Thus, in the early days, the Abyssinian Empire's feelings toward East Africa were mostly fear and resentment. The two sides had no fundamental conflict of interests; after all, following the British expedition, the Abyssinian Empire had been torn apart, and it held a deep fear of Westerners.
At the same time, while Abyssinia was in turmoil, East Africa incorporated its vast southern territories into its own borders. As the local hegemon of a thousand years, it was only natural that the Abyssinians felt somewhat unbalanced.
Yet the Abyssinian Empire had no grounds whatsoever to condemn East Africa's actions. The Abyssinian Empire was merely a regional hegemon and had no direct legal claim to the southern lands. Thus, when southern Ethiopia was absorbed by East Africa, the Abyssinian Empire could only hate its own weakness.
Moreover, with the outside power Italy entering Northeast Africa and its old enemy Egypt serving as a foil, East Africa appeared to the Abyssinian Empire as the very incarnation of "greatness, brilliance, and righteousness," the most "lovable" country in the world. This became even more so after the two countries signed a border demarcation agreement.
Bahir Dar City.
Located south of Lake Tana in the Abyssinian Empire, within the empire's Central Province, it had rapidly become the empire's new political and economic center after Johannes IV moved the capital there.
The Central Province of the Abyssinian Empire was formerly Amhara State. The emergence of this administrative division was itself a manifestation of the Abyssinian Empire's "East Africanization."
That was right. This so-called Central Province had been established in imitation of the Central Province where East Africa's capital was located, demonstrating East Africa's powerful influence over the Abyssinian Empire.
The nineteenth century was an era in which backward countries learned from the Western world, and the