Menelik's conquests, also known as the Agar Maqnat (Amharic: አገር ማቅናት, romanized: ʾägär maqnat, lit. 'colonization, cultivation and christianization of land'),^[1] were a series of wars and conquests carried out by Menelik II of Shewa to expand the Ethiopian Empire.^[2]

Quick Facts Date, Location ...

Menelik's conquests
The cover of French magazine Le Petit Journal, depicting attacks on Harar
Date 1878–1904 Location Present-day Ethiopia Result Shewan-Ethiopian victory
Belligerents
Ethiopian Empire Shewa	Emirate of Harar Hadiya Kingdom of Kaffa Arsi Oromos Kingdom of Wolaita Dervishes and others...
Commanders and leaders
Menelik II Ras Gobana Dacche Habte Giyorgis Dinagde Darge Sahle Selassie Tessema Nadew Welde Giyorgis Aboye Ras Makonnen	Amir Abdullahi II Gaki Sherocho Kawo Tona Gaga Hassan Enjamo Mohammed Hassan and others...

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In 1866 Menelik II became the king of Shewa, and in 1878 began a series of wars to conquer land for the Ethiopian Empire and to increase Shewan supremacy within Ethiopia. Menelik II sought to build a "greater Ethiopia" and to incorporate lands from the era of Amda Seyon I, prior to the Ethiopian–Adal War and Oromo expansions.^[3] He did this with the help of Ras Gobena's Shewan Oromo militia, who did most of the southern expansion^[4][5] and his son, Makonnen Wolde Mikael, who is known for his Battle of Chelenqo, afterwards which he incorporated Harar into Ethiopia.^[6] He is viewed as the founder of modern Ethiopia.^[7][8]

In the late 1870s Menelik led a campaign to incorporate the lands of Hadiya which included the Gurage people into Shewa. In 1878, the Soddo Gurage living in Northern and Eastern Gurageland peacefully submitted to Menelik and their lands were left untouched by his armies, likely due to their shared Ethiopian Orthodox faith and prior submission to Negus Sahle Selassie, grandfather of the Emperor. However, in Western Gurage and Hadiya which was inhabited by the Sebat Bet, Kebena, and Wolane fiercely resisted Menelik.^[9] They were led by Hassan Enjamo of Kebena who on the advice of his sheiks declared jihad against the Shewans. For over a decade Hassan Injamo fought to expel the Shewans from the Muslim areas of Hadiya and Gurage until 1888 when Gobana Dacche faced him in the Battle of Jebdu Meda where the Muslim Hadiya and Gurage army was defeated by the Shewans, and with that all of Gurageland was subdued.^[10][11] The Halaba Hadiya however under their chief Barre Kagaw continued to resist until 1893 when the Abyssinians took advantage of the famine that had struck the region and led a conquest into their territory.^[12]

Conflicts between the Kingdom of Shewa and the Arsi Oromo date back to the 1840s when Sahle Selassie led an expedition against the Arsi. Shewans rulers had longed to pacify and incorporate this territory into their realm. In 1881, Menelik led a campaign against the Arsi Oromo, this campaign proved difficult, as the Oromos abandoned their homeland to wage gurriella war against the Shewan army, the Arsi inflicted significant losses against Menelik's forces through ambushes and raids. Menelik eventually left Arsi territory and his uncle Darge Sahle Selassie was left incharge of the campaign. In September 1886, Darge faced a large Arsi force at the Battle of Azule, the result was an overwhelming Shewan victory as the Arsi Oromo were completely defeated by the Shewan army. After the defeat of the Arsi at Azule the province of Arsi was pacified and Darge was named its governor.^[13][14][15]

From 1883 to 1885 the Shewan forces under Menelik attempted to invade the Chercher region of Harar but were defeated by the Ittu Oromo.^[16] In 1886 an Italian explorer and his entire party were massacred by soldiers from the Emirate of Harar, giving the Negus an excuse to invade the Emirate of Harar. The Shewans then led an invasion force, however when this force was camped in Hirna the small army of Emir Abdullah II shot fireworks at the encampment, startling the Shewans and making them flee towards the Awash River during the Battle of Hirna.

Menelik II wrote to European powers: "Ethiopia has been for 14 centuries a Christian island in a sea of pagans. If Powers at a distance come forward to partition Africa between them, I do not intend to remain an indifferent spectator."^[17] He did not, sending word to Emir Abdullah, ruler of the historic city of Harar which was pivotal to Muslim East Africa, to accept his suzerainty. The Emir suggested that Menelik should accept Islam. Menelik promised to conquer Harar and turn the principal mosque into a church, saying "I will come to Harar and replace the Mosque by a Christian Church. Await me." The Medihane Alam Church is proof Menelik kept his word.^[18][19][20]

In 1887 the Shewans sent another large force personally led by Menelik II to subjugate the Emirate of Harar. Emir Abdullah, in the Battle of Chelenqo, decided to attack early in the morning of Ethiopian Christmas assuming they would be unprepared and befuddled with food and alcohol, but was defeated as Menelik had awoken his army early expecting a surprise attack. The Emir then fled to the Ogaden and the Shewans conquered Hararghe.^[21][22]

Finally having conquered Harar, Menelik extended trade routes through the city, importing valuable goods such as arms, and exporting other valuables such as coffee. He would place his cousin, Makonnen Wolde Mikael in control of the city. Harari oral tradition recounts 300 Hafiz and 700 newly-wed soldiers killed by Menelik's forces in the short battle. The remembrance of the seven hundred "wedded martyrs" became part of Harari wedding customs to this day, when every Harari groom is given fabric that is called "satti baqla" in Harari, which means "seven hundred." It's a rectangular cloth from white woven cotton ornamented with a red stripe along the edges symbolizing the martyrs' murders. When he presents it, the giver (who usually is the paternal uncle of the woman's father), whispers in the ear of the groom: "So that you do not forget.^[23][24]

The largest Mosque in Harar (known as Sheikh Bazikh, "The capital Mosque," or Raoûf), located in Faras Magala, and the local Madrassa^{[citation needed]} were turned into churches, notably "Medhane Alem church" in 1887^[25] by Menelik II after the conquest.^[26]

In 1890 Menelik II invaded the Kingdom of Wolayta. The war of conquest has been described by Bahru Zewde as "one of the bloodiest campaigns of the whole period of expansion", and Wolayta oral tradition holds that 118,000 Welayta and 90,000 Shewan troops died in the fighting.^[27] Kawo (King) Tona Gaga, the last king of Welayta, was defeated and Welayta conquered in 1895. Welayta was then incorporated into the Ethiopian Empire. However, Welayta had a form of self-administrative status and was ruled by governors directly accountable to the king until the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.^[28][29]

The Kingdom of Kaffa was a powerful kingdom located south of the Gojeb river in the dense jungles of the Kaffa mountains. Due to constant invasions from the Mecha Oromos, the Kafficho people developed a very unique defense system unlike anything seen in the Horn of Africa. The Kafficho built very deep trenches (Hiriyoo) and ditches (Kuripoa) along the borders of the kingdom to prevent intruders from entering. They also used natural barriers such the Gojeb River and the mountains to repel invaders. As a result, Kaffa earned a reputation of being impenetrable and inaccessible to outsiders.^[30]

In 1895 Menelik II ordered the Kingdom of Kaffa to be invaded and sent three armies led by Dejazmach Tessema Nadew, Ras Wolde Giyorgis and Dejazmach Demissew Nassibu supported by Abba Jifar II of Jimma (who submitted to Menelik) to conquer the mountainous kingdom. Gaki Sherocho the king of Kaffa hid in the hinterlands of his kingdom and resisted the armies of Menelik II until he was captured in 1897 and exiled to Addis Ababa. After the kingdom was conquered Ras Wolde Giyorgis was named its governor.^[31]

In the 1890s, Ethiopian raiding parties led by Ras Makonnen made incursions into the Ogaden based on the supposed historical lands of Ethiopia which according to Emperor Menelik stretched from Lake Victoria to Khartoum. The Ethiopians received a large amount of firearms during these raids from the French port of Djibouti, whereas the European powers barred the Somalis from receiving any type of firearms.^[32]

British colonial administrator Francis Barrow Pearce writes the following concerning the Ethiopian raids into the Ogaden:

The Somalis, although good and brave fighting men, cannot help themselves. They have no weapons except the hide shield and spear, while their oppressors are, as has already been recorded, armed with modern rifles, and they are by no means scrupulous concerning the use of them in asserting their authority … The Abyssinians themselves have no more claim (except that of might) to dominate the wells than a Fiji Islander would have to interfere with a London waterworks company.^[33]

However the Ethiopian aggressors were also defeated numerous times by poorly armed Somalis such as in 1890 near Imi where Makonnen’s troops had suffered a large defeat to Reer Amaden warriors. A British hunter Colonel Swayne, who visited Imi in February 1893, was shown "the remains of the bivouac of an enormous Abyssinian army which had been defeated some two or three years before."^[34] In 1897 in order to appease Menelik’s expansionist policy Britain ceded almost half of the British Somaliland protectorate to Ethiopia in the  Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1897. Ethiopian authorities have since then based their claims to the Ogaden upon the 1897 treaty and the exchange of letters which followed it.^[35]

I.M. Lewis argues a subtly different interpretation of this treaty, emphasising that "the lost lands in the Haud which were excised from the Protectorate [i.e. British Somaliland] were not, however ceded to Ethiopia".^[36] Legal scholar and former President of the International Court of Justice, Abdulqawi Yusuf, has argued citing the Island of Palmas Case that since the British government had no title to the land which it had ceded during the treaty that such cession was null and void. A similar interpretation was put forward in parliament by British MP Fred Willey in 1955 in regards to the legality of the treaty

At any rate there was a case that the 1897 Treaty did not succeed in doing what it purported to do and that it was not within the power of the British Government to transfer these territories.

Nonetheless Ethiopia exerted no actual influence over the Ogaden east of Jijiga even after the treaty and ruled in name only. When the boundary commission attempted to demarcate the treaty boundary in 1934 the native Somalis were unaware that they were under Ethiopian rule.^[37]

• 1879–1889.
• 1889–1896.
• 1897–1904.

• Territorial evolution of Ethiopia
• Scramble for Africa
• Colonisation of Africa