Menelik II
Encyclopedia of World Biography |
2004
Menelik II
Menelik (Menilik)
II (1844-1913) was an Ethiopian emperor, who preserved the independence
of his people by defeating a major Italian military expedition and who
strengthened his kingdom through expansion and political and economic
modernization.
Menelik II was born Sahle
Mariam on August 19, 1844, in Ankober, one of the capitals of the
autonomous central Ethiopian province of Shoa. The infant boy was
formally named by his paternal grandfather, Sahle Sellasie, who was the
first Shoan leader to rise to become a
negus, or king. The
name, Menelik, recalls the legendary son of Solomon and the queen of
Sheba who, according to Ethiopian tradition, was the first ruler of
Ethiopia, and the one to whom the family traced its ancestry. The story
is told that the old Shoan king foretold that the boy would one day be a
great man who would rebuild the Ethiopian empire. That such a day would
come, however, was anything but certain since Ethiopia was then beset
by wars and rebellions and lacked any strong, centralized authority.
Shoan
independence came to an end following the brief and undistinguished
reign of Menelik's father Haile Malakot (1847-55). The Shoan army was
defeated by the forces of the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II (1855-68),
and
Menelik's father died while on campaign. Along with his mother, a woman
of humble origins, and leading Shoan nobles, Menelik was sent into exile
at Tewodros's court, and Shoa was incorporated into the renascent
Ethiopian empire. The boy was tutored by his guardian, Ato Nedaw, and,
beyond receiving a clerical and martial education, learned much about
politics from living at the court. Not only was Menelik well treated by
Tewodros, but the emperor took a personal interest in the youth's
education. Menelik rose to become a
dejazmach, or earl, and married Altash, Tewodros's daughter.
By
1865, Menelik was faced with a difficult personal decision. Shoa had
broken away from Tewodros's fledgling empire and a usurper claimed the
Shoan throne. Deciding to flee the imperial court to reclaim his
patrimony, Menelik quickly defeated the Shoan usurper and proclaimed
himself
negus. The young king built his power base from the
Shoan army and conservative nobles. At the same time, he pursued
enlightened policies such as extending religious toleration to Muslims
and animists in his Christian kingdom. Fortunately for the young
monarch, Shoa was relatively insulated from the civil wars which ravaged
northern Ethiopia during the last years of Tewodros's reign. When
Tewodros became involved in a diplomatic imbroglio with Great Britain
over the taking of British hostages, Menelik remained neutral. Unable or
unwilling to move against his former benefactor, Menelik's failure to
join forces with the Europeans resulted in a major setback for the
Shoan's ambitions after a British expeditionary force defeated Tewodros
at Magdala in 1868. With Tewodros dead, power now passed to a rival
named Kasa who used British arms to advance his claim to the imperial
title. Although Menelik had also proclaimed himself emperor, he could
only watch and wait when Kasa assumed the crown as Yohannes IV
(1872-89).
Menelik had made a serious strategic blunder, as his
biographer Harold Marcus points out, but he had also learned the value
of using European power and technology for furthering his aspirations.
He turned to the Italians and French for weapons as well as to other
European countries for Western technology. It was roughly at this time
that Alfred Ilg arrived from Zurich and began a long sojourn in
Ethiopia, serving as an engineer, architect, and eventually as a trusted
advisor to his royal patron. Likewise, Menelik also permitted foreign
missionaries to enter his kingdom to convert the Oromo peoples who
constituted a significant proportion of the population.
Beyond the
importation of technology from Europe, Menelik recognized the
importance of establishing diplomatic ties with foreign powers. Although
he was forced to renounce his claim to the imperial throne and to do
fealty to Yohannes in March 1878, in reality he continued to act as an
independent sovereign. The Shoan
negus had earlier cultivated
the friendship of Egypt in its short-lived attempt at imperialistic
expansion into the Horn of Africa. Menelik next went behind Yohannes's
back and negotiated with the Mahdists, a group of fundamentalist Muslims
who had taken power in neighboring Sudan. Furthermore, Menelik had long
maintained friendly relations with Victorian England and had, in 1883,
entered into a treaty of amity and commerce with the Italians.
The
other significant development during this part of Menelik's life was
the expansion of the Shoan kingdom. Imperialist adventures were made
necessary by the need for increased revenues to pay tribute to Yohannes.
Blocked toward the north by Yohannes, Shoan armies marched south into
Oromo-speaking areas and to the east where they conquered the Muslim
emirate of Harar. Using arms purchased from the West, these expeditions
not only plundered these prosperous regions, but also gave Menelik
access to important trade routes and new sources of ivory and slaves.
Moreover, the Shoans established fortified villages throughout the newly
conquered territories from which they maintained control and into which
settlers and missionaries came from the north. Such colonization led to
the diffusion of Shoa's Amharic culture into these newly aggrandized
lands. This Amharization was a significant development because it
contributed to the integration of diverse societies into Menelik's
burgeoning empire. It is important to note that by forcing Menelik to
pay tribute, Yohannes's policies had the paradoxical effect of
strengthening his rival. Indeed, these decades were a turning point in
Ethiopian history as there was a strategic shift in the locus of wealth
and power in Ethiopia from the north to the south.
Menelik's
growing might put him on a collision course with Yohannes. At a time
when Yohannes was preparing to fight the Italians, Menelik concluded a
secret agreement with Italy (1887), whereby he exchanged Shoan
neutrality for European weapons. Although nominally a subject to
Yohannes, Menelik even proposed that he act as a mediator between the
Ethiopian emperor and Italy. However, the seemingly inevitable
confrontation between the Ethiopian rivals was not to be. At the battle
of Metemma in March 1889, Yohannes died fighting, not Menelik or the
Italian colonialists, but a Mahdist army. Henceforward, no force could
stand in the way of Menelik's ambitions.
Acting quickly, Menelik
was crowned negus negast (king of kings), or emperor, on November 3,
1889. By May the following year, he had concluded the famous Treaty of
Wichale with the Italian representative Pietro Antonelli. As the
historian G.N. Sanderson has observed, the treaty was important because
it insured that Italy would not recognize any other claim to Menelik's
imperial title. For the Italians, the treaty confirmed their special
relationship with Ethiopia.
From this point forward, however,
relations between Italy and Ethiopia progressively degenerated. It soon
was revealed that there was a difference in the Amharic and Italian
translations of Article XVII of the Treaty of Wichale. Basing their
assertion on the Italian text of the treaty, Italy claimed protectorate
status over Ethiopia even though the Amharic version recognized
Menelik's sovereignty. Beyond this diplomatic deception, Menelik became
more and more suspicious of Italian ambitions in the northern Ethiopian
province of Tigre. He renounced the treaty in 1893 and, even while
famine raged in his kingdom, imposed new taxes to pay off the huge debts
he owed to Italy. The failure of Italian attempts to divide and conquer
Ethiopia through an alliance with rebellious Tigre ultimately led Italy
to take
more forceful measures. Italian forces moved into Tigre in December
1894, and Italy publicly proclaimed Ethiopia as its protectorate. In
September of the following year, Menelik called for the mobilization of
Ethiopia. Able to amass an army of 120,000 men, the emperor moved north
and at Adwa, on March 1, 1896, met an overconfident Italian
expeditionary force composed of 20,000 troops. By inflicting a crushing
defeat on the Italians (70% of whom were either killed, wounded, or
taken prisoner), Menelik won Ethiopia another 40 years of independence.
The
battle at Adwa also put an end to centuries of Ethiopian isolation.
Menelik had demonstrated to the world that an African kingdom could
defeat a European army and diplomats flocked to his new capital, Addis
Ababa. The Ethiopian emperor proved himself an astute statesman and beat
the Europeans at their own diplomatic game. Pragmatic in victory,
Menelik did not seek to expel the Italians from their colony of Eritrea;
instead, he settled for Italy's recognition of Ethiopian independence.
Moreover he used the Europeans' concept of "effective occupation" to
wring territorial concessions from neighboring French and British
colonies. Finally, Menelik's policy of detente with Mahdist Sudan saved
Ethiopia from continued warfare with his Muslim neighbors.
With
the threat of foreign intervention removed, Menelik spent the last
active decade of his rule strengthening centralized power and
modernizing Ethiopia's political system. In the provinces, he replaced
hereditary rulers with appointed officials and garrisoned troops in some
of the empire's potentially rebellious districts. Changes were also
made in the judicial system whereby appellate judges were placed over
the provinces. As the emperor sought to enhance the national power of
Ethiopia, he increasingly took a direct hand in administration and, like
the great French monarch, Louis XIV, he identified himself with the
state. Only when he recognized the nature of his declining health, did
Menelik create Ethiopia's first cabinet in 1907. In addition, he sought
to regularize taxation and end a system whereby soldiers in effect
looted the peasantry.
In his last years, Menelik promoted a host
of notable reforms in Ethiopia. Bridges and modern roads were built, a
postal system was organized, and telegraph lines were erected. More
important still, a railroad was begun which eventually linked Addis
Ababa with the French-controlled Red Sea port of Djibouti. The creation
of this transportation and communications infrastructure opened new
markets as well as contributing to the national integrity of the empire.
Among many other changes which occurred in this period were the
introduction of a national currency and mint, as well as the
establishment of the Bank of Abyssinia. The capital had its first hotel,
Western-style school, and hospital, and a state printing press began
operations in 1911.
Menelik at the height of his power was often
compared with the great German nation-builder, Otto von Bismarck. Along
with his diplomatic and military accomplishments, there was near
unanimity among foreign visitors as to his intelligence and ability.
Fascinated by Western machinery and technology, Menelik took a personal
interest in photography, medicine, and mechanical devices.
Perhaps
the greatest failure of his reign was his inability to provide for a
stable succession. Beginning in 1906, he suffered a series of apoplectic
seizures and gradually began to lose his faculties. The emperor
designated his grandson, Lij Iyasu, as heir in 1908, and a regency was
created since Iyasu was still a youth. By Octoer 1909, Menelik lay
paralyzed and totally incapacitated. With the emperor supine, his wife,
the empress Taitu, ruled in all but name until she was deposed by a
palace coup in 1910. The untimely death of the regent and the
impetuosity of young Lij Iyasu further contributed to the breakdown of
centralized authority in Ethiopia. While the emperor lingered on, much
of the work which he had done to build a strong national monarchy came
undone. The merciful denouement came on the night of December 12-13,
1913, when Menelik breathed his last. The great task of modernizing
Ethiopia lay unfinished and would be left to another great emperor—Haile
Selassie.
