Africana Periodical Literature 
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| Title: | Barbarians, despots or brothers? European diplomacy and Ethiopian monarchs in the XIX century |
| Author: | Calchi Novati, Gian Paolo |
| Year: | 2007 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Ethiopian Studies (ISSN 0304-2243) |
| Volume: | 40 |
| Issue: | 1-2 |
| Pages: | 309-330 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Ethiopia Europe Great Britain Italy |
| Subjects: | diplomacy political history international relations 1800-1899 |
| About persons: | Tewodros II, keizer van Ethiopië (1818-1868) Menelik II, emperor of Ethiopia (1844-1913)  |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/41988233 |
| Abstract: | This essay looks at 19th-century diplomatic relations between the Ethiopian emperors Tewodros and Menilek and European countries, particularly Great Britain (Queen Victoria) and Italy. The Christian traits of Ethiopia were an incentive for European diplomacy. The essay pays particular attention to the paradoxical affair of the European prisoners taken by Tewodros. The Christian sovereign of a Christian people had perpetrated acts of cruelty towards several Europeans, who had long enjoyed his favour. But much of his wrath derived from the lack of prompt and trustworthy answers to his letters to the UK, and especially the Queen. The British missed the point: Tewodros wanted a treaty and military equipment. His purpose had always been to 'compel' England to interact positively. The relations between Ethiopia and Europe were characterized by the images the two held of each other. When, in the end, war broke out, Tewodros was heard to utter words which still echo his own troubled relationship with Britain, and the relations between Ethiopia and Europe: 'Who is that woman who sends her soldiers to fight against a king?' A woman against a king. But, from another perspective, a civilized monarch against a ruler of a backward nation that performed infamous rites, did not abide by good practices and held hostages illegally. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
