Why Did Ethiopia Remain Independent

In that location are two countries in Africa considered past some scholars to never have been colonized: Ethiopia and Liberia. The truth, however, is that brief periods of varying levels of foreign command during their early on histories accept left the question of whether Liberia and Ethiopia truly remained fully independent a subject of debate.

Cardinal Takeaways

Ethiopia and Liberia are widely believed to be the only 2 African countries to have never been colonized.
Their location, economic viability, and unity helped Ethiopia and Liberia avoid colonization.
Ethiopia was officially recognized every bit an contained state in 1896, after decisively defeating invading Italian forces at the Battle of Adwa. During its brief armed forces occupation during World War II, Italy never established colonial control over Ethiopia.
Despite being founded by the U.s.a. in 1821 as a identify to send its free Black residents, Republic of liberia was never colonized after gaining its total independence in 1847.

Between 1890 and 1914, the and then-called "scramble for Africa" resulted in the rapid colonization of well-nigh of the African continent by European powers. By 1914, around 90% of Africa was under European control. Even so, because of their locations, economies, and political status, Ethiopia and Republic of liberia avoided colonization.

What Does Colonization Mean?

The process of colonization is the discovery, conquest, and settlement of one political trunk over some other. It is an aboriginal art, practiced by the Bronze and Iron Age Assyrian, Farsi, Greek, and Roman empires, not to mention the post-colonial empires of the Usa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

Merely the virtually all-encompassing, well-nigh studied, and arguably the well-nigh damaging of the colonial actions is what scholars refer to as the Western Colonization, the efforts of the maritime European nations of Portugal, Kingdom of spain, the Dutch Commonwealth, France, England, and eventually Germany, Italy, and Belgium, to conquer the residue of the globe. That began in the late 15th century, and by World War Two, 2-fifths of the earth's land area and one-tertiary of its population were in colonies; another third of the earth's territory had been colonized merely were at present contained nations. And, many of those independent nations were made up primarily of the descendants of the colonizers, so the effects of Western colonization were never truly reversed.

Never Colonized?

At that place are a handful of countries that were not subsumed by the juggernaut of Western colonization, including Turkey, Iran, China, and Nippon. In improver, the countries with longer histories or higher levels of evolution before 1500 tend to accept been colonized after, or not at all. Characteristics that drove whether or not a country was colonized past the West appear to be how difficult information technology is to achieve them, the relative navigation distance from northwestern Europe, and the lack of a rubber overland passage to landlocked countries. In Africa, those countries arguably included Republic of liberia and Federal democratic republic of ethiopia.

Because information technology essential to the success of their economies, the imperialistic European nations avoided the outright colonization of Liberia and Ethiopia—the only two African countries they considered viable players in the trade-based earth economy. However, in return for their credible "independence," Liberia and Ethiopia were forced to surrender territory, agree to differing degrees of European economical control, and become participants in European spheres of influence.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia, formerly Abyssinia, is i of the world's oldest countries. Dating to around 400 BCE, the region is documented in the in the King James Version of the Bible as the Kingdom of Axum. Forth with Rome, Persia, and China, Axum was considered one of the 4 great powers of the era. Throughout the millennia of its history, the willingness of the country's people—from farmers to kings—to come together as one, coupled with its geographic isolation and economic prosperity, helped Ethiopia score decisive victories confronting a series of global colonialist forces.

Ethiopia is considered "never colonized" by some scholars, despite Italy's occupation from 1936–1941 considering information technology did not result in a lasting colonial administration.

Seeking to expand its already considerable colonial empire in Africa, Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1895. In the ensuing Offset Italo-Ethiopian War (1895-1896), Ethiopian troops won a crushing victory over Italian forces at the Battle of Adwa on March 1, 1896. On Oct 23, 1896, Italy agreed to the Treaty of Addis Ababa, ending the war and recognizing Ethiopia as an independent state.

On Oct. 3, 1935, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, hoping to rebuild his nation's prestige lost in the Battle of Adwa, ordered a 2d invasion of Ethiopia. On May 9, 1936, Italy succeeded in annexing Ethiopia. On June 1 of that year, the country was merged with Eritrea and Italian Somalia to form Africa Orientale Italiana (AOI or Italian E Africa).

Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie made an impassioned appeal for assistance in removing the Italians and re-establishing independence to the League of Nations on June 30, 1936, gaining back up from the U.S. and Russian federation. Only many League of Nations members, including Britain and France, recognized Italian colonization.

It was not until May 5, 1941, when Selassie was restored to the Ethiopian throne, that independence was regained.

Liberia

The sovereign nation of Liberia is often described as never colonized because it was created and so recently, in 1847.

Liberia was founded by Americans in 1821 and remained nether their control for just over 17 years before partial independence was accomplished through the declaration of a democracy on April four, 1839. True independence was declared 8 years later on July 26, 1847. From the middle 1400s through the late 17th century Portuguese, Dutch, and British traders had maintained lucrative trading posts in the region that became known as the "Grain Coast" because of its abundance of melegueta pepper grains.

The American Guild for Colonization of Free People of Colour of the United states (known simply as the American Colonization Society, ACS) was a society initially run by white Americans who believed in that location was no place for costless Blacks in the U.Southward. They believed the federal regime should pay to return gratuitous Blacks to Africa, and eventually its administration was taken over by free Blacks.

The ACS created the Cape Mesurado Colony on the Grain Coast on Dec. 15, 1821. This was further expanded into the Colony of Republic of liberia on Aug. 15, 1824. By the 1840s, the colony had go a financial burden on the ACS and the U.S. government. In add-on, because it was neither a sovereign country nor a recognized colony of a sovereign country, Liberia faced political threats from Britain. As a effect, the ACS ordered the Liberians to declare their independence in 1846. However, fifty-fifty afterwards gaining its full independence a yr later, the European nations continued to view Republic of liberia as an American colony, thus avoiding it during the scramble for Africa in the 1880s.

Some scholars contend, nevertheless, that Republic of liberia's 23-year menstruum of American domination until independence in 1847 qualifies it to exist regarded as a colony.

Sources and Further Reading

Bertocchi, Graziella, and Fabio Canova. "Did Colonization Matter for Growth? An Empirical Exploration into the Historical Causes of Africa'south Underdevelopment." European Economic Review 46.10 (2002): 1851–71.
Ertan, Arhan, Martin Fiszbein, and Louis Putterman. "Who Was Colonized and When? A Cantankerous-Country Analysis of Determinants." European Economic Review 83 (2016): 165–84.
Olsson, Ola. "On the Democratic Legacy of Colonialism." Journal of Comparative Economic science 37.4 (2009):534–51.
Selassie, Haile. "Appeal to the League of Nations, 1936." International Relations: Mount Holyoke College.

Updated past Robert Longley