History of Ethiopia
Ethiopia is believed to be about 5 million years old and one of the oldest countries known to Africa. It also is the oldest independent country in Africa. In the fourth century missionaries from Egypt and Syria introduced Christianity to the Ethiopian people. In the seventh century though, Islam was brought to Ethiopia and this isolated the religion from the European Christians. Fortunately, for the Ethiopians contact was re- introduced by Portugal. The only reason this happened was because the Portuguese wanted to gain control of the Indian Ocean for the use of trading and what not. They also intended to convert the Ethiopians into Roman Catholics. All of the different religions in the region caused a religious conflict that led to the expulsion of all foreign missionaries of any religion in the 1630's. This bitter conflict of religions caused Ethiopians to have hostility towards Catholics and Europeans. This also caused the isolation of the country. They didn't want to be distracted by any outside influences. This isolation didn't last very long. During the period of time when they were isolated the country experienced an era of no central power. They went through what is called the "Era of Princes". It is defined as rule by the different local rulers trying to gain total rule of the areas. This naturally caused a lot of turmoil for the country and also put them into a spiral of uncertainty and no real leadership. During this time the country went through many kings and rulers. The country became unified under King King Haileselassie. After a series of kings, the TGE was set up. This was also known as the Transitional Government of Ethiopia. The idea behind this was to set up a real political stance and develop the country economically. They no longer wanted to have kings and rulers. This period of transition allowed the country to morph into what it is now. An economically diverse group of people whose main resource of trade is through agriculture.