05092008 week 01

We talked about the "Scramble for Africa" in class today, and I recognized that our country, Ethiopia, had not been colonized. I realized that I still didn't know why it had been like that. In class, Gabi and I looked up the basics, and I researched the subject when I got home.

During the "Scramble for Africa" Italy had occupied Eritrea, and had its eyes on Ethiopia. In the same year that Menelik II became the Emperor of Ethiopia. Italy and Ethiopia negotiated a treaty, and signed the Treaty of Wuchale on May 2nd of 1889. They had made two different versions. One in Amharic, and one in Italian. This was meant for easier readability, but instead became the root of a war. There was a mistranslation in it, the Italian version stating that Ethiopia was under full Italian control, and the treaty written in Amharic said that Italy would support the development of Ethiopia. Menelik II discovered the flaw, and Italy used force to try and make the Italian treaty the default one. In December 1895, the Italians invaded Tigray, a region of Ethiopia. Menelik II's forces overtook the small amount Italy had prepared, and in early 1896, the Italians ended up colonizing Eritrea. 

Ethiopia stayed its own sovereign nation until October 1935, when Italy started attacking Ethiopia. The League of Nations had done nothing to prevent, or to take action, and soon enough, belonged to Mussolini. Italy's fascist government exiled Haile Selassie, who had finally returned in 1941. It was not until 1987 that Ethiopia declared itself the Democratic People's Republic of Ethiopia, and had ratified its constitution.

Sources:

www.nationmaster.com.encyclopedia/Treaty-of-Wuchale

countrystudies.us/ethiopia/15.htm

history.sandiego.edu/GEN/text/selassie.html

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Project Status:

 

We conducted our interview today, and finished the mini movie script while we were at it. The interview was nice, because we found out a lot of really interesting things about her past, that I had not known before.