[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

After the death of Emperor Theodore in 1868, and the retreat of the British expedition under Lord Napier, the Abyssinian Empire emerged from its isolationist Era of the Princes to volley diplomatically against European interests. The Napier expedition had brought with them nine million pounds sterling in bribe money hoping to divide and conquer the Abyssinian feudal princes into supporting British colonial efforts.[1] However, the British had underestimated the centralizing force that had been the late Emperor Theodore, and his reign marked the end of the divisive Zemene Masafent [lit. period of princes]and the influx of a new, powerful centralized Abyssinian monarchy which was to destined to bring the Abyssinians into the modern world. In the conflicts for succession that ensued from Theodore’s death, the British supported Ras Kassa Mircha against the self-proclaimed Emperor Tekle Giyorgis and there can be found the beginnings of a cold war emerging between the Abyssinian political and cultural leadership and their European counterparts.[2] As Kassa Mircha took the Imperial Throne and the coronation name Emperor Yohannes IV on January 21, 1872, he faced an entirely new threat which even Theodore had yet to encounter, the flood of Europeans.
The Suez Canal opened in 1869, just following Lord Napier’s tragic expedition into Abyssinia, and its opening was perhaps the most significant single event in the history of European colonialism. Before the Canal, the Ottoman Turks and Muslim Arabs had controlled and dominated politics and trade along the Red Sea and North Africa for hundreds of years. The European explorers and merchants were forced to travel the long and arduous route along the African continent to gain access to the riches of East Africa, the Middle East, and Southern Asia. Cristovao Da Gama, son of the legendary Portuguese explorer Vasco De Gama who himself was the first European to round the Cape and sail along the East African coast, was killed in a battle against the Turks while defending the Abyssinian empire in August 1542.[3] After the French built the modern canal, European interest the region exploded, which would lead directly to colonial scramble for control of territories in Africa and Asia. As a result of this scramble, cold war politics were used by rival and competing Europeans, Africans and Asians to gain influence and control of geopolitical affairs, both domestic and international. What happened politically or economically in Asia was affected by what happened in the Horn of Africa, which was affected by what happened in both Russia and in Europe. In a sense, the parties involved mutually shaped each others’ foreign and domestic policies for nearly a hundred years, despite the one-sided viewpoint of Europeans who refused to acknowledge the power of non-Europeans in their affairs. However, regardless of European perspectives, it is clear that in North Africa in particular, the Abyssinians were a major factor in deciding European policy. The Abyssinians influenced the political, economic and military activities of European nations against themselves and against other world powers of the period. Further, the competition for diplomacy by Europeans in Abyssinia also influenced and directly affected Abyssinian policy as well. The resulting Cold War between Abyssinian and the European powers lasted roughly between the coronation of Yohannes IV in 1872 and the signing of the Tripartite Treaty in Europe in 1906 and was marked by diplomatic rivalry, arms races and even proxy wars fought across the globe.

[Savage Clone]

You shot who in the what, now?

[krastian]

You see, this is why I could never be a professor like everyone either assumes I'm going to be/should be.


Where is your thesis, playa?

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by krastian

You see, this is why I could never be a professor like everyone either assumes I'm going to be/should be.


Where is your thesis, playa?

"The Abyssinians influenced the political, economic and military activities of European nations against themselves and against other world powers of the period. Further, the competition for diplomacy by Europeans in Abyssinia also influenced and directly affected Abyssinian policy as well. The resulting Cold War between Abyssinian and the European powers lasted roughly between the coronation of Yohannes IV in 1872 and the signing of the Tripartite Treaty in Europe in 1906 and was marked by diplomatic rivalry, arms races and even proxy wars fought across the globe."

I must admit that I am from that school of writers who like to write the whole damned intro so full of facts and arguments in and of itself, that the thesis statement becomes rather ambiguous and requires the reader to dig for it.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

3,431 words later I am what I believe to be 1/4-1/3 of the way done....

[demonrail666]

What is your thesis for? Are you doing undergrad? postgrad?