Addis Abeba History, Ethiopia

Addis Abeba is also spelled as Addis Ababa on many occasions. Addis Abeba is the spelling that is regularly used by the Mapping Authority of Ethiopia. The largest city of Ethiopia, the city of Addis Abeba enjoys the status of a city and even the capital for the country of Ethiopia. The city of Addis Abeba has huge history behind it which has been of interest for many tourists whenever they visit Ethiopia.

Menelik II was the ruler of Ethiopia somewhere from year 1889 to the time of his death. He was baptized to become Sahle Maryam and he was the person responsible for laying the foundation of the city Addis Abeba. Even before the foundation of this city, the land was being used by the Ethnic Oromo group who used to live on this land and who today represents 32 percent of the population of Ethiopia. The settlement of the Oromo times was known by the name of finfinne. Sections other than Finfinne were famous by the name of Fil Wiha given by the Amhara ethnic group which today represents 30 percent of the population of Ethiopia. The language used by the Amhara ethnic group was Amharic.

It was the interest of Menelik’s wife Taytu who started to work on a Church that was located on the foot of Mount Entoto. Even Menelik found this place very useful for his military operations and both these reasons were enough for him to lay down the foundation for the city of Addis Abeba. As the supply of water and firewood was available on the southern part of the mountain, he first started to settle down there somewhere in the year 1886.

It was Taytu who built a beautiful house for her and people who used to stay with her. Her husband expanded this house and it became the palace which is still being used by the government of Addis Abeba as the seat of government. The city of Addis Abeba was given the tag of capital city for Ethiopia the moment Menelik II got the emperorship for the country of Ethiopia.

It was the year 1936 when the Italian Army had conquered the city of Addis Abeba but they lost control of the city to the British by the year 1941.

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