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Menelik II Menelik II (August 17, 1844 - December 12,
1913),
Conquering Lion of Judah, Elect of God, King of Kings
of Ethiopia was negus negust (emperor) of Ethiopia from
1889 to his death.
Menelik
II The son of King Haile Melekot of Shoa (1847 - 1855),
was born in 1844 in Ankober, Shoa and heir to the Shewan
branch of the Solomonic Dynasty which claimed descent
from King Solomon of ancient Israel, and the Queen of
Sheba. On the death of his father in 1855 he was taken
prisoner by Emperor Tewodros II (Theodore II), a former
minor noble originally named Kassa of Kwara, who had usurped
the Imperial throne from the last Emperor of the elder
Gondar branch of the Solomonic dynasty, Emperor Johannis
III (John III).
Menelik
was imprisoned on Tewodros' mountain stronghold of Magdala,
but was treated well by the Emperor, even marrying Tewodros's
daughter Alitash. However, he would eventually succeed
at escaping from Magdala and abandoned his wife, returning
to Shoa to reclaim his ancestral crown and at once attacked
the usurper claiming the Imperial throne for himself as
well. These campaigns were unsuccessful, and he turned
his arms to the west, east and south, and annexed much
territory to his kingdom, still, however, maintaining
his claims of divine right to the Imperial Crown of Ethiopia
in addition to the royal one of Shoa.
In
1883, King Menelik married Taytu Betul, a noblewoman of
Imperial blood, and a member of the leading families of
the regions of Simien, Gojjam and Begemder. Her uncle
Dejazmatch Wube had been the ruler of Tigre and much of
northern Ethiopia. She had been married four times previously
and exercised considerable influence. Menelik and Taytu
would have no children. Menelik had previous to this marriage,
sired not only Zauditu ( eventually Empress of Ethiopia),
but also another daughter, Shoaregga (who married Ras
Mikael of Wollo), and a son Prince Wossen Seged who died
in childhood. Menelek.s clemency to Ras Mangasha, whom
he compelled to submit and then made hereditary Prince
of his native Tigre, was ill repaid by a long series of
revolts by that prince.
After
the suicide of Tewodros II in 1868 following his defeat
at the hands of the British at Magdalla, Menelik continued
to struggle against the various other claimants to the
Imperial throne. The eventual successor, the Emperor Yohannes
IV (better known to Europeans as King John of Abyssinia)
was however able to better exert his claims due to the
large number of weapons left to him by the British whom
he had aided against Tewodros. Being again unsuccessful,
Menelik resolved to await a more propitious occasion;
so, acknowledging the supremacy of Yohannes.
In
1886 Menelik of Shoa married his daughter Zauditu to the
Emperor.s son, the Ras Araya Selassie. Ras Araya Selassie
died in May 1888 without any issue by Zauditu of Shoa,
and the Emperor Yohannes IV was killed in a war against
the dervishes at the battle of Gallabat (Matemma) on May
10, 1889. The succession now lay between the late emperor.s
natural son, the Ras Mangasha, and Menelek of Shoa, but
the latter was able to obtain the aliegance of a large
majority of the nobility on November 4, and consecrated
and Crowned as Emperor Menelik II shortly afterwards.
In
1880, at the time when he was claiming the throne against
Mangasha, Menelek signed at Wuchale in Wollo province
(Uccialli in the Italian version), a treaty with Italy
acknowledging the establishment of the new Italian Colony
of Eritrea with its seat at Asmara. This colony had previously
been part of the northern Tigrean territories from which
Ras Mangasha had generated support, and the establishment
of the Italian colony weakend the Ras. However, it was
soon found that the Italian version of one of the articles
of the treaty placed the Ethiopian Empire under Italian
domination, while the Amharic version did not. Menelik
denounced it, and after negotiations failed, abrogated
it, leading Italy to declare war and invade from Eritrea.
After defeating the Italians at Amba-Alagi and Mekele,
he inflicted an even greater defeat on them, in the battle
of Adowa on March 1, 1896, forcing them to capitulate.
A treaty was signed recognizing the absolute independence
of Ethiopia.
Menelik
II's French sympathies were shown in a reported official
offer of treasure towards payment of the indemnity at
the close of the Franco-Prussian War, and in February
1897 he concluded a commercial treaty with France on very
favorable terms. He also gave assistance to French officers
who sought to reach the upper Nile from Ethiopia, there
to join forces with the Marchand Mission; and Ethiopian
armies were sent towards the Nile, but withdrew when the
Fashoda Crisis between France and the United Kingdom cooled
off. A British mission under Sir Rennell Rodd in May 1897,
however, was cordially received, and Menelik agreed to
a settlement of the Somali boundaries, to keep open to
British commerce the caravan route between Zaila and Harrar,
and to prevent the transit of munitions of war to the
Mahdists, whom he proclaimed enemies of Ethiopia.
In
the following year the Sudan was reconquered by an Anglo-Egyptian
army and thereafter cordial relations between Menelek
and the British authorities were established. In 1889
and subsequent years, Menelik sent forces to co-operate
with the British troops engaged against the Somali mullah,
Mahommed Abdullah.
Menelik
had in 1898 crushed a rebellion by Ras Mangasha (who died
in 1906) and he directed his efforts henceforth to the
consolidation of his authority, and in a certain degree,
to the opening up of his country to western civilization.
He had granted in 1894 a concession for the building of
a railway to his capital from the French port of Jibuti,
but, alarmed by a claim made by France in 1902 to the
control of the line in Ethiopian territory, he stopped
for four years the extension of the railway beyond Dire
Dawa. When in 1906 France, the United Kingdom and Italy
came to an agreement on the subject, granting control
to a joint venture corporation, Menelek officially reiterated
his full sovereign rights over the whole of his empire.
In
May 1909 the emperor.s grandson Lij Iyasu (or Lij Yasu)
by his late daughter Shoaregga, then a lad of thirteen,
was married to Romanework Mangasha (b. 1902), granddaughter
of the Emperor Johannes IV by his natural son Ras Mangasha,
and was also the niece of Empress Taytu. Two days later
Yasu was publicly proclaimed at Addis Ababa as Menelek.s
successor. At that time the emperor was seriously ill
and as his ill-health continued, a council of regency
. from which the empress was excluded . was formed in
March 1910. Lij Iyasu's marriage to Romanework Mangasha
was dissolved, and he married Seble Wongel Hailu, daughter
of Ras Hailu, and granddaughter of King Tekle Haimanot
of Gojjam. Emperor Menelik II died on December 12th, 1913,
and is buried at the Baeta Le Mariam Monastery Church
of Addis Ababa.
Source:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation,
Inc.
This article incorporates text from the public domain
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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