Menelik II

Biography

Formerly king of Shewa, Menelik became emperor in 1889 and expanded the empire greatly to the south and east. When Italy claimed a protectorate under the Treaty of Wuchale, he repudiated it, and his armies crushed the Italians at Adwa in 1896, securing Ethiopian independence. He founded Addis Ababa as capital and introduced railways, telegraph, and modern schools. Strokes incapacitated him in his final years.