Ethiopia

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia ( Amharic ኢትዮጵያ Ityop'iya ) is a country situated in the Horn of Africa . It has one of the most extensive known histories as an independent nation on the continent. Unique among African countries, Ethiopia maintained independence during the Scramble for Africa , and continued to do so until 1936 , when the Italian army invaded the country. British and Ethiopian troops defeated the Italians in 1941, and Ethiopia regained its sovereignty upon the signing of the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement in December 1944. Ethiopia was historically called Abyssinia.

Ethiopic text Ethiopia ( ) ( Ge'ez : ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōṗṗyā ) is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa . Officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia , it is the second-most populous nation in Africa with over 79.2 million people and the tenth-largest by area with its 1,100,000 km . The capital is Addis Ababa . Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, and Kenya to the south. Though most African nations are, in their modern form, less than a century old, Ethiopia has been an independent nation since ancient times, being one of the oldest countries in the world. A monarchy for most of its history, the Ethiopian dynasty traces its roots to the 10th century BC. Besides being an ancient country, Ethiopia is one of the oldest sites of human existence known to scientists today, having yielded some of humanity's oldest traces. It may be the region from which Homo sapiens first set out for the Middle East and points beyond. When Africa was divided up by European powers at the Berlin Conference , Ethiopia was one of only two countries that retained its independence . It was one of only four African members of the League of Nations . After a brief period of Italian occupation , Ethiopia became a charter member of the United Nations . When other African nations received their independence following World War II , many of them adopted the colors of Ethiopia's flag , and Addis Ababa became the location of several international organizations focused on Africa. Modern Ethiopia and its current borders are a result of significant territorial reduction in the north and expansion in the south toward its present borders, owing to several migrations and commercial integration as well as conquests, particularly by Emperor Menelik II and Ras Gobena . In 1974, the dynasty led by Haile Selassie was overthrown as civil wars intensified. Since then, Ethiopia has seen a variety of governmental systems. Ethiopia is one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), G-77 and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Today, Addis Ababa is still the headquarter of the African Union , the Nile Basin Commission and UNECA . The country has one of the most powerful militaries in Africa. Ethiopia is one of a few African countries to have its own alphabet. Ethiopia also has its own time system and unique calendar, seven to eight years behind the Gregorian Calendar. It has the largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Africa. The country is a land of natural contrasts, with spectacular waterfalls and volcanic hot springs. Ethiopia has some of Africa's highest mountains as well as some of the world's lowest points below sea level. The largest cave in Africa is located in Ethiopia at Sof Omar , and the country's northernmost area at Dallol is one of the hottest places year-round anywhere on Earth. There are altogether around 80 different ethnic groups in Ethiopia today, with the two largest being the Oromo and the Amhara , both of which speak Afro-Asiatic languages . The country is also famous for its Olympic gold medalists, rock-hewn churches and as the place where the coffee bean originated. Currently, Ethiopia is the top coffee and honey-producing country in Africa, and home to the largest livestock population in Africa. Ethiopia has close historical ties to all three of the world's major Abrahamic religions . It was one of the first Christian countries in the world, having officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century. It still has a Christian majority, but a third of the population is Muslim . Ethiopia is the site of the first hijra in Islamic history and the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa at Negash . Until the 1980s, a substantial population of Ethiopian Jews resided in Ethiopia. The country is also the spiritual homeland of the Rastafari religious movement , which is influenced by Pan-Africanism . Ethiopia is the source of over 85% of the total Nile water flow and contains rich soils, but it nevertheless underwent a series of famines in the 1980s, exacerbated by adverse geopolitics and civil wars, resulting in perhaps a million deaths. Slowly, however, the country has begun to recover, and today Ethiopia has the biggest economy in East Africa (GDP) as the Ethiopian economy is also one of the fastest growing in the world and it is a regional powerhouse in the Horn and east Africa. The country remains politically fragile, with the opposition struggling for democracy and with reports of human rights abuses. 2007 Census, . Embassy of Ethiopia, Washington, DC . Ethiopia Central Statistics Office -- Population Projection for mid-2008 "Ethiopia" . Speaking after his signing the disputed treaty between Ethiopia and Italy in 1889, Emperor Menelik II made clear his position: "We cannot permit our integrity as a Christian and civilized nation to be questioned, nor the right to govern our empire in absolute independence. The Emperor of Ethiopia is a descendant of a dynasty that is 3,016 years old — a dynasty that during all that time has never submitted to an outsider. Ethiopia has never been conquered and she never shall be conquered by anyone." Ethiopia Unbound: Studies In Race Emancipation - p. xxv by Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford "Ethiopia is top choice for cradle of Homo sapiens" . United Nations Economic Commission for Africa UNECA "the only African country with its own alphabet" . Ethiopia regional powerhouse "CSIS on Ethiopia regional power" .

Ethiopic text Ethiopia ( / ˌ iː θ i ˈ oʊ p i ə / ; , ʾĪtyōṗṗyā , listen ), officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia , is a country located in the Horn of Africa . It is bordered by Eritrea to the north and northeast, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With over 90 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world, as well as the second-most populated nation on the African continent. It occupies a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi), and its capital and largest city is Addis Ababa . Some of the oldest evidence for anatomically modern humans has been found in Ethiopia, which is widely considered the region from which Homo sapiens first set out for the Middle East and points beyond. According to linguists, the first Afro-Asiatic -speaking populations settled in the Horn region during the ensuing Neolithic era. Tracing its roots to the 2nd millennium BC, Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history . During the first centuries AD the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region. followed by Abyssinia circa 1137. Ethiopia derived prestige with its uniquely successful military resistance during the late 19th-century Scramble for Africa , and subsequently many African nations adopted the colors of Ethiopia's flag following their independence. Ethiopia was the only African country to defeat a European colonial power and retain its sovereignty as an independent country. It was the first independent African member of the 20th-century League of Nations and the United Nations . In 1974, at the end of Haile Selassie 's reign, power fell to a communist military junta known as the Derg , backed by the Soviet Union , until it was defeated by the EPRDF , which has ruled since about the time of the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Ethiopia is a multilingual nation with around 80 ethnolinguistic groups, the two largest of which are the Oromo and the Amhara . Most people in the country speak Afro-Asiatic languages of the Cushitic or Semitic branches. Additionally, Omotic languages are spoken by Omotic ethnic minority groups inhabiting the southern regions, and languages from the Nilo-Saharan phylum are also spoken by the nation's Nilotic ethnic minorities. Ethiopia is the origin of the coffee bean. It is a land of natural contrasts, with its vast fertile West, jungles, and numerous rivers, the world's hottest settlement of Dallol in its north, Africa's largest continuous mountain ranges and the largest cave in Africa at Sof Omar . Ethiopia has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Africa. Ethiopia's ancient Ge'ez script , also known as Ethiopic , is one of the oldest alphabets still in use in the world. It shares many similarities with the Armenian alphabet . The Ethiopian calendar , which is seven years and around three months behind the Gregorian calendar , co-exists alongside the Oromo calendar . A slight majority of the population adheres to Christianity (mainly the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Pentay ), while around a third follows Islam (primarily the Sunni denomination). The country is the site of the Hijrah to Abyssinia and the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa at Negash . A substantial population of Ethiopian Jews, known as Beta Israel , resided in Ethiopia until the 1980s but most of them have since gradually emigrated to Israel. Ethiopia is one of the founding members of the UN, the Group of 24 (G-24), the Non-Aligned Movement , G-77 and the Organisation of African Unity , with Addis Ababa serving as the headquarters of the African Union , the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry , the UNECA , African Aviation Training HQ, the African Standby Force and much of global NGOs focused on Africa. Despite being the main source of the Nile , the longest river on earth, Ethiopia underwent a series of famines in the 1980s, exacerbated by civil wars and adverse geopolitics. The country has begun to recover recently and now has the largest economy (by GDP) in East Africa and Central Africa. According to Global Fire Power, Ethiopia has the 46th most powerful military in the world. "Country Level" . 2007 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia . Attention: This template ( ) is deprecated. Attention: This template ( ) is deprecated. Smaller nations that have claimed a prior official adoption of Christianity include Osroene , the Silures , San Marino , Armenia and Caucasian Albania . See Timeline of official adoptions of Christianity Speaking after signing the disputed treaty between Ethiopia and Italy in 1889, Emperor Menelik II made clear his position: "We cannot permit our integrity as a Christian and civilized nation to be questioned, nor the right to govern our empire in absolute independence. The Emperor of Ethiopia is a descendant of a dynasty that is 3,000 years old – a dynasty that during all that time has never submitted to an outsider. Ethiopia has never been conquered and she never shall be conquered by anyone." Hayford, J.E.C. Encyclopedia of African history and culture: African kingdoms (500 to 1500), Volume 2 . Ethiopia GDP purchasing power 2010: 86 billion . Kenya GDP purchasing power 2010: 66 Billion .

Country in the Horn of Africa This article is about the country. This article contains several patronymic names rather than family names. These persons are addressed by their given name , and not by their inherited name . Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia , is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa . It shares borders with Eritrea to the north , Djibouti to the northeast , Somalia to the east and southeast , Kenya to the south , South Sudan to the west , and Sudan to the northwest . Ethiopia covers a land area of 1,112,000 square kilometres (472,000 sq. miles). As of 2023 , it is home to around 116.5 million inhabitants, making it the 13th-most populous country in the world, the 2nd-most populous in Africa after Nigeria , and the most populated landlocked country on Earth. 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. Anatomically modern humans emerged from modern-day Ethiopia and set out for the Near East and elsewhere in the Middle Paleolithic period. Southwestern Ethiopia has been proposed as a possible homeland of the Afroasiatic language family . In 980 BC, the Kingdom of D'mt extended its realm over Eritrea and the northern region of Ethiopia, while the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region for 900 years. Christianity was embraced by the kingdom in 330, and Islam arrived by the first Hijra in 615. After the collapse of Aksum in 960, a variety of kingdoms, largely tribal confederations, existed in the land of Ethiopia. The Zagwe dynasty ruled the north-central parts until being overthrown by Yekuno Amlak in 1270, inaugurating the Ethiopian Empire and the Solomonic dynasty , claimed descent from the biblical Solomon and Queen of Sheba under their son Menelik I . By the 14th century, the empire had grown in prestige through territorial expansion and fighting against adjacent territories; most notably, the Ethiopian–Adal War (1529–1543) contributed to fragmentation of the empire, which ultimately fell under a decentralization known as Zemene Mesafint in the mid-18th century. Emperor Tewodros II ended Zemene Mesafint at the beginning of his reign in 1855, marking the reunification and modernization of Ethiopia. From 1878 onwards, Emperor Menelik II launched a series of conquests known as Menelik's Expansions , which resulted in the formation of Ethiopia's current border. Externally, during the late 19th century, Ethiopia defended itself against foreign invasions, including from Egypt and Italy ; as a result, Ethiopia and Liberia preserved their sovereignty during the Scramble for Africa . In 1935, Ethiopia was occupied by Fascist Italy and annexed with Italian-possessed Eritrea and Somaliland , later forming Italian East Africa . In 1941, during World War II , it was occupied by the British Army , and its full sovereignty was restored in 1944 after a period of military administration . The Derg , a Soviet-backed military junta, took power in 1974 after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie and the Solomonic dynasty, and ruled the country for nearly 17 years amidst the Ethiopian Civil War . Following the dissolution of the Derg in 1991, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) dominated the country with a new constitution and ethnic-based federalism . Since then, Ethiopia has suffered from prolonged and unsolved inter-ethnic clashes and political instability marked by democratic backsliding . From 2018, regional and ethnically based factions carried out armed attacks in multiple ongoing wars throughout Ethiopia . Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic state with over 80 different ethnic groups . Christianity is the most widely professed faith in the country, with significant minorities of the adherents of Islam and a small percentage to traditional faiths . This sovereign state is a founding member of the UN, the Group of 24 , the Non-Aligned Movement , the Group of 77 , and the Organisation of African Unity . Addis Ababa is the headquarters of the African Union , the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry , the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa , the African Standby Force and many of the global non-governmental organizations focused on Africa. Ethiopia has been invited to join BRICS and will become a full member starting January 1, 2024. Ethiopia is one of the least developed countries but is sometimes considered an emerging power , having the fastest economic growth in Sub-Saharan African countries because of foreign direct investment in expansion of agricultural and manufacturing industries; agriculture is the country's largest economic sector, accounting for 36% of the gross domestic product as of 2020. However, in terms of per capita income and the Human Development Index , the country is regarded as poor, with high rates of poverty , poor respect for human rights , widespread ethnic discrimination , and a literacy rate of only 49%. United Nations Development Programme . 8 September 2022 . Embassy Of Ethiopia Washington . Embassy Of Ethiopia Washington . The World Factbook (2022 ed.). The Falashas : a Short History of the Ethiopian Jews . World Economic Forum . 6 September 2019 . "Agriculture in Ethiopia: data shows for a large part Agriculture still retained its majority share of the economy" . There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ).

Country in the Horn of Africa This article is about the country. This article contains several patronymic names rather than family names. These persons are addressed by their given name , and not by their inherited name . It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia covers a land area of 1,104,300 square kilometres (426,400 sq mi). As of 2024 , it has around 128 million inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-most populous country in the world, the second-most populous in Africa after Nigeria , and the most populous landlocked country on Earth. 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. Anatomically modern humans emerged from modern-day Ethiopia and set out for the Near East and elsewhere in the Middle Paleolithic period. In 980 BC, the Kingdom of D'mt extended its realm over Eritrea and the northern region of Ethiopia, while the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region for 900 years. Christianity was embraced by the kingdom in 330, and Islam arrived by the first Hijra in 615. After the collapse of Aksum in 960, the Zagwe dynasty ruled the north-central parts of Ethiopia until being overthrown by Yekuno Amlak in 1270, inaugurating the Ethiopian Empire and the Solomonic dynasty , claimed descent from the biblical Solomon and Queen of Sheba under their son Menelik I . By the 14th century, the empire had grown in prestige through territorial expansion and fighting against adjacent territories; most notably, the Ethiopian–Adal War (1529–1543) contributed to fragmentation of the empire, which ultimately fell under a decentralization known as Zemene Mesafint in the mid-18th century. Emperor Tewodros II ended Zemene Mesafint at the beginning of his reign in 1855, marking the reunification and modernization of Ethiopia. From 1878 onwards, Emperor Menelik II launched a series of conquests known as Menelik's Expansions , which resulted in the formation of Ethiopia's current border. Externally, during the late 19th century, Ethiopia defended itself against foreign invasions, including from Egypt and Italy ; as a result, Ethiopia preserved its sovereignty during the Scramble for Africa . In 1936, Ethiopia was occupied by Fascist Italy and annexed with Italian-possessed Eritrea and Somaliland , later forming Italian East Africa . In 1941, during World War II , it was occupied by the British Army , and its full sovereignty was restored in 1944 after a period of military administration . The Derg , a Soviet-backed military junta, took power in 1974 after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie and the Solomonic dynasty, and ruled the country for nearly 17 years amidst the Ethiopian Civil War . Following the dissolution of the Derg in 1991, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) dominated the country with a new constitution and ethnic-based federalism . Since then, Ethiopia has suffered from prolonged and unsolved inter-ethnic clashes and political instability marked by democratic backsliding . From 2018, regional and ethnically based factions carried out armed attacks in multiple ongoing wars throughout Ethiopia . Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic state with over 80 different ethnic groups . Christianity is the most widely professed faith in the country, with the largest denomination being the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. After Christianity, Ethiopia houses a significant minority of adherents to Islam and a small percentage to traditional faiths . This sovereign state is a founding member of the UN, the Group of 24 , the Non-Aligned Movement , the Group of 77 , and the Organisation of African Unity . Addis Ababa is the headquarters of the African Union , the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry , the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa , the African Standby Force and many of the global non-governmental organizations focused on Africa. Ethiopia became a full member of BRICS in 2024. Ethiopia is one of the least developed countries but is sometimes considered an emerging power , having the fastest economic growth in sub-Saharan African countries because of foreign direct investment in expansion of agricultural and manufacturing industries; agriculture is the country's largest economic sector, accounting for over 37% of the gross domestic product as of 2022. Though Ethiopian economy has experienced consistent growth, in terms of per capita income and the Human Development Index the country remains among the poorest in Africa. Ethiopia faces numerous challenges, including high rates of poverty , human rights violations, widespread ethnic discrimination , and a literacy rate of 52%. There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ). A Bureaucratic Authoritarian Regime" . International Monetary Fund . 16 April 2024 . United Nations Development Programme . 13 March 2024 . The World Factbook . 8 October 2024 . The World Factbook (2022 ed.). The Falashas: a Short History of the Ethiopian Jews .