Handbook on Abyssinia: prepared in 1920, by the
Historical Section of the British Foreign Office. (No. 129)
An
interesting account that deals with the frontiers of Abyssinia, history,
intercourse with Europe, reigns and palace intrigues during the rule of:
Tedros, Yohannes IV, Menelik, Lij Iyassu, Egyptian aggression, treaties and
frontiers with the Foreign powers of the time, Italians in Eritrea, Battle of
Adwa, extracts from important treaties.
The
population of Abyssinia then was estimated between 4 – 8 million, Addis population
70,000 – 80,000; the 1858 Tigriyan rebellion led by Negussie and which was
brutally crushed by Tedros, The British expedition and death of Tedros, the
rise and conflict with the Mahdist Revolution, Turkish and Egyptian occupation
of the Red Sea, the defeat of the Egyptians at Gudda Gudi and Gura, Defeat Of
Yohannes by the Mahdists, Menelik’s intrigues to divide the Tigrean leaders,
Article XVII of the Uccaili treaty: ‘may make use’ vs. ‘consents to’; details
of the Battle of Adwa; the grand railways schemes that were meant to link
Somalia to Eritrea and Sudan; extracts from the main treaties, and many other
issues.
What you
miss is an account of the Sultanate of Adal and Ahmed Ibrahim (Gran), its
military leader, as is usual with western and Ethiopian Christian scholars (there
is only one sentence about him as an invader, but when e.g. Menelik invaded the
Oromos, or Tigriyan leaders encroached into the lowlands of Eritrea, it is
subdual). Ahmed Gran actually was the first military leader to have united what
is today, modern Ethiopia. He conquered Shoa, Southern Ethiopia, Tigray and
reached Kassala (1528 – 1542) and was defeated with Portuguese assistance. When
Yohannes or Tedros converted Muslims to Christianity by force, it is accepted;
but what Ahmed Gran did, was not accepted. Ahmed Gran deserves a separate note.
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You can access and download it here:
http://www.wdl.org/en/item/9174/#q=Abyssinia
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Handbook on British Somaliland prepared in 1920, by the Historical Section of the British Foreign Office. (No. 97):
British Somaliland and Sokotra is Number 97 in a series of more than 160 studies produced by the section, most of which were published after the conclusion of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. British Somaliland (the northwest part of present-day Somalia) was a British protectorate, established in 1884−7, after a period of rivalry between Britain and Egypt (then nominally still part of the Ottoman Empire) for control of the territory on the African side of the Gulf of Aden. Sokotra (part of present-day Yemen) is an island in the Indian Ocean lying south of the Arabian Peninsula, which became a British protectorate in 1886. Both British Somaliland and Sokotra were regarded as strategically important for controlling the ocean trade routes from the Suez Canal to India, Australia, and the Far East. The book includes sections on physical and political geography, political history, social and political conditions, and economic conditions. The section on political history summarizes the parts played by Great Britain, France, and Italy in this region of Africa and recounts the recurring difficulties the British and Italians had in subjugating the local religious leader and Somali nationalist Sayid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, a man the British called "the Mad Mullah," who preached holy war against the colonial powers and the neighboring Abyssinians (Ethiopians). The economic section notes the underdeveloped state of both protectorates, observing, for example, that there “are no roads in British Somaliland in the European sense of the word.”
https://dl.wdl.org/11787/service/11787.pdf
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