Menelik II and Hailé Selassié I

the Ethiopian fight for the conservation of independence

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the path taken by nationalist movements and liberation struggles in the search for the construction of states in Africa, with an emphasis on the case of Ethiopia. The research is a bibliographical review based on important works on the history of Africa. The relevance of the research lies in the importance of having a more unbiased, less prejudiced and more in-depth view of African history, along with many prejudices that have been created from this history. The research is divided into four moments. In a first moment, we will analyze the reign of Menelik II and the imperialist race to Africa, through the sharing of Africa and the Ethiopia / Liberia cases. In a second moment, we shall examine the treaty of Addis Ababa and the annulment of the Treaty of Wuchale, concerning the complex question of the two versions of this last treaty and of the divergence of its interpretation between the American and Italian languages. In a third moment, we will analyze the reign of Haile Sellasie I, the successor of Menelik II, in the search for the modernization of Ethiopia. To conclude this research, we will conclude with a position on the liberation struggles that Ethiopia has experienced and its resistance to European colonialism. In this way, Africa is a society like all the others, and therefore, it is not static, and that still walks a road in construction not yet fully consolidated.