11 JULY 1871
The short reign of Tekle Giyorgis II (1868-1871) came to an end on 11 July 1871 when his army was defeated by Kassa Mercha’s well-trained force. After Tewodros killed his father in 1858, Gobeze Gebre Medhen (as he was called before he became emperor) went into in exile. When he came out of exile in 1965, he returned to Lasta and with the assistance of family and friends, he was quickly able to build an army, estimated around 60,000. He then went to Tigray and forged an alliance with Kassa Mercha; he married Kassa’s sister. When the British stormed Magdala in 1868 and dethroned Tewodros, Gobeze made his ambition of being emperor real and declared himself Tekle Giyorgis II. His declaration to be emperor was not taken seriously by any of his rivals because most importantly there was no abun present and secondly, upon Tewodros’ death, Ethiopia had reverted back to disunity as it had been during the Zamana Masafent. Tekle Giyorgis began his kingship by trying healing the Church’s relationship with the royalty that had been much damaged during Tewodros’ reign. He started out by sending a mission to Egypt in an attempt to acquire an abun. Kassa Mercha, the ruler of Tigray, who was now no longer in good terms with the emperor, refused to allow that mission to pass thorough his country, for it neighbored Egypt. At the same time, many rebellions were taking place in neighboring provinces. Kassa’s rebellion being the most serious, the emperor attempted to deal with him by trying to name him ras of Tigray. Upon Kassa’s refusal, the emperor launched an assault on Kassa at Adwa on 11 July 1871. Even though the emperor’s forces outnumbered Kassa’s 60,000 to 12,000, Kassa overcame the emperor with his superiorly equipped and trained army. The emperor was imprisoned and died a year later. Six months later, Kassa became the new emperor under the name Yohannes IV. (Gabre-Sellassie 1975. 21-34)
JULY 1931
Haile Selassie was the 225th successor of the Solomonic dynasty. The name Haile Selassie means 'the Power of the Trinity' in Amharic, and his official titles also included 'King of Kings' and the Lion of Judah.' And it was on this month of the year 1931 that Haile Sellassie decreed the nation's first written constitution. Through his efforts, Ethiopia became a member of the international organization called the League of Nations in 1932.
JULY 1940
In July of 1940, England officially declared Ethiopia an ally believing Ethiopia could help England weaken Italian power in East Africa. Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia were all occupied by Italy at the time with a combined force of a quarter-million which out numbered the British force in Sudan and Kenya. The large Italian force also created a risk of invasion upon Egypt from Italian Libya and Italian East Africa.
JULY 1977
Many years of ethnic Somali insurrection in Ogaden, headed by a Western Somalia Liberation Front (WSLF), had been succeeded, in July 1977, by an invasion of Ethiopia by the troops of Somalia. This incursion, and well developed diplomacy on the side of the Ethiopians, prompted the Soviet Union, up to this time a close associate and military sponsor of Somalia, to change sides, out of preference of Ethiopia. The United States, which had previously aided Ethiopians, by contrast restrained from siding Somalia.
