Ethiopian History

Question 1

Ancient successor of the primitive D’mt state that was the first major power in Ethiopia

Answer 1

Axum

Question 2

Axumite King who converted to Christianity because of the missionary Frumentius.

Answer 2

Ezana

Question 3

Ancient language sometimes called “classical Ethiopian”

Answer 3

Ge’ez

Question 4

Axumite King who invaded the Jewish Himyarite Kingdom in the south of the Arabian peninsula (modern Yemen). Axum reached it’s apogee of power at this man’s reign.

Answer 4

King Kaleb

Question 5

Legendary Jewish Queen who sacked and utterly ruined Axum, slaughtering the Axumite royal family. Her descendants were overthrown by the Zagwe Dynasty.

Answer 5

Gudit / Yodit

Question 6

Dynasty first led by Yekuno Amlak which replaced the Zagwe in Ethiopia and ruled for 700 years.

Answer 6

Solomonic Dynasty

Question 7

Sultanate which Solomonic Ethiopia (Abyssinia) went to war with for many years in the 1500s. King Susenyos converted to Catholicism to get Spanish and Portuguese help in that war.

Answer 7

Adal Sultanate

Question 8

Long-time capital of the the Solomonic Ethiopian Empire from the 1600s to the 1850s. Also a land in Lord of the Rings.

Answer 8

Gondor

Question 9

“Zemene Mesafint” a time period during which the the Ethiopian King had little power. Ended in the mid 19th century.

Answer 9

Age of Princes

Question 10

Ethiopian King who restored Royal authority in the 1850s, although shortly later he committed suicide following a British expedition and sacking of the Ethiopian capital.

Answer 10

Tewodros II (Theodore II)

Question 11

King who succeeded Tewodros II and fought a war with Ottoman Egypt, He is considered one of the chief architects of the modern Ethiopian nation-state.

Answer 11

Yohannes IV

Question 12

Humiliating treaty with Italy that assured Ethiopian independence but gave up numerous concessions. A misunderstanding led to the first Italo-Ethiopian War.

Answer 12

Treaty of Wuchale

Question 13

Great battle of the first Italo-Ethiopian War where King Menelik II led his forces to a victory.

Answer 13

Battle of Adwa (Adowa)

Question 14

Bloody war justified by the Walwal incident which resulted in the creation of Italian East Africa. The Hoare-Laval Pact failed to end this conflict, and the League of Nations’ spectacular failure in trying to end this conflict was the nail in it’s casket.

Answer 14

Second Italo-Ethiopian War

Question 15

Long-time Emperor of Ethiopia until 1974.

Answer 15

Halie Selassie

Question 16

Military Junta that overthrew Selassie and ran Ethiopia for 13 years before the creation of the Soviet-style People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

Answer 16

The Derg

Question 17

Genocidal Communist Dictator who ran Ethiopia under the Derg and then under the People’s Democratic Republic for 17 years. Still lives in Zimbabwe.

Answer 17

Mengistu Haile Mariam (Mengistu)

Question 18

War surrounding a region in the Southeast of Ethiopia contested between Ethiopia and Somalia. Ethiopia (Communist at the time) won the war.

Answer 18

Ogaden War

Question 19

Country with which Ethiopia fought a Civil War when it was still part of Ethiopia, and later a foreign war. This country’s secession made Ethiopia a landlocked nation.

Answer 19

Eritrea

Question 20

Widely praised current president of Ethiopia. He won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for ending standoffs with Eritrea. Initially leading the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, a coalition which had ran the country since the fall of Mengistu, he recently merged the coalition into a new party called the Prosperity Party which will first run in 2021.

Answer 20

Abiy Ahmed