Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country in the Horn of Africa, and is the most populous landlocked country in the world. It shares borders with Eritrea and Djibouti to the north, Somaliland to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia has a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi) and over 117 million inhabitants and is the 12th-most populous country in the world and the 2nd-most populous in Africa. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates.
Ethiopian national identity is grounded in the historic and contemporary roles of Christianity and Islam, and the independence of Ethiopia from foreign rule, stemming from the various ancient Ethiopian kingdoms of antiquity. Some of the oldest skeletal evidence for anatomically modern humans has been found in Ethiopia. It is widely considered as the region from which modern humans first set out for the Middle East and places beyond. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations settled in the Horn of Africa region during the ensuing Neolithic era. Tracing its roots to the second millennium BC, Ethiopian governmental system was a monarchy for most of its history. Oral literature tells that the monarchy was founded by the Solomonic dynasty from King Solomon and Queen of Sheba, under its first king, Menelik I. In the first centuries, the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region. The kingdom was collapsed in mid-10th century following devastation by female pagan ruler named Gudit. Zagwe dynasty then emerged, ruled by Agaw people for three centuries until the last king overthrown by Abyssinian nobleman Yekuno Amlak. He established the Ethiopian Empire in 1270, claiming his lineage from the Biblical Solomon and Queen Sheba. In the Middle Ages, this Empire engaged intense conflicts with Ottoman Empire and Adal Sultanate. From 1769 to 1855, the Empire was divided into subordinate regions ruled by local lords. This was solved by reunification by Emperor Tewodros II.
During the late 19th-century Scramble for Africa, Ethiopia fought against Italy under Emperor Menelik II with defeats. This enabled to establish its modern borders through extensive conquest of territories to its east, west and south. Ethiopia was the first independent African member of the League of Nations and the United Nations. In 1935, Italy under Mussolini's Fascist regime again invaded Ethiopia following a war. In 1936, Italy declared an an empire in East Africa conjoining the two former colonies of Eritrea and Somaliland, and Somalia with Ethiopia. In the wake of World War II 1941, the British forces liberated Ethiopia, resulting in a short period of military administration. During Italian rule, the government abolished the centuries-old practice of slavery, and urbanization steadily increased. In 1974, the long-standing Ethiopian monarchy under Haile Selassie was overthrown by the Derg, a communist military government backed by the Soviet Union. In 1987, the Derg established the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, which was overthrown in 1991 by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The EPRDF regime, dominated by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), saw severe authoritarian, ethnic nationalist rule under an ethnic federalist system dominated by one-party, including human rights violations, political repression and political prisoners, and corruption prevalence. During their rule, ethnic federalism was implemented in the constitution. The EPRDF coalition leadership was ended after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018 by merging with his new Prosperity Party in 2019 despite the TPLF refusing to merge. Although Abiy's government initially reforming and liberating the country's politics, human rights violations, particularly ethnic unrest heightened, and hostility between TPLF members worsened after 2020, culminating ongoing Tigray War.
Ethiopia is a multilingual nation, with around 80 ethnolinguistic groups, the four largest of which are the Oromo, Amhara, Somali and Tigrayans. A majority of the population adheres to Christianity (mainly the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and P'ent'ay), while a third follow Islam, primarily Sunni. The country is the site of the Islamic Migration to Abyssinia and the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa, at Negash. The nation is a land of geographical contrasts, ranging from the vast fertile west, with its forests and numerous rivers, to the world's hottest settlement of Dallol in its north. The Ethiopian Highlands are the largest continuous mountain ranges in Africa, and the Sof Omar reference
Ever curious about what that abbreviation stands for? fullforms has got them all listed out for you to explore. Simply,Choose a subject/topic and get started on a self-paced learning journey in a world of fullforms.
Allow To Receive Free Coins Credit 🪙