ABSTRACT
Menelik II was emperor of Ethiopia at the turn of the nineteenth century. His modernization efforts, as well as his resistance to Italian invasions, made him one of the greatest Ethiopian rulers of modern times. After the decisive defeat of the Italians, Menelik turned toward the modernization of his country so that it would no longer face external aggression. He modernized the army, provided new schools and hospitals throughout Ethiopia, built a railroad between Addis Ababa, the capital, and the coast, and defined Ethiopia's borders in a way that endured until Eritrea's independence in 1993. Menelik's primary legacy centers on his thwarting of Italian designs on Ethiopia. Indeed, besides the Japanese, the Thai, and the Afghans, the Ethiopians were the only people to resist efforts by Europeans to colonize an Old World region. Menelik was successful because he promoted modernization and consistently focused on developing a single Ethiopian identity that would unify divided peoples into a powerful whole.
