Volta
Person1844 – 1913

Menelik II

Emperor of Ethiopia (1889–1913) who defeated Italy at Adwa and preserved Ethiopian independence

King of Shewa, he became emperor in 1889 on the death of Yohannes IV. He founded Addis Ababa as his capital in 1886 and greatly expanded his realm to the south and east, largely creating the borders of modern Ethiopia. After Adwa he led modernization, bringing in a railway to Djibouti, the telegraph, modern schools and a bank. Illness kept him from governing in his last years, and he died in Addis Ababa in 1913.

Show on the map

Where they went

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

1 related event

  1. 1
    1896Battle of Adwamonarch

    Menelik II of Ethiopia decisively defeated an invading Italian army at Adwa. Ethiopia kept its independence through the partition of Africa.

Themes this person appears in

  • Imperialism and the Partition of the World1839 – 1914

    From the Tanzimat to Sarajevo — seventy-five years in which the powers carved up West Asia, India, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Pacific, and the peoples there answered with reform and resistance