Ethiopia is exposed

[Idilinaa]

Read this account of ethiopians:

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I really think all of their misfortune comes down to their greed. Stealing from their peasants, looking to take the lands of their neighbours. Wa dad gaajo badan & xaasid ah. Had they left somalis and their lands alone (& the eritreans), allowed those lands to recover & focus on rebuilding themselves instead of dragging them into never-ending wars & disrupting their political process with the help of their western allies, they would have had neighbours they could trade with

Someone should create a video narrating and simulating whats written here, because it literally places the entire thing in context. I like how they used a Muslim princess as point of view of expression and someone caught between two warring worlds even.

But what annoys me a bit is that , the Europeans clearly saw the problem and fault in Ethiopia, and still enabled it regardless. Empowered them to continue their "Monstrous monarchy" and aided them in their ""violent desire of a barbarous people to sieze wealth" these are all their words and characterization of them.

I believe the obvious reason is Christianity seeing them as a useful ally ""Christian island" in a Muslim sea" and the other reason i believe they saw a bit of themselves within Ethiopia they could relate to in their feudal ways (how they behaved during the ''Dark ages and so on"). Almost like a feudal mirror. Abyssinia’s monarchy, with its warlords, peasant/serfdom/slavery, and plunder-based economy, resembled medieval Europe. This made it easier for Europeans to rationalize Ethiopia’s actions because they’d done the same thing.

 

[Midas]

What a fascinating account I didn't realize the difference in living standards was that high. I guess the futuh al habesh gaves us a distorted view on the wealth and goods that abyssnia had. It make the idea of somali raiders look even more laughable.

 

[Idilinaa]

I think internal reform is important but they are cursed in a way by geography that we dont fully appreciate. Even getting a port won't really improve that. Since even assab is extermely far from the rest of ethiopia.

It all started to click for me when I realized that african countries don't have the expertise or technology to produce a lot of modern goods At a high enough quality so normally they export it. But importing anything for ethiopia is diffcult because of
1) distance- even assab is incredibly far from the rest of ethiopia
2) terrain- you can only transport goods by truck and since the countey is extremly mountainous and they also dont have very good roads. You can imagine how difficult this must be compared to somalia's flat terrain
2) pouplation density- 75-80 % of Ethiopias pouplation is rural . Imagine you finally imported some product into the country but most of your potenial customers base doesn't live in a city so you can't reduce cost by buying in bulk.

When you combine this together you start to get a picture of how huge the the challenges are. It's also noticeable when you look closely at certain signs. For example when I see a lot of the amahric books on sale online. They have this used look to them.( This makes sense if paper is difficult to get ahold of) . The implications of this are incredible when you apply it to all of the hypothetical goods and services they need.

I don't buy the geography cop out as a whole, yes it limited them in many ways.

But that medieval account that @novanova showed fully proves that Ethiopia always had the option of being peaceful and economically integrate with their neighbors and when in times it did, it grew prosperous and wealthier from the trade of their neighbors but they opted not to and continued the same destructive culture and policy. Partly the fault of Europeans who coddled up and enabled them for their ideological and strategic reasons.

This is not to say that Somalia or their other red sea neighbors wouldn't have more advantages than them economically but it would benefit them more than not to work with them peacefully.

It's as if they have learned nothing from history, they have been dragging the region into never ending war for futile pursuit for almost a 1000 years.

It's insane reading that account, people had to bribe them to stay put. Like giving an angry toddler some toys to calm them from having temper tantrums. Waa wax yab leh.

 

[novanova]

In this state, war was merely another form of commerce between the two nations, though peace was the most beneficial condition for both. This was what Empress Helena had constantly strived to maintain, though she could not always succeed.

Sorry, I left out the last part

 

[Idilinaa]

What a fascinating account I didn't realize the difference in living standards was that high. I guess the futuh al habesh gaves us a distorted view on the wealth and goods that abyssnia had. It make the idea of somali raiders look even more laughable.

Most of the gold in their possession at their courts was from Muslims. It said steady stream if Mohemethan/Muslim gold and mentioned gold as one of the trade items they procured from Adal.

It's insane to think about when most of the regions gold mines was in their mountainous territories.

 

[Idilinaa]

Sorry, I left out the last part
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"In this state, war was merely another form of commerce between the two nations, though peace was the most beneficial condition for both. This was what Empress Helena had constantly strived to maintain, but could not succeed among a warlike people by any other means but by giving them a minor for their king, who by the law of the land was under her direction, as the country was, during his minority, under her regency."


This says that Empress Helena desperately strives for peace but she could not pacify the warlike Abyssinians by force, but she succeeded by crowning a young prince legally bound to her regency thus ruling through him until he came of age.

She basically worked her way through her son to maintain peace and in the story Helena’s Moorish(Muslim) roots made her loyalty suspect, Abyssinians(Ethiopians) distrusted her pro-peace stance.

Btw Helena in this is said to be a princess from Dawaro that married into Abyssinian(Ethiopian) royalty and the story takes place from her point of view. In her struggle to play diplomatic mediator.

 

[Midas]

Most of the gold in their possession at their courts was from Muslims. It said steady stream if Mohemethan/Muslim gold and mentioned gold as one of the trade items they procured from Adal.

It's insane to think about when most of the regions gold mines was in their mountainous territories.

I'm guessing they didn't produce anything of value we wanted but we traded the raw goods for stuff from the outisde world.

You know i was suspicious when I realized that this giant country of 100 million people which in other parts of the world would be the main supplier to a country the size of Somalia. Apprently only exports khat and vegetables/fruit to us. Compared with kenya which we buy a huge amount of processed goods from.

 

[Idilinaa]

I'm guessing they didn't produce anything of value we wanted but we traded the raw goods for stuff from the outisde world.

You know i was suspicious when I realized that this giant country of 100 million people which in other parts of the world would be the main supplier to a country the size of Somalia. Apprently only exports khat and vegetables/fruit to us. Compared with kenya which we buy a huge amount of processed goods from.

They mostly obtained the gold through Muslims bribing them with it seems to pacify them momentarily but it always proved to be unsustainable.

I remember reading a passage someone posted where it said they only had petty small markets where they sold consumption goods, while the Muslims had larger markets where they traded imported and manufactured goods.

"Many local markets were to be found all over the country, for petty trade. This ability to transform any space into a local market is particularly visible in Alvares’s description of the royal camp. Wherever it settled, a market immediately appeared, gathering people from all over the region: Christians sold consumption goods, while Muslims had a bigger market place where they traded imported and manufactured goods.

The virtual monopoly enjoyed by Muslim maritime traders on the Red Sea would be well demonstrated by the history of this term in the different languages employed all over the Red Sea. Indeed, while Christian, Muslim and local-religious political powers all sought to take advantage of long-distance trade, the men who were leading the business were mostly Muslims.

But whatever the influence of Christian merchants on long-distance trade in Ethiopia, the attempt by King Lǝbnä Dǝngǝl (1509–1540) to charter his own ships and negotiate directly with Yemen was a failure.93 Even earlier, Lǝbnä Dǝngǝl had tried to convince the Portuguese to establish trading posts in Massawa and, if successful, also in Zaylaʿ. Even a king could not sidestep the entrenched networks that controlled this trade. - Samantha Kelly, "A Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea" (2020): 413, 416-17."

Sounds true to this day i guess.