and Emperor Gelawadewos learned he was
hastening towards him, unaware that the battle had already been lost. Gelawadewos sent out a
party who successfully ambushed him, "which closed the account of Claudius with his father's
enemies."
The father of the Bahr negus, who had despaired of the rightful Emperor being restored to power
and had come to be a valuable supporter of the Imam, sought pardon from Gelawadewos,
offering Imam Ahmad's son in exchange; despite the Emperor's anger at the man's betrayal, out
of respect for the Bahr negus, who had provided critical help in getting the Portuguese expion
into Ethiopia, Gelawadewos consented to the offer. The Imam's son later proved a useful prize,
for he was later exchanged for the Emperor's own brother, Menas, who later succeeded
Gelawadewos. A number of other Christians who had joined Imam Ahmed Gragn accompanied
the Bahr negus' father into camp, but not having the influence or bargaining chip he did, the
Emperor ordered the execution of some of them. Other individuals who sought his safe-conduct,
the Emperor Gelawadewos granted it, "for there were so many that had he ordered all to be
killed, he would have remained alone."By Easter (25 March), it became clear to Gelawdewos
that he would not be able to make a circuit of his newly-won empire to impress his authority on
all parts of it before the start of the rainy season, so he set up camp "three leagues away" in an
unnamed location on the shores of Lake Tana. Once the rains had ended, Emperor Gelawdewos
began the long task of consolidating his rule.

Battle of Chelenqo
The Battle of Chelenqo was an engagement fought on 6 January 1887 between the army of
Shewa under NegusMenelik II and Emir 'Abd Allah II of Harar. The Harari forces were routed,
and Negus Menelik afterwards occupied and annexed the city of Harar.
Negus Menelik, in response to Italian control of parts of Eritrea and the port of Massawa, had
begun to import firearms and munitions through the French-controlled ports of Djibouti. By
1886, Emir 'Abd Allah of Harar had blocked transport of these arms through his territories.
Menelik had desired control of the city of Harar for some time. The massacre of the Italian
explorer Count Pietro Porro and his entire party in April 1886, allegedly at the emir's command,
gave the Negus an excuse to march on Harar.
Although the army of Shewa was a veteran force with contemporary rifles, and numbered in the
thousands, Negus Menelik sought to avoid war, and in January 1887, offered 'Abd Allah the
same kind of autonomy that king Abba Jifar of Jimma enjoyed; the emir refused this offer.
Knowing that he was heavily outnumbered, and his troops had only obsolete matchlocks and a
few cannons, Emir 'Abd Allah decided to attack on early in the morning of Ethiopian Christmas
(January 9), expecting the Shewans to be unprepared and befuddled with food and alcohol.
However, Negus Menelik had worried about a surprise attack, and kept his men at alert.
The emir's men opened fire at 11:00 am. The Shewan soldiers quickly responded and routed the
Harar infantry with few casualties. Menelik pursued the retreating emir to Harar, whose ancient
walls would not long resist his assault. Once again 'Abd Allah refused to surrender, then fled into
the desert, leaving his uncle to negotiate the city's surrender. With the occupation, the
independence of Harar came to an end.

Battle of Metemma
The Battle of Metemma (also called the Battle of Gallabat) was fought 910 March 1889
between the Mahdist Sudaneseand Ethiopian forces. It is a critical event in Ethiopian history
because Emperor Yohannes IV was killed in this battle. The fighting occurred at the site of the
twin settlements of Gallabat (in modern Sudan) and Metemma (in modern Ethiopia), so both
names are commonly used and either can be argued to be correct.
In late January 1889, Yohannes mustered a huge army of 130,000 infantry and
20,000 cavalry in Dembiya. The Sudanese gathered an army of 85,000 and fortified themselves
in Gallabat, surrounding the town with a huge zariba, a barrier made of entwined thorn bushes,
replicating the effect of barbed wire.
On 8 March 1889 the Ethiopian army arrived within sight of Gallabat, and the attack began in
earnest the next day. The wings were commanded by the Emperor's nephews, Ras Haile Maryam
Gugsa over the left wing and Ras Mengesha the right. The Ethiopians managed to set
the zariba alight, and, by concentrating their attack against one part of the defense managed to

break through the Mahdist lines into the town. The defenders suffered heavy losses and were
about to break down completely, when the battle turned unexpectedly in their favour.
The Emperor Yohannes, who led his army from the front, had shrugged off one bullet wound to
his hand, but a second lodged in his chest, fatally wounding him. He was carried back to his tent,
where he died that night; before he died, Yohannes commanded his nobles to recognize his
natural son, Ras Mengesha, as his successor. The Ethiopians, demoralized by the death of their
ruler, began to melt away, leaving the fieldand victoryto the Mahdists.
According to David L. Lewis, the Mahdists were unaware of the Emperor's death until "stench
from the rapidly decaying imperial corpse alerted a spy, and the nearly beaten Sudanese
thundered out of their zariba to scatter the downcast Ethiopians like starlings." A few days later
(12 March) the forces of the Mahdist commander, Zeki Tummal, overtook Rasses Mangasha and
Alula and their remaining followers near the Atbara River, who were escorting the Emperor's
body to safety. The Mahdists inflicted heavy losses upon the Ethiopians and captured the body of
the dead Emperor, whose head they cut off and sent back to Omdurman as a trophy.
Aftermath
The death of the Emperor caused a period of political turmoil in Ethiopia. Although Yohannes on
his deathbed named his son Ras Mengesha as his heir, and begged Ras Alula and his other nobles
to support him, within a matter of weeks Menelik II was recognized throughout Ethiopia as the
new emperor.
For the Mahdists the consequences were severe, as many of their best soldiers had perished in
the battle, seriously weakening their military strength. The Khalifa prudently decided to stop
offensive actions against Ethiopia and the conflict dwindled to small-scale cross-border raiding.

Battle of erogae
Course
A battle b/n britain forces lead by napier and ethiopian force of tewdros lead by fit awerari
gberiyae.
In on april 10, 1868,
Cause- the arrest of the britains
Consequence- battle meqedella, death of gberyae, british freed

Battle of Anchem
The Battle of Anchem (also Battle of Anchiem or Battle of Anchim) was a battle fought between
two factions of the Royal family in the Ethiopian Empire. The battle was fought to determine
who would rule the empire, Empress Zewditu or King Tafari Makonnen.
The Battle of Anchem is memorable because the pro-Zewditu forces were not openly supported
by Empress Zewditu. The battle is also memorable for the use of both psychological warfare and
aerial warfare by the pro-Tafari forces.

The Battle
Negus Tafari Makonnen called a chitet, the traditional mustering of the provincial levies.
Ostensibly he was raising an army to finally crush the ongoing revolt in Wollo. At the time, Ras
Gugsa Welle was not in open revolt and Empress Zewditu was still pleading with him not to go
into open revolt. In the end, as part of the government, the Empress was in the strange position of
being formally on the same side as King Tafari and being against her husband who was rebelling
on her behalf.
The response to the chitet, like the initial call to suppress the revolt in Wollo, was less than
enthusiastic initially. The newly appointed Minister of War, RasMulugeta Yeggazu, was only
able to raise the Mahel Sefari with 16,000 men pledged to it. Worse, by January 1930, Mulugeta
Yeggazu found himself with only 2,000 men as he gathered in Dessie. Worse yet, Gugsa Welle
was now in open revolt and he had already gathered an army in Debre Tabor of 35,000 utterly
devoted men. He was able to do this even without the forces from Tigre and Gojjam.
On 24 February, Empress Zewditu and King Tafari issued the Imperial Proclamation of Yekatit.
The proclamation declared that Ras Gugsa Welle was a rebel. Attached to the proclamation was
an anathema signed by the CopticAbunaKyrilos and by five new bishops, Sauiros, Abraham,
Petros, Mikael, and Isaac. The anathema was addressed to all monasteries of Begemder. It
concluded "And therefore, you may follow Ras Gugsa Welle, you may attach yourself to him, be
cursed and excomunicated; your life and your flesh are outcasts from Christian society." The
devotion of many of the men following Ras Gugsa Welle was shaken by the proclamation and its
attached anathema.
In mid-March, Ras Mulugeta marched the Mahel Sefari from Dessie to Debre Tabor to face the
rebellious Gugsa Welle. With him were five cannon, seven machine guns, and something
entirely new for Ethiopian warfare: Aircraft.
On 28 March 1930, when Gugsa Welle's army crossed the border of Begemder Province moving
towards Shewa Province, it was met with an unusual sight. Three Ethiopian government biplanes
flew overhead. In 1922, Ras Tafari Makonnen had first shown interest in military aircraft and,
by 1929, a small Ethiopian air arm was under development and was now used for the first time.
The biplanes dropped numerous copies of two specially created leaflets onto the advancing army.
One leaflet bore a message from the newly arrived Abuna Kyrilos. The message from Kyrilos
was that anyone who fought against the government forces would be excomunicated. A second
leaflet was from King Tafari and Empress Zewditu and it declared Gugsa Welle to be a rebel. In
an example of "psychological warfare", the leaflets appealed to the known conservative and
religious sympathies of the forces fighting for Gugsa Welle. Some of his army started to desert
him.

Aftermath
Gondar, the capital of Begemder Province, was taken without resistance soon after the Battle of
Anchem ended. Fitawrari Wondosson Kassa benefitted because his father, a loyal ally of Negus

Tafari, was given all of the lands formerly controlled by Gugsa Welle. As a result, Wondosson
Kassa was made the Shum of Begemder Province. Within three days of the death of Gugsa
Welle, Empress Zewditu was dead of natural causes.
On 2 November 1930, about eight months after the passing of Zewditu, Negus Tafari Makonnen
was proclaimed Emperor (Ngus Ngst) 1 Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia.

Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in Belgium. A
French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by the armies of the
Seventh Coalition, comprising an Anglo-allied army under the command of the Duke of
Wellington combined with a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard von Blcher.
Upon Napoleon's return to power in March 1815, many states that had opposed him formed the
Seventh Coalition and began to mobilise armies. Two large forces under Wellington and Blcher
assembled close to the north-eastern border of France. Napoleon chose to attack in the hope of
destroying them before they could join in a coordinated invasion of France with other members
of the coalition. Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo Campaign and
Napoleon's last. According to Wellington, the battle was "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in
your life". The defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French, marking the
end of his Hundred Days return from exile.
Napoleon delayed giving battle until noon on 18 June to allow the ground to dry. Wellington's
army, positioned across the Brussels road on the Mont-Saint-Jeanescarpment, withstood repeated
attacks by the French, until, in the evening, the Prussians arrived in force and broke through
Napoleon's right flank. At that moment, Wellington's Anglo-allied army counter-attacked and
drove the French army in disorder from the field. Pursuing coalition forces entered France and
restored King Louis XVIII to the French throne. Napoleon abdicated, and travelled to Rochefort
intending to flee France for the United States, but was persuaded to surrender to Captain
Maitland of HMS Bellerophon, part of the British blockade, and was exiled to Saint Helena
where he died in 1821.
The battlefield is located in Belgium, about 8 miles (13 km) south by south-east of Brussels, and
about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the town of Waterloo. The site of the battlefield today is dominated
by a large monument, the Lion's Mound. As this mound was constructed from earth taken from
the battlefield itself, the contemporary topography of the part of the battlefield around the mound
has not been preserved.

Battle of Tours
The Battle of Tours (October 732), also called the Battle of Poitiers was fought in an area
between the cities of Poitiers and Tours, in north-central France, near the village of Moussais-laBataille, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Poitiers. The location of the battle was close to

the border between the Frankish realm and then-independent Aquitaine. The battle
pitted Frankish andBurgundian forces under Austrasian Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel,
against an army of the Umayyad Caliphate led byAbdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor-General
of al-Andalus.
The Franks were victorious. Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi was killed, and Charles subsequently
extended his authority in the south. Ninth-century chroniclers, who interpreted the outcome of
the battle as divine judgment in his favour, gave Charles the nicknameMartellus ("The
Hammer"), possibly recalling Judas Maccabeus ("The Hammerer") of the Maccabean
revolt. Details of the battle, including its exact location and the exact number of combatants,
cannot be determined from accounts that have survived. Notably, the Frankish troops won the
battle without cavalry.
Later Christian chroniclers and pre-20th century historians praised Charles Martel as the
champion of Christianity, characterizing the battle as the decisive turning point in the struggle
against Islam, a struggle which preserved Christianity as the religion of Europe; according to
modern military historian Victor Davis Hanson, "most of the 18th and 19th century historians,
like Gibbon, saw Poitiers (Tours), as a landmark battle that marked the high tide of the Muslim
advance into Europe." Leopold von Ranke felt that "Poitiers was the turning point of one of the
most important epochs in the history of the world."
Other modern historians, by contrast, are divided over the battle's importance, and considerable
disagreement exists as to whether the victory was responsible as Gibbon and his generation of
historians claimed, and many modern historians have echoed for saving Christianity and
halting the conquest of Europe by Islam; however, there is little dispute that the battle helped lay
the foundations of the Carolingian Empire and Frankish domination of Europe for the next
century. Most historians agree that "the establishment of Frankish power in western Europe
shaped that continent's destiny and the Battle of Tours confirmed that power."

Battle of Lepanto
The Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition
of southern European Catholicmaritime states, decisively defeated the main fleet of the Ottoman
Empire in five hours of fighting on the northern edge of the Gulf of Corinth, off western Greece.
The Ottoman forces sailing westwards from their naval station in Lepantomet the Holy League
forces, which had come from Messina, Sicily, where they had previously gathered.
The victory of the Holy League prevented the Ottoman Empire expanding further along the
European side of the Mediterranean. Lepanto was the last major naval battle in the
Mediterranean fought entirely between galleys and has been assigned great symbolic importance
by Catholic and other historians. Some historians argue that Turkish victory could have led to
Western Europe being overrun
The battle

The left and centre galleasses had been towed half a mile ahead of the Christian line. When the
battle started, the Turks mistook the galleasses for merchant supply vessels and set out to attack
them. This proved to be disastrous; with their many guns, the galleasses alone were said to have
sunk up to 70 Ottoman galleys before the Ottoman fleet left them behind. Their attacks also
disrupted the Ottoman formations.
As the battle started, Doria found that Ulu Ali's galleys extended further to the south than his
own, and so headed south to avoid being outflanked, instead of holding the Christian line. After
the battle Doria was accused of having maneuvered his fleet away from the bulk of the battle to
avoid taking damage and casualties. Regardless, he ended up being outmaneuvered by Ulu Ali,
who turned back and attacked the southern end of the Centre Division, taking advantage of the
big gap that Doria had left.
In the north, Mehmed Siroco had managed to get between the shore and the Christian North
Division, with six galleys in an outflanking move, and initially the Christian fleet suffered.
Commander Barbarigo was killed by an arrow, but the Venetians, turning to face the threat, held
their line. The return of a galleass saved the Christian North Division. The Christian Centre also
held the line with the help of the Reserve, after taking a great deal of damage, and caused great
damage to the Muslim Centre. In the south, off-shore side, Doria was engaged in a melee with
Ulu Ali's ships, taking the worse part. Meanwhile Ulu Ali himself commanded 16 galleys in a
fast attack on the Christian Centre, taking six galleysamongst them the Maltese Capitana,
killing all but three men on board. Its commander, Pietro Giustiniani, Prior to the Order of St.
John, was severely wounded by five arrows, but was found alive in his cabin. The intervention of
the Spaniards lvaro de Bazn and Juan de Cardona with the reserve turned the battle, both in
the Centre and in Doria's South Wing.
Ulu Ali was forced to flee with 16 galleys and 24 galliots, abandoning all but one of his
captures. During the course of the battle, the Ottoman Commander's ship was boarded and the
Spanish tercios from 3 galleys and the Ottoman Janissaries from seven galleys fought on the
deck of the Sultana. Twice the Spanish were repelled with heavy casualties, but at the third
attempt, with reinforcements from lvaro de Bazn's galley, they took the ship. Mezzinzade Ali
Pasha was killed and beheaded, against the wishes of Don Juan. However, when his severed head
was displayed on a pike from the Spanish flagship, it contributed greatly to the destruction of
Turkish morale. Even after the battle had clearly turned against the Turks, groups of Janissaries
still kept fighting with all they had. It is said that at some point the Janissaries ran out of weapons
and started throwing oranges and lemons at their Christian adversaries, leading to awkward
scenes of laughter among the general misery of battle.
The battle concluded around 4 pm. The Ottoman fleet suffered the loss of about 210 shipsof
which 117 galleys, 10 galliots and three fustas were captured and in good enough condition for
the Christians to keep. On the Christian side 20 galleys were destroyed and 30 were damaged so

seriously that they had to be scuttled. One Venetian galley was the only prize kept by the Turks;
all others were abandoned by them and recaptured.
Ulu Ali, who had captured the flagship of the Maltese Knights, succeeded in extricating most of
his ships from the battle when defeat was certain. Although he had cut the tow on the Maltese
flagship in order to get away, he sailed to Constantinople, gathering up other Ottoman ships
along the way and finally arriving there with 87 vessels. He presented the huge Maltese flag
to Sultan Selim II who thereupon bestowed upon him the honorary title of "kl" (Sword); Ulu
thus became known as Kl Ali Pasha.The Holy League had suffered around 7,500 soldiers,
sailors and rowers dead, but freed about as many Christian prisoners. Ottoman casualties were
around 15,000, and at least 3,500 were captured.

Battle of Sedan
The Battle of Sedan was fought during the FrancoPrussian War on 1 September 1870. It
resulted in the capture of Emperor Napoleon III and large numbers of his troops and for all
intents and purposes decided the war in favour of Prussia and its allies, though fighting continued
under a new French government.
The 120,000 strong French Army of Chlons, commanded by Marshal Patrice de MacMahon and accompanied by Napoleon III, was attempting to lift the Siege of Metz, only to be
caught by the Prussian Meuse Army and defeated at theBattle of Beaumont. The Meuse Army
and the Prussian Third Army, commanded by Field-Marshal Helmuth von Moltke and
accompanied by Prussian King Wilhelm I and Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, cornered
MacMahon's army at Sedanin a massive encirclement battle. Marshal MacMahon was wounded
during the attacks and command passed to GeneralAuguste-Alexandre Ducrot
The battle
The battle opened with the Army of Chlons, with 202 infantry battalions, 80 cavalry squadrons
and 564 guns, attacking the surrounding Prussian Third and Meuse Armies, which totaled 222
infantry battalions, 186 cavalry squadrons and 774 guns.
Napoleon had ordered MacMahon to break out of the encirclement, and the only point where that
seemed possible was at La Moncelle, whose flank was protected by a fortified town. The
Prussians also picked La Moncelle as one point where they would mount a breakthrough. Prince
George of Saxony and the Prussian XI Corps was assigned to the task, and General Baron von
der Tann were ordered to attack Bazeilles on the right flank.
This was the opening engagement, as the French First Corps had barricaded the streets, and
enlisted the aid of the population. Von der Tann sent a brigade across pontoon bridges at 0400
hours, but encountered stiff resistance, holding only the southern end of the town. The combat
drew new forces, as French brigades from the First, Fifth and Twelfth Corps arrived. At 0800 the
Prussian8th Infantry Division arrived, and von der Tann decided it was time for a decisive attack.

He had not been able to bring artillery to bear from long range, so he committed his last brigade
to storm the town, supported by artillery from the other side of the Meuse. His artillery reached
the Bazeilles at 0900 hours.
The fighting continued to spread to the south of the town, and the 8th Infantry Division was sent
to reinforce the Bavarians fighting at La Moncelle, where they had attempted to mount a
breakthrough of the French defense. Fighting began in earnest at 0600, and the wounded
MacMahon had appointed General Auguste Ducrot to command, who received the news at 0700.
Ducrot ordered the retreat that Moltke had expected, but was overruled almost immediately
by General de Wimpffen, who threw his forces against the Saxons at La Moncelle. This led to a
brief rally for the French, who drove back the artillery around La Moncelle and pressed the
Bavarians and the Saxons. However, with the taking of Bazeilles, and the arrival of fresh waves
of Prussian troops, the counter-attack began to collapse.
But by 1100 hours, Prussian artillery took a toll on the French, while more Prussian troops
arrived on the battlefield. After an intense bombardment and Prussian attacks from the northwest
and east, and Bavarian attacks from the southwest, the Army of Chlons was driven into the Bois
de la Garenne and surrounded. The French cavalry, commanded by GeneralJean Auguste
Margueritte, launched three desperate attacks on the nearby village of Floing where the Prussian
XI Corps was concentrated. Margueritte was mortally wounded leading the very first charge and
the two additional charges led to nothing but heavy losses.
Battle of Manzikert
The Battle of Manzikert was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuq Turks on
August 26, 1071 near Manzikert (modern Malazgirt in Mu Province, Turkey). The decisive
defeat of the Byzantine army and the capture of the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes played an
important role in undermining Byzantine authority in Anatolia and Armenia, and allowed for the
gradualTurkification of Anatolia.
The brunt of the battle was borne by the professional soldiers from the eastern and
western tagmata, as large numbers of mercenaries and Anatolian levies fled early and survived
the battle. The fallout from Manzikert was disastrous for the Byzantines, resulting in civil
conflicts and an economic crisis that severely weakened the Byzantine Empire's ability to
adequately defend its borders. This led to the mass movement of Turks into central Anatoliaby
1080, an area of 78,000 square kilometres (30,000 sq mi) had been gained by the Seljuk Turks. It
took three decades of internal strife before Alexius I (1081 to 1118) restored stability to
Byzantium. Historian Thomas Asbridge says: "In 1071, the Seljuqs crushed an imperial army at
the Battle of Manzikert (in eastern Asia Minor), and though historians no longer consider this to
have been an utterly cataclysmic reversal for the Greeks, it still was a stinging setback.
The battle
Romanos was unaware of the loss of Tarchaneiotes and continued to Manzikert, which he easily
captured on August 23; the Seljuks responded with heavy incursions by bowmen. The next day
some foraging parties under Bryennios discovered the Seljuk army and were forced to retreat

back to Manzikert. The Armenian general Basilakes was sent out with some cavalry, as Romanos
did not believe this was Arslan's full army; the cavalry was destroyed and Basilakes taken
prisoner. Romanos drew up his troops into formation and sent the left wing out under Bryennios,
who was almost surrounded by the quickly approaching Turks and was forced to retreat once
more. The Seljuk forces hid among the nearby hills for the night, making it nearly impossible for
Romanos to counterattack.
On August 25, some of Romanos' Turkic mercenaries came into contact with their Seljuk kin and
deserted. Romanos then rejected a Seljuk peace embassy. He wanted to settle the eastern
question and the persistent Turkic incursions and settlements with a decisive military victory,
and he understood that raising another army would be both difficult and expensive. The Emperor
attempted to recall Tarchaneiotes, who was no longer in the area. There were no engagements
that day, but on August 26 the Byzantine army gathered itself into a proper battle formation and
began to march on the Turkish positions, with the left wing under Bryennios, the right wing
under Theodore Alyates, and the centre under the emperor. At that moment, a Turkish soldier
said to Arslan, "My Sultan, the enemy army is approaching", and Arslan is said to have replied,
"Then we are also approaching them". Andronikos Doukas led the reserve forces in the reara
foolish mistake, considering the loyalties of the Doukids. The Seljuks were organized into
a crescent formation about four kilometres away. Seljuk archers attacked the Byzantines as they
drew closer; the centre of their crescent continually moved backwards while the wings moved to
surround the Byzantine troops.
The Byzantines held off the arrow attacks and captured Arslan's camp by the end of the
afternoon. However, the right and left wings, where the arrows did most of their damage, almost
broke up when individual units tried to force the Seljuks into a pitched battle; the Seljuk cavalry
simply disengaged when challenged, the classic hit and run tactics of steppe warriors. With the
Seljuks avoiding battle, Romanos was forced to order a withdrawal by the time night fell.
However, the right wing misunderstood the order, and Doukas, as a rival of Romanos,
deliberately ignored the emperor and marched back to the camp outside Manzikert, rather than
covering the emperor's retreat. With the Byzantines thoroughly confused, the Seljuks seized the
opportunity and attacked. The Byzantine right wing was almost immediately routed, thinking
they were betrayed either by the Armenians or the army's Turkish auxiliaries. In fact the
Armenians were the first to flee and they all managed to get away, while by contrast the Turkish
auxiliaries remained loyal to the end. The left wing under Bryennios held out a little longer but
was also soon routed. The remnants of the Byzantine centre, including the Emperor and
the Varangian Guard, were encircled by the Seljuks. Romanos was injured and taken prisoner by
the Seljuks. The survivors were the many who fled the field and were pursued throughout the
night, but not beyond that; by dawn, the professional core of the Byzantine army had been
destroyed whilst many of the peasant troops and levies who had been under the command of
Andronikus had fled.

Gibe Oromo state

Jimma

The Kingdom of Jimma was one of the kingdoms in the Gibe region of Ethiopia that emerged
in the 19th century. It shared its western border with Limmu-Ennarea, its eastern border with the
SidamoKingdom of Janjero, and was separated from the Kingdom of Kaffa to the south by the
Gojeb River. Jimma was considered the most powerful militarily of the Gibe kingdoms. Dawro,
an Ometo dialect, was the native language; it later slowly gave way to Oromo.

History:-The origins of Jimma are obscure, although prior to the Oromo migrations, the
territory this kingdom came to occupy had been part of the Kingdom of Kaffa. According to
legend, a number of Oromo groups (variously given from five to 10) were led to Jimma by a
great sorceress and Queen named Makhore, who carried a boku (usually connected with the abba
boku, or headman of the Oromo Gadaa system) which when placed on the ground would cause
the earth to tremble and men to fear. It is said that with this boku, she drove the Kaffa people
living in the area across the Gojeb River. While this suggests that the Oromo invaders drove the
original inhabitants from the area, Herbert S. Lewis notes that Oromo society was inclusionist,
and the only ethnic differences they made are reflected in the history of various kinship groups.
Eventually, the Oromo grew unhappy with Makhore's rule, and through a ruse, deprived her of
her virginity, and destroyed her power. The various groups then pursued their own courses,
loosely bound into a confederation that held councils at Hulle, where laws were passed under the
abba boku; at this point, Jimma was commonly referred to as Jimma Kaka.
At first, the Badi of Saqqa were the predominant clan (which led to the alternate name of Jimma
Badi), but late in the 18th century another group, the Diggo of Mana, began to extend their
domain, conquering the Lalo clan who lived around Jiren, and gaining access to the market and
trade center at Hirmata (later called Jimma). Mohammed Hassen believes that the Badi lost their
predominant position in part due to raids by king Abba Bagido of Limmu-Ennarea, but also due
to constant infighting. It was during the reign of Abba Jifar I that the kingdom of Jimma
coalesced, and after this time Jimma was frequently referred to as Jimma Abba Jifar. King Abba
Jifar also converted to Islam, and began the long process of also converting his entire kingdom to
that religion.
Under King Abba Gomol, the ancient Kingdom of Garo was conquered and absorbed into
Jimma. King Gomol settled wealthy men from his kingdom in the former state. He also brought
important men from Garo to live at Jiren, thus integrating the two polities.
It was shortly after his son Abba Jifar II assumed the throne that the power of the neguses of
Shewa began to reach into the Gibe region for the first time in centuries. As Lewis notes,
"Borrelli, Franzoj and other travellers accorded him little hope of retaining his kingdom for
long." However, heeding the wise advice of his mother Gumiti, he submitted to Menelik II, and
agreed to pay tribute to the negus, and counseled his neighboring kings to do the same. However,
none followed his example, and King Abba Jifar instead found himself enthusiastically helping
his Shewan master conquer his neighbors: Kullo in 1889, Walamo in 1894, and Kaffa in 1897. In
1928, the tribute of Jimma amounted to MTT87,000 and an additional MTT15,000 for the army.
Following the death of Abba Jifar II, Emperor Haile Selassie seized the opportunity to finally
annex Jimma. As Harold Marcus observes, the kingdom's "autonomy had been undermined by

the declining world economy, the deteriorating health of its ruler, the road that slowly advanced
from Addis Abeba, the advent of air power, and the transcendent needs of modern, centralized
power." On 5 May 1932, the official newspaper Berhanena Selam orialized that the kingdom
was in danger because her king, Abba Jifar, was old and ill and his grandson and heir no longer
properly obeyed the central government and was using the kingdom's revenues to build up an
army. Seven days later, on 12 May, 400 soldiers and a team of administrators descended upon
Jimma and brought the kingdom to an end. During the reorganization of the provinces in 1942,
the last administrative traces of the kingdom vanished into Kaffa Province.

The kingdom of Limmu-Ennarea

The kingdom of Limmu-Ennarea was a continuation of the older kingdom of Ennarea, which
successfully resisted for many decades the encroaching Oromo, who had overrun other
kingdoms tributary to the Ethiopian Emperor including Bizamo and Konch. Despite this, as
Mohammed Hassen observes, Ennarea eventually drifted into an extended period of civil war
and by "the middle of the second half of the seventeenth century, Ennarya not only lacked a
single leadership, but also her feuding leaders probably fought more with each other than with
their common enemy." In 1704, when Emperor Iyasu the Great campaigned south of the Abay
River, and reached Gonga, the stronghold of Ennarea on the Gibe River, he was met by two rival
leaders of the crumbling kingdom. In the years following the Emperor's expedition to Ennarea,
the warring potentates gradually fled south to the Kingdom of Kaffa. The
remainingSidamo population was absorbed by the Oromo, who as a practice made no distinction
in ethnic ancestry for inclusion into their society.
Eventually a powerful war leader, Bofo the son of Boku, came to dominate the Limmu Oromo
by his military prowess and charisma; Mohammed Hassen dates this development between 1800
and 1802. He formed a dynastic bond with the daughter of Abba Rebu, who traced his ancestry
to both the earlier dynasty that ruled Ennarea, as well as a Portuguese soldier from Cristvo da
Gama's army who had come to live in Ennarea. Abir also notes that another tradition states that
this marriage was a political union between two rival clans, the Sapera and the Sigaro. In either
case, due to this Portuguese influence, the kings of Limmu-Ennarea called themselves supera,
unlike the other Gibe kings who used the Oromo word"Moti" which originally indicated the
office of the war leader (also called Abba Dula) during the cycle of his Gadaa.
In 1825, Bofu abdicated in favor of his son, Abba Bagibo, under whose rule Limmu-Ennarea
reached the peak of its existence. Due to wars in neighboring Jimmu, merchants used the trade
route through his kingdom to gain access to Kaffa. Abba Bagibo made a concerted effort to
promote this trade, both with beneficial policies (e.g., offering security from bandits to traders,
and lower tariffs) and with coercive ones (requiring merchants
from Gondar, Adwa, Derita and Dawe to meet their counterparts from Kaffa and further south at
Saqqa).
During Abba Bagibo's reign, the kingdom of Limmu-Ennarea converted to Islam, for political
reasons rather than out of conviction: when Catholic missionaries opened a mission in the
kingdom in 1846, the king told them that "had you come thirty years ago, not only I but all my
countrymen might have embraced your religion, but now it is impossible."

Jimma's eventual success at conquering the Badi-Folla in 1847, reopened the trade route between
Kaffa and Shewa, which merchants found was a much better route, and brought an end to
Limmu-Ennarea prosperity, despite Abba Bagido's later actions. On his death in 1861, Abba
Bagido was succeeded by his "untalented and fanatic Muslim son", who hastened the kingdom's
decline.
Limmu-Ennarea was secured for Shewa by Ras Gobana Dacche following the decisive Battle of
Embabo, without a single blow being struck; however, when Ras Gobana fell from power a few
years later in the mid-1880s, the entire Gibe region erupted in revolt. Dejazmach Wolde
Giyorgis then re-conquered the kingdom by force; the Dejazmach afterwards built a church
dedicated to St Marqos near the royal palace. Abba Bagibo, the son of the last king, Abba
Gomoli, converted to Christianity for political advantages, changed his name to Gabra Selassie,
and became a Fitawrari in the Ethiopian Empire

Gomma
The Kingdom of Gomma was one of the kingdoms in the Gibe region of Ethiopia that emerged
in the 18th century. It was based in Agaro.

Location
Gomma shared its northern border with Limmu-Ennarea, its western border with Gumma, its
southern border with Gera, and its eastern border with Jimma. Its capital was Agaro.
This former kingdom was mostly located in an undulating valley, with a population estimated in
1880 of about 15,000-16,000; its extent is roughly the same as the modern woreda of Gomma.
Beckingham and Huntingford considered Gomma, along with Gumma, was the least
economically developed of the Gibe kingdoms; however Mohammed Hassen writes that "the
people of Gomma devoted themselves to farming, earning a reputation for a high degree of
civilization.
Also located in the kingdom of Gomma were two hills, Sinka and Bemba (the last was also
called Kella Egdu Biya, or "Gate of the Watching of the Land"), which were sacred to the
paganOromo. They were inhabited by prophets who lived with large snakes; descendants of
these snakes are offered beer and goats' blood by Oromos to allieve their illnesses.

History
The" Beckingham and Huntingford trace the foundation of Gomma to a miracle-worker who was
named Nur Husain or Wariko, said to have come from Mogadishu. Although they speculate that
this semi-legendary figure might have been confused with the better-known Sheikh Husein,
whose tomb is located near the Shebelle River, they note that Antonio Cecchi reports that
Wariko's tomb is located on the banks of the Didessa River, and was an object of veneration.

Hassen explains the tradition around Nur Husain as reflecting the fact that "Gomma was the first
state in the Gibe region where Islam became the religion of the whole people."Trimingham states
that Gomma was the first of the Gibe kingdoms to convert to Islam, quoting Major G.W. Harris
as writing that by 1841 "in Goma the Moslem faith is universal."
Hassen states that the first King of Gomma was Abba Boke, although Beckingham and
Huntingford state his son, Abba Manno, had this honor. Abba Boke had gained control over all
of Gomma, between Yacci and Dogaye, except for a region named Qattu. Abba Manno was later
able to annex Qattu during his reign (c. 1820 - 1840), and promoted Islam by patronizing Muslim
religious teachers, as well as enhancing the activities of the Qadiriya order.
In 1886, Gomma was conquered by Besha Abue on behalf of Emperor Menelik II.
Kingdom of Gumma
Capital Not specified
Religion Sunni Islam
Government Monarchy
History
Established c.1770
Separatist Government 1899-1902

Annexed by
Ethiopian Empire 1899

The Kingdom of Gumma was one of the kingdoms in the Gibe region of Ethiopia that emerged
in the 18th century. Its eastern border was formed by the bend of the Didessa River, which
separated it from (proceeding downstream to upstream) Limmu-Ennarea to the northeast, and the
kingdoms of Gomma and Gera to the south. Beyond its northern border were various Macha
Oromo groups, and to the west Sidamo groups. Its territory corresponds approximately with the
modern woredas of Gechi and Didessa.
This former kingdom was mostly located on a plateau with an average elevation of 6500 feet,
and had a population estimated in 1880 of about 50,000. Its inhabitants had a reputation as
warriors. Beckingham and Huntingford considered Gumma, along with Gomma, was the least
economically developed of the Gibe kingdoms; however Mohamed Hassen notes that, with the
exception of the northern and western boundaries where constant raiding by her neighbors, the
Arjo in the north and the Nonno in the west, forced those living in those parts to embrace
pastoralism, the land was intensively farmed and grew many of the same crops as the other Gibe
kingdoms -- sorghum, wheat, barley and cotton -- except for coffee.

History

The latest kings of Gumma traced their origin to a man called Adam. Around 1770, he came to
live in the area, and is said to have then helped in the deposition of the last king of the previous
dynasty, Sarborada. The historian Mohammed Hassen, in discussing this tradition, suggests this
tradition about Adam "was invented so as to Islamize the original founder of the dynasty."
King Jawe was converted to Islam by merchants from Shewa and Begemder, and in turn he
imposed his religious faith upon his subjects.
In 1882, King Abba Jubir of Gumma convinced the kings of Ennerea, Gomma and Jimma to
form a confederacy known as the "Muslim League", to counter the threat from some of the
Macha Oromo, who in turn formed their own alliance, the "League of the Four Oromo". At first
the Muslim League had little success against this threat, for the other members did not support
Abba Jubir against the Macha, until his elder brother Abba Digir was captured. At this point the
people of Ennerea came to their help, but even with this help Abba Jubir had no more success
and was forced to negotiate an armistice with the Macha for the safe release of his brother. Abba
Jubir then went to war against Jimma, and sacked its capital, despite Gomma and Limmu-Enerea
coming to the aid of Jimma.
Despite the failure of the Muslim League, Gumma remained a stronghold of Islam, and provided
asylum to men exiled from the other Gibe kingdoms. It was conquered by Emperor Menelik II in
1885, but the kingdom remained a "hotbed of rebellion and Muslim fanaticism against alien
colonial administration." Firisa, son of the last king, had found sanctuary in the Sudan after the
conquest, and returned in 1899 to declare a jihad against the conquerors. Firisa was eventually
captured in 1902, then executed in Jimma soon afterwards.

GERA
The Kingdom of Gera (1835 1887) was one of the kingdoms in the Gibe region of Ethiopia
that emerged in the late 19th century. It shared its northern border with the Kingdom of Gumma,
its eastern border with the Kingdom of Gomma, and was separated from the Kingdom of Kaffa
to the south by the Gojeb River. With its capital at Chala (Cira), Gera's territory corresponds
approximately with the modern woreda of Gera.

Overview
The Kingdom of Gera was located in a basin surrounded with gently undulating hills, although
extensive swampland existed in the northern hills. The population of this kingdom was estimated
in 1880 to have been between 15,000 and 16,000. The planting and harvesting of corn followed a
different calendar in Gera from the other Gibe kingdoms; where the others planted in February
and harvested in July, in Gera it was planted in April and harvested in August. Mohammed
Hassen adds that Gera "was, and still is, the rich land of honey" and notes that Gera honey had a
reputation as the finest honey in Ethiopia. Hassen lists eight kinds of honey cultivated in Gera,
the best being the Ebichaa ("dark") honey, from which was made a mead known as dadhi, the
drink of royalty and dignitaries in the Gibe region. "It is not surprising, therefore," Hassen
concludes, "that the flavorsome and prestigious Ebichaa was a royal monopoly."

Gera is also the location of Mount Ijersa, which the Oromo regard as sacred. They believe that
God will take his seat there at the time of the Last Judgement. Rulers of the kingdom held the
royal title of Donacho.

History
According to Beckingham and Huntingford, there is evidence that the monarchy of Gera existed
before the Great Oromo migration in the 16th century. However, according to Mohammed
Hassen Gera was the last of the Gibe kingdoms to come into existence, and was founded by
Gunji, "a successful war leader who made himself king" around 1835, but died shortly
afterwards. This dynasty came to an end with the murder of Tulu Ganje by king Oncho of
Gumma. A new one was founded by Abba Baso, who proved to be an unpopular ruler. He was
later overthrown by his brother Abba Rago and exiled to Jimma.
According to Trimingham, the kingdom enjoyed its greatest prosperity under king Abba Magal,
who had been converted to Islam, although a number of his subjects still professed Christianity.
It unclear which Gibe king was responsible for this conversion: Trimingham attributes this
achievement to Abba Jubir of Gumma; Mohammed Hassen gives the initial cr to Abba Bagibo of
Limmu-Ennarea, who offered to support Abba Magal in his fight for the throne if he allowed
Muslim missionaries into his kingdom, and only later did Abba Jubir convert him. On King
Abba Magal's death, his wife Genne Fa acted as regent for their son, both of whom became
prisoners in Jimma when Gera was conquered by Dejazmach Besha Abua in 1887.

SOUTHERN STATE

Wolayita
History:-The people of Wolayta have a rich history. Wolaytas are known for their patriotism, rich
culture and modern music. The people of Wolayta had their own kingdom for thousands of years with
kings (called "Kawo") and a monarchical administration. The earlier name of the kingdom was "The
Famous Kingdom of Damot" - this included the south, south east, south west and part of the central
region of the present Ethiopia. The famous King of this Kingdom was King (Kawo) Motolomi who is
mentioned in the book Gedle Teklehaimanot, as an invader of the north and the king to whom was
surrendered the mother of the Ethiopian saint, Tekle Haimanot (Tekla Haymanot). Most Wolaytas assume
that Saint Tekle Haimanot was the son of this king. After the defeat which overcame the northern part of
its territory the kingdom was reduced to its present size and the name became the Kingdom of Wolayta. It
remained thus for hundreds of years until the expansion of Emperor Menelik II into the regions south of
Shewa during the early 1890s. The war of conquest has been described by Bahru Zewde as "one of the
bloodiest campaigns of the whole period of expansion", and Wolayta oral tradition holds that 118,000
Welayta and 90,000 Shewan troops died in the fighting.Kawo (King) Tona, the last king of Welayta, was
defeated and Welayta conquered in 1896. Welayta was then incorporated into the Ethiopian Empire.
However, Welayta had a form of self-administrative status and was ruled by Governors directly
accountable to the king until the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. The Derg afterwards restructured
the country and included Welayta as a part of the province of Sidamo

Kingdom of Kaffa

The Kingdom of Kaffa (c.13901897) was an early modern state located in what is now
Ethiopia, with its first capital at Bonga. The Gojeb River formed its northern border, beyond
which lay the Gibe kingdoms; to the east the territory of the Konta and Kullo peoples lay
between Kaffa and the Omo River; to the south numerous subgroups of the Gimira people, and
to the west lay the Majangir people. The native language, also known as Kaffa, is one of the
Omoticgroup of languages.
Kaffa was divided into four sub-groups, who spoke a common language Kefficho, one of the
Gonga/Kefoid group of Omotic languages; a number of groups of foreigners, Ethiopian Muslim
traders and members of the Ethiopian Church, also lived in the kingdom. There were a number of
groups of people, "but with the status of submerged status", who also lived in the kingdom; these
included the Manjo, or hunters; the Manne, or leatherworkers; and the Qemmo, or blacksmiths.
The Manjo even had their own king, appointed by the King of Kaffa, and were given the duties
of guarding the royal compounds and the gates of the kingdom.
The land where this former kingdom lay is mountainous with stretches of forest. The land is very
fertile, capable of three harvests a year.

History
The Kingdom of Kaffa was founded c.1390 by Minjo, who according to oral tradition ousted the
Mato dynasty of 32 kings. However, his informants told Amnon Orent, "no one remembers the
name of a single one." The first capital Bonga was either founded or captured by Bon-noghe; it
was later replaced by Anderaccha, but Bonga retained its importance.
During the 16th century, all of the territories north of the Gojeb River were lost to the Oromo
migrations. Also in the later 16th century, the Emperor of EthiopiaSarsa Dengel convinced the
kingdom to officially accept Christianity as its state religion. As a result, the church of St.
George was dedicated at Baha; the building preserved a tabot bearing the name of Emperor Sarsa
Dengel. Over the following centuries the influence of the Ethiopian government grew weak, and
Christianity more or less disappeared, although the church of St. George was used as a "male
house of ritual of George" until late in the 19th century when Christian practices were
reintroduced.
Beginning with Gali Ginocho (1675 - 1710), the kings of Kaffa began to expand the borders of
their kingdom, annexing the neighboring small Gimira states of She, Benesho and Majango. The
neighboring state of the Welayta came under their control in the reign of Tato Shagi Sherocho
(1775 - 1795), who extended the boundaries of his kingdom as far as the Omo to the southeast
and almost to the confluence of the Omo and the Denchya to the south. It was during the reign of
King Hoti Gaocho (1798-1821), that the territory of the Kaffa kings reached its maximum.
According to Orent, the traditions of the Kaffa people relate that he ruled far and wide,
conquering wherever he went, even as far afield as Wolleta and Kambaata. "To this day,"
concludes Orent, "some people still talk about the time that their ancestors defeated all their
enemies and sat at the foot of a famous tree in Wolliso and decided not to go farther into Shoa
province."

The last Kaffa king, Gaki Sherocho, resisted for months the combined armies of Wolde Giyorgis,
Ras Damisse, and King Abba Jifar II of Jimma, until he was captured 11 September 1897, and
was first sent to Ankober, then to Addis Ababa. Kaffa was then held as a fief by Wolde Giyogis
until 1914. During his visit to Kaffa in 1897, Alexander Bulatovich had the opportunity to study
the culture of the inhabitants, describing them in his book With the Armies of Menelik II,
emperor of Ethiopia, identifying a number of practices in common with the more familiar
Amhara people.
The inhabitants suffered greatly from slave-raiding during the de facto rule of Lij Iyasu, and the
region almost became uninhabited. During the reorganization of the provinces in 1942, the
former kingdom was enlarged by the addition of a number of other kingdoms from the Gibe
region to become Kaffa Province.

Yem people
The Yem are an ethnic group living in south-western Ethiopia. They are also called by their
neighbors as the Janjero, but the Yem consider this exonym derogatory, since it sounds similar to
the Amharic word "zinjero" which means "baboon". Their native language is Yemsa, one of the
Omotic languages, although many also speak Oromiffa or Amharic. The neighbors for Yem
include the Gurage, Hadya and Kembata to the east across the Omo River and the Jimma Oromo
to the south, north and west.
The first reference to Yem as a political unit is found, under the name of Jangero, in the victory
song of King Yesaq (1412-1427) of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, as paying tribute in the
form of horses to the king. The first European traveler to mention Yem was the European
traveler Father Fernandez, who travelled through their homeland in 1614.

Hadiya Kingdom
13th century15th century
Capital

Hadiya

Languages

Hadiyya

Religion

Islam

Government

Monarchy

King
Garad
- 14th century

Amano

- 15th century

Mahiko

- Established

13th century

- Disestablished

15th century

History

The Hadiya Kingdom (r. 13th century-15th century) was an ancient kingdom once located in
southwestern Ethiopia, south of the Abbay River and west of Shewa. It was ruled by the Hadiya people,
who spoke the CushiticHadiyya language. The historical Hadiya area was situated between Kambaat,
Gamo, and Waj, southwest of Shewa. By 1850, Hadiya is placed north-west of lakes Zway and Langano
but still between these areas.

It was described in the mid-fourteenth century by the Arab historian Chihab Al-Umari as
measuring eight days' journey by nine, which Richard Pankhurst estimates was 160 by 180
kilometers. Although small, Hadiya was fertile with fruit and cereals, rich with horses, and its
inhabitants used pieces of iron as currency. It could raise an army of 40,000 cavalry and at least
twice as many foot soldiers.
The current Hadiya Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, is located
approximately where this former kingdom was.

History
The earliest surviving mention of Hadiya is in the Kebra Nagast (ch. 94), indicating that it was in
existence by the 13th century. Another early mention is in a manuscript written on the island
monastery of Lake Hayq, which states that after conquering Damot, Emperor Amda Seyon
proceeded to Hadiya and brought it under his control. Later in the reign of this Emperor, the
King of Hadiya, Amano, refused to submit to the Emperor, encouraged by a Muslim "prophet of
darkness" named Bel'am. Emperor Amda Seyon set forth for Hadiya, where he "slew the
inhabitants of the country with the point of the sword", killing many of the inhabitants while
enslaving others. Despite such punitive measures, many of the Hadiya people served in the
military units of Amda Seyon.
During the reign of Zara Yaqob, the Garad or Sultan of Hadiya Mahiko repeated his
predecessor's actions and refused to submit to the Emperor. However, with the help of one of
Mahiko's followers, the Garad was deposed in favor of his uncle Bamo. Garad Mahiko then
sought sanctuary at the court of Adal. He was later slain by the military contingent Adal Mabrak,
who had been in hot pursuit. The chronicles record that the Adal Mabrak sent Mahiko's head and
limbs to Zara Yaqob as proof of his death.
Many kings of the Ethiopian central government were married to women from Hadiya; the
powerful Queen Eleni of Hadiya is one example

Sidama
Sidama is a zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR) of
Ethiopia. It is named for the Sidama people, whose homeland is in the zone. Sidama is bordered
on the south by the Oromia Region (except for a short stretch in the middle where it shares a
border with Gedeo zone), on the west by the Bilate River, which separates it from Wolayita

zone, and on the north and east by the Oromia Region. Towns in Sidama include Irgalem and
Wendo. Sidama surrounds the city of Awasa, capital of the SNNPR. Sidama has a population of
around 3.5 million, who speak the Cushitic language Sidamo (also known as Sidamigna).
Sidama has 879 kilometers of all-weather roads and 213 kilometers of dry-weather roads, for an
average road density of 161 kilometers per 1,000 square kilometers.
Sidama Zone is the leading coffee producing zone in Ethiopia, which contributes greatly to the
foreign exchange of the federal government. The Central Statistical Agency (CSA) reported that
63,562 tons of coffee were produced in Sidama and Gedeo combined in the year ending in 2005,
based on inspection records from the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea authority. This represents 63% of
the SNNPR's output and 28% of Ethiopia's total output.
The Zone is also rich in water resources, which are underutilized. The leading causes of
morbidity and mortality in SNNP region are mostly attributable to lack of clean drinking water,
poor sanitation, and low public awareness of environmental health and personal hygiene
practices.
There is a high value attached to livestock by the Sidama, among whom a person without cattle
is not regarded as a fully-grown social person, but as an outcast. Cattle numbers are good
indicator of wealth, and gives chief popularity for the farmer who owns more cattle.

Leqa neqemte
The people of the kingdom leqa neqemte used the political title called moti and this state was
found in the eastern part of the country. It is also called wollega state. Moti bekere godana was
the first moti of leqa neqemt. He was born in 1801 and died in 1871.
The leaders of the kingdom and their short history
moti moroda bekere was the second moti of leqa neqamte. He ruled from 1871-89.
moti kumsa moroda was the third ruler which ruled from 1870-71.
dejazmatch habtemariyam gebre igziabher was the fourth moti of leqa neqemt who formed
marriage relation with guma and leqa qallem.
The successor of bakar godana was moreda kumisa who later changed his name to gebre
igziabher when he accepted Christianity.