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Ethiopia ▢𓏺｜Definition｜1st｜20260829000755-00-⌔

Ethiopia - Wikipedia

Ethiopia

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የኢትዮጵያ ፌዴራላዊ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ሪፐብሊክ

Ethiopia,1 officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE), is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the southeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia covers a land area of 1,104,300 km (426,400 sq mi).2 As of 2026, it has around 138 million inhabitants, making it the 10th-most populous country in the world and 2nd most populous country in Africa.3 The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates.4

Anatomically modern humans emerged in what is now Ethiopia.56789 In 980 BC, the Kingdom of D’mt extended its realm over Eritrea and the northern region of Ethiopia, while the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilisation in the region for 900 years. Christianity arrived to the kingdom in 330 AD,10 while Islam gained influence during the first Hijra in 615.11 After the collapse of Aksum in 960, the Zagwe dynasty ruled the north-central parts of Ethiopia. The Shewan usurper, Yekuno Amlak, overthrew the dynasty in 1270 at the Battle of Ansata, inaugurating the Ethiopian Empire and the Solomonic dynasty – asserting its lineage through Aksumite legitimacy by the biblical Solomon and Queen of Sheba, and Menelik I was the first emperor. Under Emperor Amda Seyon I (r. 1314–1344), the empire grew in prestige through territorial expansion against neighbouring Muslim territories. Later, the Ethiopian–Adal War (1529–1543) weakened the empire and opened the way for the Oromo expansion. The growing influence of the Oromo at the Gondarine court ultimately contributed to the fragmentation known as Zemene Mesafint, beginning in 1769. Emperor Tewodros II ended the Zemene Mesafint at the beginning of his reign in 1855, marking the reunification and modernisation of Ethiopia.

In the late 19th century, Ethiopia repelled foreign invasions from both Egypt and Italy, most notably defeating an Italian invasion at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. Under Emperor Menelik II, it also expanded its territory, remaining independent during the Scramble for Africa and establishing its current borders. Ethiopia lost its sovereignty in 1936, when Italy under Benito Mussolini invaded during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, and following Ethiopia’s defeat, Italian East Africa was established. In 1941, during World War II, it was liberated by the British Army, and its full sovereignty was restored in 1944. The Derg, a Soviet-backed military junta, took power in 1974 after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie and the Solomonic dynasty, and ruled the country for nearly 17 years amidst the Ethiopian Civil War. Following the dissolution of the Derg in 1991, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) dominated the country with a new constitution and ethnic-based federalism. Since then, Ethiopia has suffered from prolonged and unsolved inter-ethnic clashes and political instability marked by authoritarianism. From 2018, regional and ethnically based factions carried out armed attacks in multiple ongoing wars throughout Ethiopia.12

Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic state with over 80 different ethnic groups. Christianity is the most widely professed faith in the country, with the largest denomination being the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, followed by Islam and a small percentage of traditional faiths. The country is a founding member of the UN, and hosts the headquarters of the African Union Commission and many other global non-governmental organisations focused on Africa, also becoming a full member of BRICS in 2024.13 Ethiopia is one of the least developed countries but is sometimes considered an emerging power,1415 having the fastest economic growth in sub-Saharan African countries because of foreign direct investment in expansion of agricultural and manufacturing industries; agriculture is the country’s largest economic sector, accounting for over 37% of the GDP as of 2022. Although the Ethiopian economy has experienced consistent growth, in terms of per capita income and the Human Development Index the country remains among the poorest in Africa.16 Ethiopia faces numerous challenges, including high rates of poverty, human rights violations, widespread ethnic discrimination, and a literacy rate of 60%.171819

Printed 2026-08-29.

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Footnotes

  1. Amharic: ኢትዮጵያ, romanised: Ītyōṗṗyā pronounced [i.tjo.p’ja] Oromo: Itiyoophiyaa Somali: Itoobiya Arabic: إثيوبيا Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ, romanised: Ítiyop’iya Afar: Itiyoppiya ↩

  2. “Ethiopia”. The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency. 8 October 2024. Retrieved 22 October 2024. ↩

  3. “Population by Country (2025)”. Worldometer. Retrieved 9 October 2025. ↩

  4. “Ethiopia”. The World Factbook (2021 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 5 April 2021. ↩

  5. Kessler DF (2012). The Falashas: a Short History of the Ethiopian Jews. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-283-70872-2. OCLC 819506475. ↩

  6. Hopkin M (16 February 2005). “Ethiopia is top choice for cradle of Homo sapiens”. Nature. doi:10.1038/news050214-10. ISSN 0028-0836. ↩

  7. Li J, Absher D, Tang H, Southwick A, Casto A, Ramachandran S, Cann H, Barsh G, Feldman M, Cavalli-Sforza L, Myers R (2008). “Worldwide Human Relationships Inferred from Genome-Wide Patterns of Variation”. Science. 319 (5866): 1100–04. Bibcode:2008Sci…319.1100L. doi:10.1126/science.1153717. PMID 18292342. S2CID 53541133. ↩

  8. “Humans Moved From Africa Across Globe, DNA Study Says”. Bloomberg News. 21 February 2008. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 16 March 2009. ↩

  9. Kaplan K (21 February 2008). “Around the world from Addis Ababa”. Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 3 June 2013. Retrieved 16 March 2009. ↩

  10. Moore DH (1936). “Christianity in Ethiopia”. Church History. 5 (3): 271–284. doi:10.2307/3160789. ISSN 0009-6407. JSTOR 3160789. S2CID 162029676. ↩

  11. Abbink J (1998). “An Historical-Anthropological Approach to Islam in Ethiopia: Issues of Identity and Politics”. Journal of African Cultural Studies. 11 (2): 109–124. doi:10.1080/13696819808717830. hdl:1887/9486. ISSN 1369-6815. JSTOR 1771876. ↩

  12. BBC Staff (3 November 2020). “Ethiopia attack: Dozens ‘rounded up and killed’ in Oromia state”. BBC. Retrieved 25 May 2021. ↩

  13. “Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Ethiopia formally join BRICS”. Daily News Egypt. 1 January 2024. Retrieved 1 January 2024. ↩

  14. “5 reasons why Ethiopia could be the next global economy to watch”. World Economic Forum. 6 September 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2022. ↩

  15. Africa S (29 August 2020). “Ethiopia Can Be Africa’s Next Superpower”. SomTribune. Archived from the original on 11 December 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2022. ↩

  16. “Overview”. World Bank. Retrieved 23 December 2021. ↩

  17. “GAL country profile - Ethiopia” (PDF). www.uil.unesco.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 February 2025. Retrieved 21 February 2025. ↩

  18. “Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) - Ethiopia”. World Bank. Retrieved 20 January 2026. ↩

  19. “Multidimensional Poverty Index 2023: Ethiopia” (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 2023. Retrieved 21 December 2024. ↩