Ethiopia and Aksum

From the Aksumite Empire, which minted its own coins, to Lalibela's rock-hewn churches and the victory at Adowa.

Region
Horn of Africa
Period
c. 100 CE – present

Overview

Aksum, named around 270 CE among the four greatest empires alongside Rome, Persia and China, was the first tropical African state to mint gold, silver and copper coins. King Ezana's conversion to Christianity (c. 330 CE) predated most of Europe. The Solomonid dynasty, restored in 1270, produced the Lalibela churches, eleven rock-hewn churches carved from living basalt. Emperor Menelik II's victory at Adowa in 1896 was the only African military defeat of a European colonial army in the conquest era.

Key facts

  • Aksum: one of the world's four greatest empires of its time
  • First tropical African coinage, King Endybis, c. 270 CE
  • Lalibela: eleven churches carved from living basalt
  • Battle of Adowa, 1896
  • The only African state to avoid colonisation in the 19th century

References

  1. UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. II
  2. UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV
  3. UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. VII
  4. UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. VIII

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