AN HISTORICAL STUDY OF THE SHAWAN – AMHARA CONQUEST OF THE OROMO and SIDAMA REGIONS OF SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA 1865-1900

Abstract

The singular unparalleled process of Shawan Amhara territorial expansion during the era of the late nineteenth century European colonial conquest of sub-Saharan Africa and the resultant position of the subject Oromo and Sidama population within the emergent multi-ethnic, multi-cultural modern Ethiopian state deserve a more detailed and documented study than have hitherto been possible. The present study, therefore, is primarily intended to serve that purpose. Its main objective is to incorporate, elaborate upon and substantially add to the results of what have already been published on the subject in one single and hopefully coherent work. The researcher used an analytical approach to the information collected from published translated Ethiopian chronicles, unpublished and printed primary European archival source materials, published accounts of the European residents, explorers and travelers in Shawa and the Oromo and Sidama countries during the times of Menilek or soon afterwards, and the published secondary sources. The most important results reached are that the campaigns of Shawan Amhara military conquests conducted during the late nineteenth century had more than tripled the territorial extent of the historic Orthodox Christian Ethiopian state and almost doubled the size of its population. The successful accomplishment of the conquests was mainly the result of an almost unmatched military superiority of the Shawan armies over the fighting forces of their adversaries in both man – power and armament. The military preponderance of the Shawan Amhara was also an instrumental factor in ensuring the effective administrative control they managed to establish over the conquered territories and the systematic exploitation of their economic and human resources. It was also a determinant factor in the decisive defeat of the Italian invading forces at Adwa in 1896. The result had been the survival of the independence of a considerably enlarged Ethiopian state during the era of the European scramble and colonial conquest of sub – Saharan Africa. Internally the outcome had been the sustained maintenance and consolidation of the newly established Shawan Amharan politico – military hegemony and domination over the emergent greater Ethiopian polity, thought the northern Eritrean highlands were ceded to the Italians in 1896