Line #3 UsefulNotes/Ethiopia


1	[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ethiopia_sm05_3261.gif]]
2	[[caption-width-right:330:''[[UsefulNotes/{{Europe}} They]] [[WebVideo/HistoryOfTheEntireWorldIGuess never got Ethiopia...]]'']]
3	Ethiopia ('''Amharic:''' ''ኢትዮጵያ, ʾĪtyōṗṗyā''), officially known as the '''Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia''' ('''Amharic:''' ''የኢትዮጵያ ፌዴራላዊ ዲሞክራሲያዊ ሪፐብሊክ, ye-Ītyōṗṗyā Fēdēralāwī Dīmōkrāsīyāwī Rīpeblīk''), is the oldest Christian nation in UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}. Founded thousands of years ago as the land of Axum, Ethiopia was an independent power in East Africa, near the Red Sea. Contact with the UsefulNotes/RomanEmpire to the north eventually led to the conversion of Ethiopia to Christianity. Ethiopia has been a Christian land since before many parts of Europe, such as UsefulNotes/{{Poland}} or UsefulNotes/{{Norway}}, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is part of a branch of Christianity called [[UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity Oriental Orthodox]][[note]]The difference between Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christianity is that the latter refused to accept the findings of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Chalcedon Council of Chalcedon]]. Long story short, the Oriental Orthodox churches have a slightly different conception of God relative to the Chalcedonian Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. And Protestant views are all over the place, but they are usually Chalcedonian[[/note]]. Despite this, the country also has a large and well-established Muslim minority that dates back to the establishment of their faith, as well as those who practice traditional African religions. Historically, it was home to the Beta Israel, a divergent Jewish community of controversial origin[[note]]One position favors an ancient lineage for them, while the other favors a much more recent (though still pretty old) one, dating back to the 14th century CE or so[[/note]], the vast majority of whom currently live in UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}.
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5	In the 500s CE, Ethiopia invaded its cross-straits neighbor UsefulNotes/{{Yemen}}, under the pretext that the Arab Jewish King,[[note]][[ARareSentence Bet you never thought you'd read that phrase]], huh? The Jews had successfully converted the Yemenite royal line a few generations earlier, encouraged by the [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} Persians]]--the Persians saw the Jews as their allies against Christian [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantium]], and the Yemenites saw Persia as an ally against Christian Ethiopia.[[/note]] Abu Nuwas, was persecuting Christians. The Ethiopian hegemony lasted for about a century until the Sassanid Persians conquered that part of the Middle East. During the Ethiopian occupation of Yemen, it was said that the Christian king of Ethiopia, Kaleb, built a Church known as Al-Qualis to the Arabs living in Yemen (which is part of the Arabian peninsula). It is said that a merchant from Mecca disrespected the church, as he feared it might divert the pagan pilgrimage from Mecca to Christian-controlled lands. In retaliation, Kaleb led a force to attack Mecca, but the elephants in his army stopped short of the city and refused to attack, leading his army to turn back. This event was known as the Year of the Elephant, and was the same year [[UsefulNotes/TheProphetMuhammad Muhammad]] was born.
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7	Following the rout of Ethiopian forces from the Arabian peninsula and the subsequent rise of Islam, Christian Ethiopia found itself cut off from the rest of the Christian world for roughly a millennium. During this time, legends spread in Europe of a mystical "Prester John", a Christian King from a far-off land. The [[UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}} Portuguese]] "rediscovered" Ethiopia in the 1500s, during a war against the [[UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} Ottoman Turks]]. During this time, Ethiopia re-asserted itself as a regional power, and began to assume its present shape, while incorporating many Muslims as a significant minority as the country absorbed the lands they lived in. An Ethiopian prince (but current research suggests he was rather from an area bordering Lake Chad in present-day UsefulNotes/{{Cameroon}}), Abraham Petrovich Gannibal, came to UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia and became an ancestor of the 19th-century poet Creator/AlexanderPushkin.
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9	During the age of colonialism, Ethiopia became the only African country besides UsefulNotes/{{Liberia}} to escape European colonization, and the only one to completely escape colonization,[[note]]While Liberia was never under European control, it was colonized by African Americans in the 1800s, and it was largely controlled by their descendants until 1980.[[/note]] when its forces won the Battle of Adwa, in which an 80,000 strong Ethiopian army defeated 20,000 [[UsefulNotes/{{Italy}} Italian]] troops. Sadly, Ethiopia (then known as Abyssinia) was occupied by UsefulNotes/FascistItaly under UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini in the 1930s, but the occupation did not last very long. An interesting note is that the leader of Ethiopia at the time, Emperor Haile Selassie (birth name Ras Tafari) became a major figure in the Rastafari Faith. Even more interestingly, he rejected godhood, but never actively tried to persuade the Rastafari from their faith, deciding (more or less), "I know I'm not God, but if these people think I am, who am I to tell them no?" He also participated in the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement along with Jawaharlal Nehru of UsefulNotes/{{India}}, Kwame Nkrumah of UsefulNotes/{{Ghana}}, UsefulNotes/GamalAbdelNasser of UsefulNotes/{{Egypt}} (a small miracle, since Egypt and Ethiopia have a history of not getting along that dates back centuries if not millennia), Sukarno of UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}}, and UsefulNotes/JosipBrozTito of UsefulNotes/{{Yugoslavia}}.
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11	Ethiopia has since been involved in various power struggles in East Africa during and after the Cold War. A major regional player, Ethiopia has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world. With more than 107 million people, it has the second largest population in the continent and dwarfs virtually every country in Europe, save UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}. Ethiopia is poor (most of the population live on less than US$3 a day) and landlocked, but it is nevertheless a civilized land, producing fine coffee, being the plant's native land,[[note]]It's even possible that the word ''coffee'' is derived from the name of the town of Kaffa in Ethiopia, but most lexicographers consider it more likely that the term comes from the Arabic word ''qahwah'' (an odd word, which was one of several for "wine" until it came to mean "coffee"--don't ask how) via Turkish ''kahve'' and thence Italian ''caffè''.[[/note]] and major works of Christian art and architecture, such as churches carved out of solid rock. Not to mention the fact that it has lousy relations with almost all its neighbours, save ''maybe'' UsefulNotes/{{Djibouti}}[[note]]This one's more of a necessity than anything, since the teensy country provides Ethiopia the shortest access to the sea[[/note]] and UsefulNotes/{{Kenya}}; the worst of all with UsefulNotes/{{Eritrea}}, which seceded from Ethiopia in 1991 after a 30 year-long independence struggle and for a long time considered Ethiopia's archnemesis, although relations have been thawing a good deal since the reformist Abiy Ahmed ascended as Prime Minister in 2018, with both countries exchanging ambassadors for the first time. In wider East Africa, Ethiopia has mildly good relations with UsefulNotes/SouthSudan and the countries around Lake Victoria (UsefulNotes/{{Uganda}}, UsefulNotes/{{Burundi}}, UsefulNotes/{{Rwanda}}) on account of being less-developed countries that want to harness as much of the sources of the Nile as they can for development; they are opposed by Egypt and UsefulNotes/{{Sudan}} in North Africa, who are more or less utterly dependent on the Nile to support their large and growing populations and economies and need as much of its water as they can get. Compromise on the issue has been... a bit slow.
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13	Fun fact: Ethiopia is allegedly the home of TheArkOfTheCovenant (this is generally beyond a doubt in the minds of the people living there). It is said to be inside a small building in the town of Axum that only a single monk is ever allowed to see. The Ethiopians believe that if anyone else should see it, they will die shortly thereafter, like in ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''.
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15	!!Famous Ethiopians and people of Ethiopian descent:
16	* Creator/IlfeneshHadera is of Ethiopian descent on her father's side.
17	* Music/TheWeeknd (real name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye) was born in Canada to Ethiopian immigrants, and speaks Amharic as his first language.
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19	[[AC:The Ethiopian flag]]
20	https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ethiopia_flag_5755.png
21	->The green, yellow and red colors of the Ethiopian flag served as the source for one version of the Pan-African colors (the other replaces yellow with black). The green, yellow and red stripes symbolize the land, peace and hope, and strength, respectively. The blue disc, added 1996, symbolizes peace, containing the yellow star of diversity and unity, and whose five rays symbolize prosperity.
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23	[[AC:The Ethiopian national anthem]]
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25	->የዜግነት ፡ ክብር ፡ በኢትዮጵያችን ፡ ጸንቶ ፣
26	->ታየ ፡ ሕዝባዊነት ፡ ዳር ፡ እስከዳር ፡ በርቶ ።
27	->ለሰላም ፡ ለፍትሕ ፡ ለሕዝቦች ፡ ነጻነት ፣
28	->በእኩልነት ፡ በፍቅር ፡ ቆመናል ፡ ባንድነት ።
29	->መሠረተ ፡ ጽኑ ፡ ሰብእናን ፡ ያልሻርን ፣
30	->ሕዝቦች ፡ ነን ፡ ለሥራ ፡ በሥራ ፡ የኖርን ።
31	->ድንቅ ፡ የባህል ፡ መድረክ ፡ ያኩሪ ፡ ቅርስ ፡ ባለቤት ፣
32	->የተፈጥሮ ፡ ጸጋ ፡ የጀግና ፡ ሕዝብ ፡ እናት ።
33	->እንጠብቅሻለን ፡ አለብን ፡ አደራ ፣
34	->ኢትዮጵያችን ፡ ኑሪ ፡ እኛም ፡ ባንቺ ፡ እንኩራ ።
35	[[note]]
36	->Yäzégennät Keber Bä-Ityopp’yachen S’änto
37	->Tayyä Hezbawinnät Dar Eskädar Bärto.
38	->Läsälam Läfeteh Lähezboch Näs’annät;
39	->Bä’ekkulennät Bäfeqer Qomänal Bä’andennät.
40	->Mäsärätä S’enu Säbe’enan Yalsharen;
41	->Hezboch Nän Läsera Bäsera Yänoren.
42	->Denq Yäbahel Mädräk Yakuri Qers Baläbêt;
43	->Yätäfät’ro S’ägga Yäjägna Hezb ennat;
44	->Ennet’äbbeqeshallän Alläbben Adära;
45	->Ityopp’yachen nuri Eññam Banchi Ennekura!
46	[[/note]]
47
48	--
49
50	->Respect for citizenship is strong in our Ethiopia;
51	->National pride is seen, shining from one side to another.
52	->For peace, for justice, for the freedom of peoples,
53	->In equality and in love we stand united.
54	->Firm of foundation, we do not dismiss humanness;
55	->We are people who live through work.
56	->Wonderful is the stage of tradition, owners of a proud heritage,
57	->Natural grace, mother of a valorous people.
58	->We shall protect you – we have a duty;
59	->Our Ethiopia, live! And let us be proud of you!
60	----
61	[[AC:Government]]
62	* Ethnofederalist (federal) parliamentary constitutional republic
63	** President: Sahle-Work Zewde
64	** Prime Minister: Abiy Ahmed
65	** Deputy Prime Minister: Temesgen Tiruneh
66	** Speaker of the House of Peoples' Representatives: Tagesse Chafo
67	** Speaker of the House of Federation: Agegnehu Teshager
68	** Supreme Court Chief: Tewodros Mihret
69	----
70	[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
71	* '''Capital and largest city:''' Addis Ababa (አዲስ አበባ)
72	* '''Population:''' 109,224,414
73	* '''Area:''' 1,104,300 sq km (426,400 sq mi) (28th)
74	* '''Currency''': Ethiopian birr (Br) (ETB)
75	* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' ET
76	* '''Country calling code:''' 251
77	* '''Highest point:''' Ras Dejen (4550 m/14,928 ft) (31st)

Context UsefulNotes / Ethiopia