Speaker 1: I know, I think of the I think in the
Speaker 1: Pacific Northwest, there's like no bugs, there's no mosquitoes. Yeah. Wow,
Speaker 1: what a paradise, I know, if you can handle the
Speaker 1: rain and the cold winters, which goes to show you
Speaker 1: there is no such places. Paradise always a catch. Well
Speaker 1: what about um, No, I can't think of anywhere. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, southern California, perfect weather, but it's all the
Speaker 1: earthquakes and the fires, fires, many fires. Um. What about
Speaker 1: the bottom of the ocean, A lot of pressure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's one thing I don't need more of in my life.
Speaker 1: It's pressure and vampire squids, which I don't have any
Speaker 1: in my life currently. And I like that you've never
Speaker 1: heard of the vampire squid. We'll look them up because
Speaker 1: they have a little light bulb on the uncle and
Speaker 1: they look like an alien monster from Hell. I mean,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure they're actually really cute or whatever, but
Speaker 1: they look very scary because they live in the darkest
Speaker 1: part of the ocean, so they just you know, they
Speaker 1: have not evolved at all the same and it's anything
Speaker 1: I'm used to know mirrors, so they can't ever take
Speaker 1: a look at themselves and decide to change and be like, wow,
Speaker 1: I'm starting with the fish in the mirror telling him
Speaker 1: to change his face. You're terrifying, sir. This water couldn't
Speaker 1: get I bet it could. But that's like that blob fish.
Speaker 1: It was going around the internet a few years ago.
Speaker 1: I feel like, and it looked so gross and people
Speaker 1: are like, oh, it's like so saggy and weird looking,
Speaker 1: and then but of course it's because it doesn't. It
Speaker 1: doesn't live in this pressure much more pressure environment. So
Speaker 1: if you're actually seeing it where it's from, it's a
Speaker 1: totally normal looking fish. It's all put together. Me in
Speaker 1: the southern heat, if you saw me in you know,
Speaker 1: upstate New York in November, that's when I look my best,
Speaker 1: much like the block fish, my true form Rochester in
Speaker 1: the Fall. We're in our true form today telling another
Speaker 1: ridiculous romance. So excited about this episode. This is one
Speaker 1: of those ridiculous romance that like, gave us a whole
Speaker 1: lot of insight into a subject we did not otherwise
Speaker 1: know about, and that is the history of Ethiopia. Awesome,
Speaker 1: I know right, I love that that. You know, sometimes
Speaker 1: they these stories direct us somewhere or I might not
Speaker 1: have chosen. Oh, let me, let me learn about the
Speaker 1: history of Ethiopia today. But then I had to for
Speaker 1: this and I'm like, jeez, what was I missing? Lots
Speaker 1: of history. I mean, we've seen on this show a
Speaker 1: bunch of times in the past that countries across the
Speaker 1: globe are dealing with the aim, high stakes, high drama
Speaker 1: games of thrones that we see so often. We only
Speaker 1: learn about them in Western Europe mostly, but it was
Speaker 1: happening everywhere. And Menelik the Second is considered to be
Speaker 1: the founder of modern Ethiopia, and his wife, Empress Tai
Speaker 1: Tubit Tool, was heavily involved in the country's unification and
Speaker 1: she helped win one of the most important battles between
Speaker 1: an African and a European nation. So let's learn a
Speaker 1: little about Ethiopia and hear what's so powerful about this
Speaker 1: power couple. I'm in, let's do this. Hey, their friends
Speaker 1: come listen. Well, Elia and Diana got some stories to tell.
Speaker 1: There's no match making, a romantic tips. It's just about
Speaker 1: pardiculous relationships a lover. It might be any type of
Speaker 1: person at all, and abstract concept on a concrete wall.
Speaker 1: But if there's a story where the second glance ridiculous role.
Speaker 1: That's a production of I heart Deo. Ethiopia long also
Speaker 1: known as Abyssinia, is one of the oldest countries in Africa.
Speaker 1: Tools and spears have been found their dating back almost
Speaker 1: three hundred thousand years In archaeologists discovered the fossils of
Speaker 1: a female Artipithecus remedis named Artie, who is the oldest
Speaker 1: human ancestor ever found at about four million years old.
Speaker 1: It's really not polite to ask, well, you don't look
Speaker 1: a day over three point eight million. Now. The earliest
Speaker 1: records of Ethiopia pop up in Egypt's Old Kingdom period
Speaker 1: around three thousand BC. So this is a country with
Speaker 1: a lot of history, maybe the most history, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: we're talking about early predecessors of humans left from here.
Speaker 1: The Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahido Church is the dominant religion there
Speaker 1: and they have been there since the fourth century. Europeans
Speaker 1: didn't even really get involved with Ethiopia until the fourteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: So Christianity came from its original place, not from Western
Speaker 1: Europe when it came into I don't know why, but
Speaker 1: I always assumed that Christianity was brought to African nations
Speaker 1: by European colonization. I know that's true for some, but
Speaker 1: a version of it was certainly brought there, you know.
Speaker 1: But yeah, right, but they're closer to Jerusalem than I am.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I thought I thought that, but definitely. Now,
Speaker 1: in the sixteen hundreds, Emperor Susneos converted the empire's official
Speaker 1: religion to Catholicism, and this caused riots and revolts and
Speaker 1: assassination attempts. So Cisneos changed his mind. He was like,
Speaker 1: never mind, Yeah, y'all be whatever religion you want, cool
Speaker 1: with me. It's like Homer going into the bush. Right.
Speaker 1: Then he set the country's official religion back to the
Speaker 1: Ethiopian Orthodox Church, not is kicked off a period referred
Speaker 1: to as the Age of Princes for almost a hundred
Speaker 1: years from seventeen sixty nine until eighteen fifty five, where
Speaker 1: emperors became only figureheads while regional lords kind of held
Speaker 1: the actual power. And during this time, Ethiopia had very
Speaker 1: little contact with Europe, and that brings us to the
Speaker 1: point in history where our story today begins. In eighteen
Speaker 1: forty four, the King of Sahwah, which was a semi
Speaker 1: independent region in northern Ethiopia knocked up a servant girl.
Speaker 1: In August of that year, she gave birth to Menelik,
Speaker 1: and the king didn't recognize the child as his son,
Speaker 1: because you know, just a servant girl, right, But the
Speaker 1: boy still grew up with more or less the royal treatments.
Speaker 1: He got a very good education, He had a very
Speaker 1: privileged upbringing. You're not my son, but you know, here's
Speaker 1: some nice things. Yeah, but no son of mine's going
Speaker 1: to run around with the servants. In eighteen fifty five,
Speaker 1: the new Emperor of Ethiopia, to Woodrow the Second invaded
Speaker 1: this kingdom of Shewa, killed the king and captured young
Speaker 1: Menelik and took him back to the imperial stronghold. And
Speaker 1: even here though Metelick was treated really well, the emperor
Speaker 1: even offered him his daughter to marry Metelicks just like charming.
Speaker 1: I guess people just like immediately like you're all right.
Speaker 1: Probably sense if the emperor, for any reason knew that
Speaker 1: he was the son of the king, he probably was
Speaker 1: thinking to like, well, and if you marry my daughter,
Speaker 1: then I could lay some claim to this territory. Because
Speaker 1: these were all kingdoms that were technically in his empire,
Speaker 1: but they all kind of acted autonomously and a lot
Speaker 1: of them didn't listen to the emperor that much, so
Speaker 1: it was hard. It was tough for him to hold
Speaker 1: it all together. Yeah, this just reminded me of lu
Speaker 1: Bu Weai because when they had all the different states
Speaker 1: of China and they were kind of all fighting with
Speaker 1: each other totally. Also would imprison royal kids in in palaces,
Speaker 1: so kind of like the prison they're like mink lined cells,
Speaker 1: like right, So yeah, that was kind of happening here.
Speaker 1: You know. Menelik was a prisoner, but he was also
Speaker 1: treated kind of like a son by the emperor. He
Speaker 1: was his education continued, he was given a very royal life,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of privileges. And then Emperor to
Speaker 1: Woodrows put a new governor in charge of Shewa. It
Speaker 1: was a non royal guy named bes Abe. But as
Speaker 1: soon as Besab got there, he rebelled against the emperor
Speaker 1: and named himself the King of Shea. Emper is like here,
Speaker 1: giving you this land and you can govern it for me, Like,
Speaker 1: you just go and act my rule over there, right,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what to do and you do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the king says, oh, yeah, sure, I'll take it. Thanks.
Speaker 1: Let me just get over there real quick. And he
Speaker 1: gets there, gets in his little palace and it's like,
Speaker 1: now I'm king of this place. Emperor, you can go
Speaker 1: screw up. These hose ain't loyal. The emperor had all
Speaker 1: these Shewan royals that he had imprisoned in the same
Speaker 1: stronghold where Menelick was living. Now, as long as a
Speaker 1: member of their own royal family was ruling over Siwa,
Speaker 1: they were pretty chilled. They didn't cause much of a fuss.
Speaker 1: They're like, sure, I'm living here in this like palace prison,
Speaker 1: but at least one of my boys is in charge
Speaker 1: back home. But once this usurper Besaba came in and
Speaker 1: declared himself king, they got pissed. There's like, no, he's
Speaker 1: not one of ours, Emperor, what do you mean you
Speaker 1: put him in charge. The Emperor's like, look, I didn't
Speaker 1: name him king. He did that on his own. They
Speaker 1: didn't care. They got really mad, and from within the
Speaker 1: stronghold they helped Menelik escape. They're like, you're of the
Speaker 1: proper bloodline, so you go back home. You be king
Speaker 1: of Shewa. So Menelik escaped the stronghold. He left his wife,
Speaker 1: the Emperor's daughter, behind, and he returned to Shewa to
Speaker 1: reclaim his ancestral crown. The emperor heard about this and
Speaker 1: got so pissed that he slaughtered twenty nine hostages and
Speaker 1: had twelve Shawan nobles beaten to death with bamboo. Damn,
Speaker 1: this guy overreacts, for really, he's having a full temper tantrum.
Speaker 1: And in saw Menelik basically took control with no trouble.
Speaker 1: Bisiba tried to raise an army to defend himself and
Speaker 1: and the crown that he claimed for himself, but even
Speaker 1: his own soldiers defected in favor of this guy who
Speaker 1: showed up and who was legitimately a prince. So Menelek
Speaker 1: easily snatched up the crown and afterwards also made it
Speaker 1: clear that he had a pretty strong claim to the
Speaker 1: imperial throne through his bloodline, but he did not make
Speaker 1: any attempt to take the throne. In Harold Marcus's book
Speaker 1: The Life and Times of Menelik the Second, he says
Speaker 1: that the king was quote emotionally incapable of helping to
Speaker 1: destroy the man who had treated him as a son.
Speaker 1: That's nice. Usually they don't seem a lot of times.
Speaker 1: They don't seem to have a problem with that royal
Speaker 1: just like killed my dad, kill my brother, rods Aches Metelka.
Speaker 1: We'll see as a sentimental guy. Yeah, he seems like
Speaker 1: sweetie pie. Meanwhile, Emperor to Woodros drama Queen sent out
Speaker 1: letters to a bunch of European nations asking for help
Speaker 1: to fight off expanding Muslim powers that were at Ethiopia's door.
Speaker 1: You know, he's like, hey, you're a Christian, I'm Christian,
Speaker 1: let's fight these Muslims together. And France kind of like
Speaker 1: half responded like they were like yeah, but nobody else
Speaker 1: responded at all. So to Woadros decided to capture a
Speaker 1: few Englishmen and hold them hostage in order to get
Speaker 1: Queen Victoria's attention. Well it got her attention alrighty, and
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty seven she announced that she was sending
Speaker 1: in a huge military contingent to go in and rescue
Speaker 1: the hostages and slap around the Ethiopians a little while
Speaker 1: they were at it. There were thirteen thousand British and
Speaker 1: Indian soldiers, twenty six thousand camp followers, and over forty
Speaker 1: thou animals, including elephants. They set sail from Bombay aboard
Speaker 1: two and eighty ships, and they called this the British
Speaker 1: Expedition to Abissidia, which sounds like such a parade, like
Speaker 1: just a nice little festival we're going to have, when
Speaker 1: it was like meant to subjugate an entire country, you know,
Speaker 1: a don'ty holiday to colonize an African exactly. Now, it
Speaker 1: would have actually been quite difficult for the British because
Speaker 1: nobody had invaded Ethiopia in hundreds of years. The terrain
Speaker 1: was super unfamiliar, and the Ethiopians were a strong and
Speaker 1: ancient civilization. But to Wodrow's, you know, he was not
Speaker 1: holding all these kingdoms together, and he didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of friends left. A few princes even pledged aid
Speaker 1: to the British. So the British faced very little resistance
Speaker 1: in their march to the Imperial fortress. To Wodrow's had
Speaker 1: alienated and attacked allies. He got angry and slaughtered people
Speaker 1: who just committed like minor of enses against him, and
Speaker 1: then he sent thousands of his own soldiers, many of
Speaker 1: them only armed with spears, to charge against the British forces.
Speaker 1: They were met with cannon, fire, rockets and artillery, and
Speaker 1: nearly eight hundred Ethiopians were killed, with many more wounded,
Speaker 1: while only two British soldiers died. So they literally brought
Speaker 1: a knife too again. Yeah yeah. Rather than face captivity
Speaker 1: to Woodrow's committed suicide using a pistol that had been
Speaker 1: given to him as a gift by Queen Victoria, the
Speaker 1: British forces looted and burned the fortress, including its churches,
Speaker 1: and it took fifteen elephants and two hundred mules to
Speaker 1: carry all the historical and religious artifacts that they stole
Speaker 1: back to their ships to take back to England. But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you a little trivia question here, Diana,
Speaker 1: where do you think we can find these Ethiopian artifacts today?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna guest that they're still at the British Museum.
Speaker 1: Still at the British Museum today. Yes, there is an
Speaker 1: article in the Atlantic from that says they're actually eleven
Speaker 1: wood and stone tablets in a storeroom of the British
Speaker 1: Museum that represent the Ark of the Covenant, and according
Speaker 1: to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, only it's priests should ever
Speaker 1: be able to see them. That's how sacred these objects are.
Speaker 1: The Brits even brought along on their holiday expeditions an
Speaker 1: expert from the British Museum whose whole job was to
Speaker 1: just a praise and bid on items that they could
Speaker 1: take back with them from Ethiism, which I guess bidding
Speaker 1: is nice. Maybe they bought some of them. No, no,
Speaker 1: they bought them from each other. It was like he
Speaker 1: was a rep from the British Museum to say, I'll
Speaker 1: buy these from the army that took them. Oh, okay,
Speaker 1: they had like individual soldiers would bid to buy items,
Speaker 1: the museum bought whatever. They were just like, well, we're
Speaker 1: taking this now, let's all sell it to each other.
Speaker 1: It's crazy that they brought an appraiser with them because
Speaker 1: they knew they were going to take home a bunch
Speaker 1: of ships. Mostly yeah, they were like, part part of
Speaker 1: the reason we're going is to pick up some stuff. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: just like any holiday Stupidish shopping. So for the last
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty years, Ethiopia has repeatedly asked for
Speaker 1: this stuff back because it is their stuff and it
Speaker 1: was taken wrongly, maybe they should get it back. But
Speaker 1: as of the article, the British museum's best offer was quote,
Speaker 1: it would consider the possibility of a long term loan. Oh,
Speaker 1: but you're the one with the long term. I don't
Speaker 1: call in it, invested it back, loan over, give me
Speaker 1: my ship back. Insane. And the thing is the British
Speaker 1: Museum has these tablets and they're honoring the fact that
Speaker 1: no one else is allowed to look at them besides
Speaker 1: Ethiopian Orthodox priests by keeping them in a storeroom under
Speaker 1: the museum. And Ethiopia is like, then, why the hell
Speaker 1: are you keeping them exactly what's the point? Just give
Speaker 1: them back and now no one can see them, so
Speaker 1: you're technically still infringing on their religious freedom because their
Speaker 1: priests can't look at their fucking arc of the Covenant.
Speaker 1: It's crazy. England is still clutching to this stuff right
Speaker 1: after all this time. And I'm like, part of me
Speaker 1: is like I would not necessarily want every country of
Speaker 1: origins stuff to go back to that country, and is
Speaker 1: that you know, not everyone gets to go to Ethiopia
Speaker 1: in their life, sir, But this way they get to
Speaker 1: see some cultural items and stuff like that. But okay,
Speaker 1: by them, by them or ask for some stuff from
Speaker 1: them that they would like to give those countries take
Speaker 1: their own ship and put it into a touring exhibition. True,
Speaker 1: and then they can make the money off of it.
Speaker 1: To you, I mean, yes, exactly who are we enriching?
Speaker 1: And yeah, okay, alright, enough shipping on the British Museum.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll get many more opportunities and next episode,
Speaker 1: but we want to get to this romance. So after
Speaker 1: to woodross suicide, Menelick was pretty broken up because remember
Speaker 1: this is the guy like raised him like a son,
Speaker 1: and he was like, even though you're crazy, I can't
Speaker 1: can't fight check. But he publicly threw a big celebration.
Speaker 1: According to Harold Marcus's book, when Menelick was asked why
Speaker 1: he did this, he said, quote, to satisfy the passions
Speaker 1: of the people. As for me, I should have gone
Speaker 1: into a forest to weep. I have now lost the
Speaker 1: one who educated me and toward whom I had sincere affection.
Speaker 1: That is tough stuff. And I could see it if
Speaker 1: he was really unpopular. It was like, cool, he died.
Speaker 1: Everyone's happy. Even then I'm not happy. We should we
Speaker 1: should I should enter into my personal feelings do not
Speaker 1: necessarily reflect my my subjects in my kingdom, you know. Yeah. Now,
Speaker 1: after twelve jurs death, one of metalicks rivals took the
Speaker 1: imperial crown as Emperor, Johannis the Fourth, and Metalick didn't
Speaker 1: really make too much of a fuss about it. At
Speaker 1: this time. He was busy being a great king. He
Speaker 1: was also busy getting married two more times. One marriage
Speaker 1: didn't go so well and the other would change Ethiopia forever.
Speaker 1: And we will hear about those right after this commercial break.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the show, everybody. So, Johannis the fourth
Speaker 1: is Emperor of Ethiopia and mentally is the king of Shwah,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, again a northern kingdom and Ethiopia
Speaker 1: semi independent. But he needed a queen, of course. Menelick
Speaker 1: had had to leave his first wife, Altash two DROs,
Speaker 1: the daughter of the previous emperor, when he escaped captivity.
Speaker 1: We don't really know what kind of relationship they had,
Speaker 1: but I like to assume maybe it was strained, you know,
Speaker 1: a complicated union probably, and then the fact that he
Speaker 1: just had like I'm escaping, bye bye. They had no
Speaker 1: children together, and he did officially divorce her in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five, when he had plans to marry another woman.
Speaker 1: She was a noble named Buffana Wolde Mikhail, and Menelick
Speaker 1: was so fond of her. He really fell in love
Speaker 1: with this woman. She was beautiful and smart and strong,
Speaker 1: but she didn't really think much of him at all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she apparently had a bunch of kids from previous marriages,
Speaker 1: and she only agreed to marry Menelek basically as a
Speaker 1: means of keeping them well cared for. H So she
Speaker 1: was like, I don't really like you, but you are
Speaker 1: the king, so you'll keep my kids nice and they'll
Speaker 1: be they'll be in soft And she was from a
Speaker 1: noble background, so she probably had ambitions for her family herself,
Speaker 1: you know. And she did start to take that a
Speaker 1: little too far, and she was widely suspected of making
Speaker 1: secret plans with Emperor Johannes the Fourth to replace Menelick
Speaker 1: with one of her own sons. Now Buffana got found
Speaker 1: out and Menelick's advisers had to separate them once again,
Speaker 1: someone he really cared for ended up being his enemy.
Speaker 1: And his friends and his relatives would try to introduce
Speaker 1: him to new wives, but he said to them, quote,
Speaker 1: you asked me to look at these women with the
Speaker 1: same eyes that once gazed upon Buffana and they're like, yeah, bro,
Speaker 1: she sucked. It's like come on, you know. They they
Speaker 1: list that quote and say it was really a testament
Speaker 1: to not only how much in love he was with her,
Speaker 1: how how great he thought she was, but how beautiful
Speaker 1: he thought that she was too. Like my eyes can't
Speaker 1: handle looking at anybody less than her. Yeah, they all
Speaker 1: look like ship in comparison. But in eighty two, after
Speaker 1: seventeen years of marriage, Menelek divorced Buffana, and again not
Speaker 1: a ton of info, but he was probably pretty bummed.
Speaker 1: I mean again, he was like really into infatuated with
Speaker 1: his wife. Um, so probably a lot of moping around
Speaker 1: the palace. He's listening to The Cure, eating ice cream
Speaker 1: by the pint more in the same T shirt day
Speaker 1: and brow you gotta get back out. They're like coming
Speaker 1: and rip open the curtains and they're like, listen, king,
Speaker 1: get out of it, get out of here. It's like
Speaker 1: stoner friend because he's like, hey, man, you know what
Speaker 1: we're going dance in tonight. We're going out. You're gonna
Speaker 1: find some not gonna yeah, man, pick it up. We're
Speaker 1: going all right, but I'm not gonna have any fun,
Speaker 1: I promise cut to him at the club. Okay, alright,
Speaker 1: I'm single, but at some point he did meet tie
Speaker 1: To tie To bed Tool was born probably in eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty one to an aristocratic family. Her father was a
Speaker 1: raz which is sort of like a duke or a prince,
Speaker 1: and they had like a ruling foothold in the north,
Speaker 1: and her great grandfather, raz Gibris of Simeon ruled during
Speaker 1: the Age of Princes and was remembered for having treated
Speaker 1: his subjects so well and providing them with enough food
Speaker 1: and water that they didn't actually have to farm to
Speaker 1: feed themselves. They could farm fully commercially just to make money.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine? Incredible? He's not coming from a scarcity mindset.
Speaker 1: A ruler providing his subjects with enough food and water
Speaker 1: they don't have to pay for her and then they
Speaker 1: prosper insane, and so does the kingdom. That's so weird now.
Speaker 1: Tai two was also descended from Emperor the guy who
Speaker 1: never minded Catholicism, if you remember, he tried it. And
Speaker 1: then when her father died at the Battle of a Shaw,
Speaker 1: her mother married an administrator of a monastery, which is
Speaker 1: where it's believed t Too got her education, which was
Speaker 1: pretty unusual for Ethiopian women in her time. She could
Speaker 1: read and write multiple languages, she wrote poetry, She loved centaeres,
Speaker 1: which is an Ethiopian variant of chess, and she played
Speaker 1: the bagana, which is like a tall stringed instrument. It
Speaker 1: kind of looks like a big harbor, a liar or
Speaker 1: something so very accomplished. I gotta say though it was
Speaker 1: probably was. I think from other stories we've told it
Speaker 1: was unusual at the time for women of many cultures
Speaker 1: to get educated. Who is it La Cruz right? She
Speaker 1: she was educated in a monastery, which is the only
Speaker 1: way women could get educated at the time. That's true.
Speaker 1: And what's funny is that in yes, Tchestro was in
Speaker 1: medieval times. This is which if you do compare to
Speaker 1: other episodes, I mean in America many women are being educated.
Speaker 1: They still couldn't go to colleges. So it was like
Speaker 1: they wanted you to know how to read and stuff,
Speaker 1: but like, don't go too far start the start of
Speaker 1: everybody else. Or remember Clementine Churchill who like could learn,
Speaker 1: but they didn't want her to, especially not maths. Which
Speaker 1: was a subject for men only. I know you don't
Speaker 1: want to be a blue stocking darling. There's nothing men
Speaker 1: hate more than a bookish lady. Well, Ty two was
Speaker 1: first married off at the age of ten to an
Speaker 1: officer of emperor. To address the second and Encyclopedia dot
Speaker 1: Com says, quote sex was considered normal for Ethiopians of
Speaker 1: Tyto's age at the time. That's a bit of uncomfortable history.
Speaker 1: That's extremely young, yes, but I will say the age
Speaker 1: of consent in Ethiopia today is eighteen. No need to
Speaker 1: write any letters right now. While marriages were fairly patriarchal,
Speaker 1: it was also quote not unusual for Ethiopian women to
Speaker 1: marry several times or to take several lovers when they
Speaker 1: were older. Now, her first marriage didn't go so well. Uh,
Speaker 1: not just because she was tant and I imagine, but
Speaker 1: because two DROs who remember had a real problem with overreacting.
Speaker 1: He arrested and chained up her husband for some some
Speaker 1: minor offense that he did, and Ty two was chained
Speaker 1: at the wrist and forced to follow along behind the
Speaker 1: army on foot and cook for the soldiers at their camp. Now,
Speaker 1: their marriage eventually ended and ty two was then wed
Speaker 1: to the brother of a consort of minelek Up in Shawa.
Speaker 1: So she's like getting closer to him. She's she's in
Speaker 1: his sphere right now. But this guy was an abusive
Speaker 1: dick and he beat her. So Tai to who's considerably
Speaker 1: older by now, she's you know, in her like early twenties.
Speaker 1: She gets beaten by this guy, and the next day
Speaker 1: she says, um, you know what, I'm gonna go visit
Speaker 1: with my mother back home for a little while in
Speaker 1: the neighboring kingdom. Understandable. And when she left, quote a
Speaker 1: great deal of her abusive husband's property as well as
Speaker 1: many of his servants went with her. Yeah, let me
Speaker 1: pack a bag real quick, I'm gonna go. And then
Speaker 1: she loads up, you know, two mules with like a
Speaker 1: procession of all the events. And then he comes home
Speaker 1: to just an empty house. Where is everybody? Where's my bed?
Speaker 1: It looks like that grinch was there. This's like a
Speaker 1: couple of wires on the wall of the rug. All
Speaker 1: the gifts she can read, just back takes the last crumb.
Speaker 1: I won't leave you, rom. I love that she divorced
Speaker 1: his ass and she didn't even bother trying to get
Speaker 1: a settlement out of the divorce because she had already
Speaker 1: taken so much of his ship. She's like, what you
Speaker 1: got left? Nothing too. We learned was not to be
Speaker 1: trifled with. No, ma'am t two married two more times,
Speaker 1: and it became clear over the course of these marriages
Speaker 1: that she was unable to bear children. Some sources say
Speaker 1: this is due to the genital mutilation she was subjected
Speaker 1: to as a baby, which is unfortunately still pretty common
Speaker 1: practice in many countries in Africa. Regardless, she was very beautiful,
Speaker 1: she was incredibly smart. She's quick witted, and as historian
Speaker 1: Haywan Seaman says, quote, there was a prophecy that she
Speaker 1: heard as a young girl that said she would be
Speaker 1: the next Empress of Ethiopia. Yeah, and that guided her
Speaker 1: in like all the decisions she made in her life.
Speaker 1: She was like, I'm supposed to be the empress. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I wonder if I would have been a more ambitious
Speaker 1: person if someone had come up to me as a
Speaker 1: child and said, you're destined, right, Maybe just we should
Speaker 1: all go to hospitals, go to the baby room and
Speaker 1: just tell them all and just see what happens. Actually,
Speaker 1: you know what, I just realized, maybe it's all my
Speaker 1: own fault. I've long blamed as as a as a teenager,
Speaker 1: some of my teachers and stuff and directors in theater
Speaker 1: they would tell me, oh, you're going to be famous
Speaker 1: one day, and I think I took that as a
Speaker 1: reason to not work very hard. You know. I was like, well,
Speaker 1: everyone says I don't even I don't have to try, damn,
Speaker 1: And uh look look where that got us. Do you
Speaker 1: talk a lot about like gifted kids or whatever who
Speaker 1: are very anxious and prospectionous and can't get anything done
Speaker 1: because they're afraid of doing it wrong and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yep, yep. I was the gifted program for
Speaker 1: I feel like if you did tell a generation of
Speaker 1: children that they were all destined for greatness, it was
Speaker 1: it would turn out pretty chaotic, Like some people would
Speaker 1: be awesome like hero types. Others would take it a
Speaker 1: very different direction. Only one of who gets to be
Speaker 1: emperor fight amongst yourselves. So but she did hear this
Speaker 1: cool prophecy about herself, and she was like, Okay, great, well,
Speaker 1: I guess I need to do everything I can do
Speaker 1: to make that come true. She took it better than
Speaker 1: I did. She was like, gotta work, got a hustle,
Speaker 1: So anyway be in This hot and rich badass with
Speaker 1: her eyes on the prize probably caught the attention of
Speaker 1: King Menelik of she Wa. Some historians think it was
Speaker 1: love at first sight, because Menelik, as we've seen, is
Speaker 1: attracted to powerful women. He like, he likes. He doesn't
Speaker 1: want a dumb mass next to him. He wants her
Speaker 1: to be good looking and smart. But even if it
Speaker 1: wasn't a love connection right away, um, it was still
Speaker 1: a smart move because Menelick was trying to consolidate his
Speaker 1: power subtly, you know, without bringing too much attention from
Speaker 1: Emperor Johannes the fourth, So marrying into Tai Tu's powerful
Speaker 1: family would give him a real edge. And they started
Speaker 1: according in three and though he was merely King of
Speaker 1: Shehwa at that time, he told her about his big plans. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because Menelick claimed a paternal lineage that could be traced
Speaker 1: all the way back to King Solomon and the Queen
Speaker 1: of Sheba like Old Testament ship sure now, according to
Speaker 1: the cabre Negast, which is an old text where Ethiopia
Speaker 1: derives much of its tradition, and law Ethiopia must be
Speaker 1: ruled by someone of that lineage. So Menelick staked his
Speaker 1: claim to the imperial throne. And he told tay To
Speaker 1: about this. You know, He's like, hey, let's get together.
Speaker 1: I know you're cool. You got a lot of power.
Speaker 1: And guess what, I'm going to be emperor one day.
Speaker 1: I'm the I'm the guy who should be. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, do you think She was like, well, I
Speaker 1: don't want to be just a queen. I thinken to
Speaker 1: be empress. And there was a whole prophecy about me.
Speaker 1: And it's like, oh, actually, it's so funny you say that.
Speaker 1: Turns out my dad's dad's dad dad. It's probably exactly
Speaker 1: more or less what happened. And on Easter Sunday of
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty three they were married. Raymond Jonas writes in
Speaker 1: his book The Battle of Odwa that Menelik and Tai
Speaker 1: two were actually very affectionate with each other. Um, so
Speaker 1: we can we can imagine that there was some real
Speaker 1: love and romance here and it wasn't all political, which
Speaker 1: I like to hear that for both of them. It
Speaker 1: feels like they deserve a break in the love. There's
Speaker 1: some candid photos of their personal lives that show how
Speaker 1: comfortable they are together. They would eat meals together, which
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily common and quote their interactions were described as
Speaker 1: attentive and tender. And like you said, both of them
Speaker 1: had some really ugly divorces behind them, so they must
Speaker 1: have really considered this union carefully. But through this marriage
Speaker 1: and some other careful alliances, Menelik turned Shewa into the
Speaker 1: most powerful kingdom in Ethiopia. He also buddied up with
Speaker 1: the Italians and the French, and they were really keen
Speaker 1: on having an ally down in this region to help
Speaker 1: stop British expansion. So he's playing the Europeans against each
Speaker 1: other too, very smart. Yeah, they were like, oh, they
Speaker 1: already took a bunch of stuff we wanted. Then, in
Speaker 1: March of eighteen eighty nine, Emperor Johannes the fourth was
Speaker 1: killed in a battle. It said that with his dying
Speaker 1: breath he declared that his son would be heir to
Speaker 1: the throne. That sounds convenient. Well. Metelk and t two
Speaker 1: heard about this and they were like, Okay, the time
Speaker 1: is now to strike. And Metelick stepped up and proclaimed
Speaker 1: himself Emperor of Ethiopia, and some people were like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, but Johannes was just here. He just said
Speaker 1: it would be his son, and Menelik was like, I know,
Speaker 1: that's very confusing, but let me lay it out for y'all.
Speaker 1: Johannes was a descendant from King Solomon. Sure, great, but
Speaker 1: it was through the female side. Boo. My bloodline is
Speaker 1: through the male lineage, so it counts for more. And
Speaker 1: he had enough of the nobility on his side in
Speaker 1: addition to the backing of the Italians that in November
Speaker 1: of that year he was crowned. Emperor. Johannes's son didn't
Speaker 1: really have his ship together, he couldn't contest it. He
Speaker 1: didn't have no friends with the Italians or anything like that.
Speaker 1: So Menelik gave him a governorship as like a consolation prize.
Speaker 1: So Emperor Menelik the Second and Empress Tai Tu, we're
Speaker 1: now ruling all of Ethiopia, and we'll hear about their remarkable,
Speaker 1: sometimes ridiculous exploits right after this. Welcome back everyone. Now,
Speaker 1: Menelick the Second is generally considered to be the founder
Speaker 1: of modern Ethiopia. Like we said at the top of
Speaker 1: the episode, there had been so many wars going on,
Speaker 1: and the country was so split into these many little
Speaker 1: regions that had, you know, pretty much little to do
Speaker 1: with each other besides this idea of an emperor who
Speaker 1: ruled them, but they were kind of self governing. So
Speaker 1: Menelick's very first mission was to modernize and unite the empire.
Speaker 1: But he couldn't have done any of this without Tie
Speaker 1: too at his side. She made sure to get herself
Speaker 1: involved in all matters of policy, and Menelik was very
Speaker 1: glad to have her assistance because while Menelik was fairly
Speaker 1: he was kind of approachable and amenable rejected princesses dot
Speaker 1: Com calls Tie to quote, the bad cop Empress of Ethiopia.
Speaker 1: So they had this kind of like a go ask
Speaker 1: your mother sort of thing going on there, this routine
Speaker 1: that helped them kind of pacify a lot of conflict
Speaker 1: and get ship done when he had to take an
Speaker 1: unpopular stance. Mentally had a catch phrase where he basically said,
Speaker 1: yes tomorrow, somebody's like, hey, should we raise taxes? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that tomorrow. You know, should we do
Speaker 1: this and that, Yeah, we'll talk about it tomorrow. Tomorrow,
Speaker 1: come back and ask me again today is crazy? Get it?
Speaker 1: But Tie two had no problem with her catchphrase, absolutely not.
Speaker 1: And she was involved in all of his political moves,
Speaker 1: and she would interrupt negotiations quote often in a decisive
Speaker 1: and resolutely hostile way. I could totally see this working.
Speaker 1: I mean, his strength is that he makes friends, right,
Speaker 1: people like him throughout his life. That's been everything that's
Speaker 1: helped him is that people like him. But then if
Speaker 1: you can't really lead and stay likable because you have
Speaker 1: to say no. So he's like, great, you say no.
Speaker 1: She's like cool, I don't mind being unlikable. I will
Speaker 1: say no. Now, Medelick was still getting some on the side.
Speaker 1: He had his little side pieces going on, and Tie
Speaker 1: too tolerated it. But she kept a sharp eye on things,
Speaker 1: and she would not tolerated if a woman looked like
Speaker 1: they were vying for power. They thought, you know, they
Speaker 1: could compete with her. You can sleep with that girl.
Speaker 1: But that second I see her eyeball on that throne. Okay,
Speaker 1: she's out, she's far out, Like we'll kick her as
Speaker 1: to the other borders, probably like why didn't you date
Speaker 1: that bimbo? Why don't you date some dummies? And I'd
Speaker 1: be fine with me. She's like, you'll get so bored
Speaker 1: listen to her chatter. I don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: you disappearing for life. It said that one of these
Speaker 1: ladies started maybe asking a few too many questions, making
Speaker 1: some suggestions that were a little too suggestive, and Tie
Speaker 1: two poisoned her. In fact, Ty two was rumored to
Speaker 1: be connected to quite a few poisonings dating back to
Speaker 1: her teenage years, but rejected. Princesses dot Com says that
Speaker 1: a lot of these claims are probably rumor mongering. They're
Speaker 1: not backed up by evidence um which we've seen many
Speaker 1: times in the past with queens getting getting smeared and dragged,
Speaker 1: you know. But a couple of them quote aren't out
Speaker 1: of the question. So Tie two probably did not poison
Speaker 1: a lot of people, but she not against it. But
Speaker 1: she did start to curb mentalis womanizing, and this helped
Speaker 1: him be a more focused and serious ruler. There was
Speaker 1: a popular song at the time that said, quote the
Speaker 1: sun has dissipated the fog that Ti two is Gayez
Speaker 1: for sun, and the fog clearly meant these foggy as bitches.
Speaker 1: That mentally because in her ound with so people were
Speaker 1: pretty happy that she rained him in a bit when
Speaker 1: it came to that. But do you unite the empire
Speaker 1: and bring all these kingdoms together? Menelik needed to establish
Speaker 1: a new capital city because for a long time there
Speaker 1: wasn't a permanent capital. The Emperor's royal encampment was basically
Speaker 1: like a capital that just moved around wherever needed to be.
Speaker 1: I could see that being useful, and like battles should
Speaker 1: keep moving retreating. And he had been parked for a
Speaker 1: while on Mount and Toto. But in eight eighties six,
Speaker 1: Empress Tai Tu took a little trip south of the
Speaker 1: mountain to one of these hot springs while Menelick was
Speaker 1: out fighting off a little battle or something. And she
Speaker 1: gets there and she's like, yeah, this is it. And
Speaker 1: she built a little house for herself, and she said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be here from now on. If anybody's looking
Speaker 1: for me, this is where I live now. I found paradise,
Speaker 1: very nice spot, and she called it addis Ababa, which
Speaker 1: means new flower. So mentel gets bred of this. He
Speaker 1: sends his generals down there to start allocating land and
Speaker 1: building their own houses. And in eighteen eighty nine they
Speaker 1: started building the Royal Palace. Over the next twenty years,
Speaker 1: the city grew to a population of over a hundred thousand,
Speaker 1: and it is still Ethiopia's capital city today. Right now,
Speaker 1: it's the eighth wealthiest city in Africa, and it's home
Speaker 1: to the oldest university in Africa as well as the
Speaker 1: h Q for the African Union. And it's just we're
Speaker 1: looking it up and it is just full of diversity
Speaker 1: and food that looks incredible, and museums and architecture. It
Speaker 1: just sounds amazing. Now I really want to get on
Speaker 1: the list for absolutely it looks amazing. I read if
Speaker 1: any of you live in Ethiopia and would like to
Speaker 1: provide us a couch together, Menelik and Tai to continue
Speaker 1: to bring Ethiopia into the modern era. Previous emperors Johannes
Speaker 1: the Fourth and to Woodros the second had both outlawed
Speaker 1: slave trading, but they had had a hard time suppressing
Speaker 1: it because a lot of the disparate tribes were not
Speaker 1: against it, so they didn't really enforce any of that.
Speaker 1: Raiders came into the country from all sides to capture people.
Speaker 1: But as Metelis reach expanded out into these tribal kingdoms,
Speaker 1: either through military conquest or diplomatic agreements. He was able
Speaker 1: to actively suppress the slave trade. He had slave markets
Speaker 1: across Ethiopia destroyed, and he enforced serious punishments for anyone
Speaker 1: caught working in that industry. In addition to founding Addis Ababa,
Speaker 1: Taied two helped homeless orphans by educating them to become deacons, priests,
Speaker 1: or even government officials. Wow, can you imagine a ruler
Speaker 1: coming in and being like, hey, homeless folks, I'm going
Speaker 1: to educate you and make you government officials. I mean
Speaker 1: a world, why would you want a lot of homeless people?
Speaker 1: I have to ask that, even an o U. And
Speaker 1: then what a great perspective to be working in government? Yeah, boy,
Speaker 1: I don't want people to have to go through what
Speaker 1: I went through. Let me try and make that not happen. Well,
Speaker 1: I wondered too, since she was able to get an
Speaker 1: education and knew that that was kind of a privilege.
Speaker 1: She was like, seriously, this is transformational. You will not
Speaker 1: be the same once you've opened your eyes in this way.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about these people, and they both, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously came from privileged households, but they were also both
Speaker 1: imprisoned at different times. I'm thinking of her, you know,
Speaker 1: being forced to walk behind the army and chains and
Speaker 1: forced to cook for them and stuff, and him being
Speaker 1: locked up in this palace and like, you know, pretty
Speaker 1: much forced to marry the emperor's daughter and you know,
Speaker 1: and and give up all of his lineage and everything.
Speaker 1: And they just have like a really unique perspective as rulers.
Speaker 1: Tied To also built the first hotel, the Tegway tie
Speaker 1: To Hotel, which still stands today. And that's where I'd
Speaker 1: like to stay. You can afford it, you go to Athiopia.
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about the hotel itself. I know,
Speaker 1: maybe it's like a Best West and I don't know,
Speaker 1: but maybe it's like a fucking four C, you know.
Speaker 1: Fancy and a Metallick spoke fluent French, Italian and English
Speaker 1: and started to get involved in global investments very smart.
Speaker 1: He heavily invested in American railroads, and according to a
Speaker 1: New York Times article from nineteen o nine, he had
Speaker 1: a private fortune of around twenty five million dollars, which today,
Speaker 1: let me check here, would be over eight hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1: Dang metal, that's pretty good, can I get you won't
Speaker 1: even notice it in the ocean. Now. He was constantly
Speaker 1: reading books from all over the world, and he had
Speaker 1: a library in his palace of ten thousand volumes. Imagine,
Speaker 1: I'm picturing you totally just as Bell on the ladder,
Speaker 1: like rolling through those blick shelves singing. That's how I
Speaker 1: always I always related to her so hard, because he
Speaker 1: was like, wait, you just want me to hang out
Speaker 1: in a soft bed surrounded by books with like things
Speaker 1: that talk to me and I could get delicious food.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I should be upset right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can see how the Stockholm sunt term sent pretty fast.
Speaker 1: It said that when asked about a new upcoming author
Speaker 1: in England or something like a European author who was
Speaker 1: new and fresh and hot, you could go ask him
Speaker 1: about it and he already knew who they were. He
Speaker 1: was real up to date. Dang okay. He was like
Speaker 1: a literal literature subscriber. He was like he wanted it all.
Speaker 1: He clearly valued knowledge and intelligence. You know it served
Speaker 1: him well. Yeah, so, yeah, amazing library. He built modern roads,
Speaker 1: expanding out from the capitol. He introduced the first modern
Speaker 1: postal system, and through his relations with the French. He
Speaker 1: introduced electricity, telephones, cars, and modern plumbing, and more and
Speaker 1: more Westerners were looking to Ethiopia as a trade hub.
Speaker 1: So you really like elevated this whole country in the
Speaker 1: eyes of the globe, in the the continents. Definitely, yeah,
Speaker 1: that Taitu was instrumental in this work. She was a
Speaker 1: shrewd strategist and she was a real force in negotiations. Remember,
Speaker 1: she would interrupt them hostily, sometimes resolutely hostile. Historians mostly
Speaker 1: agree that she was quote seen as meneliks equal and
Speaker 1: often took a tougher stance on matters than her husband.
Speaker 1: According to an article on dw dot com, she also
Speaker 1: really really, really really did not trust Europeans. Why we're
Speaker 1: so cool to yall? Though European colonization was expanding rapidly
Speaker 1: across Africa and Italy, who had only unified as a
Speaker 1: single country in the eighteen sixties, so very recently, they
Speaker 1: felt like they were falling behind the other European countries
Speaker 1: in terms of colonization across the globe. But they found
Speaker 1: this port city in Eritrea, and by the late eighteen
Speaker 1: eighties they had expanded through Eritrea and Somalia, which border
Speaker 1: the entirety of eastern Ethiopia, and it did cut off
Speaker 1: Ethiopia's coastal access. So the Italians came to emperormental Like
Speaker 1: the second and they said, hey, oh, we want to
Speaker 1: colonize Ethiopia. And Metelick replied no. And the Italians were like, okay,
Speaker 1: fat enough. We had to ask, you know, oh, how
Speaker 1: did you get here? So they said, how about this
Speaker 1: nice treaty? And they brought him the Treaty of Wuchale
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty nine, also known as the Italo Ethiopian
Speaker 1: Treaty of Friendship and Commerce. What a nice little nail.
Speaker 1: I like that. The treaty contained twenty articles, and they
Speaker 1: wrote two copies, one in the Ethiopian language of Amharik
Speaker 1: and one in Italian. Everything sounded great. Emperor Menelek the
Speaker 1: Second signed the treaty, presumably with Tito behind him, with
Speaker 1: her arms crossed, frowning, looking very disapproving and untrusting. But
Speaker 1: the Italians took their treaty and they went home. Great,
Speaker 1: that's probably what she wanted. She's like, great, they left.
Speaker 1: That's all I care about. Except there was one teeny
Speaker 1: tiny little difference between the two translations of this treaty.
Speaker 1: The Amharic version of article seventeen said the Emperor of
Speaker 1: Ethiopia could go check with Italy before he had any
Speaker 1: dealings with other foreign powers, but the Italian version said
Speaker 1: the emperor must go check with Italy first. What you
Speaker 1: see why the lawyers are always so serious about their
Speaker 1: definitions and stuff, because these tiny little things make a
Speaker 1: big difference. And now when the Italians got home, they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: good news, Ethiopia is an Italian protect or it and
Speaker 1: they won't do anything without our say so Chow and Metelick,
Speaker 1: you know, and Tai two, we're like, what are y'all
Speaker 1: talking about? They heard about this, They were obviously like,
Speaker 1: hell no, if y'all are not even going to keep
Speaker 1: up the treaty that we thought we signed, and then
Speaker 1: we don't have to keep it up either. And it
Speaker 1: said that Tai two took the contract and tore it
Speaker 1: to pieces, which I love. I hope she threw it
Speaker 1: in the air and danced around. Now, negotiators came back
Speaker 1: from Italy and they tried to be like, okay, that
Speaker 1: was just a little mistranslation, but that's what you agreed to.
Speaker 1: You signed it right here. Sucks to be you, but whatever.
Speaker 1: And during deliberations, Tay too obviously very indignant. She wanted
Speaker 1: the Italians to pack up and leave Ethiopian territories altogether,
Speaker 1: get out away from a borders, and according to historian
Speaker 1: An Chiho, the lead at Italian negotiator, Count Pietro and
Speaker 1: Tonelli said, quote, Menelick is playing games on me by
Speaker 1: giving up his regal authority to a woman, to which
Speaker 1: Empress Ty two said, quote, my womanliness and your manliness
Speaker 1: is going to be tested on the battlefield. Do not
Speaker 1: absent yourself. So Tie two was like threw down a gauntlet.
Speaker 1: She was like, I'm ready to fight you hear, and
Speaker 1: now any time you say when? And so unsurprisingly, negotiations
Speaker 1: failed and Menelik was wavering on what to do next,
Speaker 1: but Tie two kept telling him, you know what you
Speaker 1: have to do next. We are going to war with
Speaker 1: the Italians. There's only one thing to do here, And
Speaker 1: finally she got through to him and Menelik declared war. Now,
Speaker 1: the Italians thought this was so cute. Europeans were victorious
Speaker 1: over African armies for centuries, so they just thought their
Speaker 1: win was like in the bag basically a given, don't
Speaker 1: even have to worry about it. And in January six
Speaker 1: Menelik and Tie two together attacked an Italian fort at Adigrat,
Speaker 1: and that did not go well for the Ethiopians. Italians
Speaker 1: slaughtered five Ethiopian soldiers easily and they barely suffered any
Speaker 1: casualties themselves. And Menelik here i I feel like it's
Speaker 1: probably thinking about two DROs and his really bad loss
Speaker 1: against the British during that expedition to Abyssinia, when that
Speaker 1: he sent all those soldiers out against that heavily armed
Speaker 1: British force. But Tie two had a plan. Now, she
Speaker 1: had her own private army of about five thousand soldiers,
Speaker 1: including a hundred women. She took nine hundred of her
Speaker 1: people and they snuck around the ravine where the fort
Speaker 1: was situated, and they cut off the stream that was
Speaker 1: supplying water to the fort. The Italians were not good
Speaker 1: at the local geography, their maps were outdated, they had
Speaker 1: no idea what to do, and the Ethiopians just backed up,
Speaker 1: settled in out of firing range and waited. And after
Speaker 1: ten days the Italians stumbled out of this sport totally
Speaker 1: dehydrated and sick and they surrendered. Yeah, that's home field
Speaker 1: advantagement exactly. She's like, they don't know about this place,
Speaker 1: let's use that against them. Welcome to my house, exactly.
Speaker 1: Welcome to my house. And now the Italians basically thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: you got lucky. We didn't know about the water. Sue
Speaker 1: us this time. I'm amia. Now, this time, we'll send
Speaker 1: some serious firepower to Ethiopian a deal with these locals.
Speaker 1: So they sent seventeen thousand men to march through Ethiopia
Speaker 1: towards the capital city of Addis Ababa. They knew this
Speaker 1: would put a stop to these uncivilized Ethiopians once and
Speaker 1: for all. But on their march to Addis Ababa, they
Speaker 1: were intercepted by Menelik tai Tu and their forces in
Speaker 1: the mountains near the town of Adwa, and the Battle
Speaker 1: of Adwa would prove to be one of the most
Speaker 1: significant in African history. Italian general Baratieri had been marching
Speaker 1: south from Eritrea, but his seventeen thousand men were again
Speaker 1: unprepared for the Ethiopian terrain. They were already low on water,
Speaker 1: munitions and morale. Then he saw the Ethiopian forces. Now
Speaker 1: Menelik had for years, led the Italians to believe that
Speaker 1: Ethiopia was just a disparate collection of disorganized tribes without
Speaker 1: any modern weaponry. But he had united most of the kingdoms,
Speaker 1: and this war with Italy did more for that than anything.
Speaker 1: Barrattieri looked up and saw Menelick's army of over a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand soldiers, and while half of them were armed
Speaker 1: with spears and swords and shield the other half had
Speaker 1: modern rifles. What what? What? Menelik had been making deals
Speaker 1: with the Russians, who were also Orthodox Christian, and they
Speaker 1: didn't want Catholic European expansion in Africa, so they came
Speaker 1: to a good arrangement, and they had been supplying Menelik
Speaker 1: with weapons for years. There he goes again, finding allies
Speaker 1: in the most strange places. I love that. Meanwhile, tai
Speaker 1: To gathered up ten thousand women and had them fill
Speaker 1: water jugs to supply the Ethiopian troops and tend to
Speaker 1: the wounded, which is of course something the Italians didn't
Speaker 1: know where to get or even think ahead to do.
Speaker 1: Barrittieri wanted to retreat, but the Italian Prime Minister Crispy
Speaker 1: ordered them to attack. But they were like, Oh, you're
Speaker 1: about to have a crispy ass because I burned you
Speaker 1: out of office. Crispy mother, crispy bitch. Now, when the
Speaker 1: fighting began, hied To rushed in with her five thousand soldiers, shouting,
Speaker 1: quote courage, victory is ours strike, and Encyclopedia dot com says,
Speaker 1: quote cannoneers to the right of where she stood fired
Speaker 1: so continuously that they broke the center of the enemy army.
Speaker 1: And the Italians tried to split into three contingents, gain
Speaker 1: the high ground and flank the Ethiopians. But again, they
Speaker 1: had outdated maps and they were not only completely separated
Speaker 1: from each other, but they were way more out in
Speaker 1: the open than they thought they would be, and they
Speaker 1: were easily spotted by Ethiopian scouts. So Metalis massive army
Speaker 1: decimated all three contingents. By the afternoon the battle was over.
Speaker 1: The Ethiopians had lost between ten and fifteen percent of
Speaker 1: their men, the Italians had lost nearly six When news
Speaker 1: got back to Italy, there were riots in the reads
Speaker 1: protesting Prime Minister Crispi's handling of the war. That was
Speaker 1: crispy bitch signs and they had to make peace with
Speaker 1: the Ethiopians. So soon they were back at the table
Speaker 1: signing the Treaty of Addis Ababa, in which Italy recognized
Speaker 1: Ethiopia's complete independence. And I bet Ti too read that
Speaker 1: ship a couple of times. Italy was humiliated across the
Speaker 1: world and Europe had to think twice about their arrogance
Speaker 1: in fighting African forces. Again, they're just using everything. They
Speaker 1: all the tools available. You know. He's like, y'all are
Speaker 1: so racist, and you think you're so condescending about us,
Speaker 1: you think we got nothing. I guess I'll use that
Speaker 1: instead of trying to persuade you, I'll just one day
Speaker 1: prove it to you. Now. Count Pietro Antonelli remember him.
Speaker 1: He was the negotiator who was talking shit about tai
Speaker 1: To after the treaty, of which who said, you know,
Speaker 1: I can't believe Emperor is listening to a woman. She said,
Speaker 1: I'll see you on the battlefield. Well he did absent
Speaker 1: himself from the battlefield, of course, and after this he
Speaker 1: changed his tune a bit. Now he said, quote. The Empress,
Speaker 1: like all other Ethiopian women, is brave. She has a
Speaker 1: strong character, sometimes haughty and just interesting in appearance. Her
Speaker 1: look is commanding and at the same time as spaness.
Speaker 1: In some she is a great lady who perhaps in
Speaker 1: another milieu would have been a Christina of Sweden or
Speaker 1: a Catherine the Great, but rejected Princesses dot Com points
Speaker 1: out this is European code for quote if she wasn't black,
Speaker 1: pretty obvious, Pretty obvious there. I liked her appearance is interesting, right, Oh,
Speaker 1: if she were white, she might be like Catherine the Great.
Speaker 1: I'm like she is like now. Europeans got pretty aggres
Speaker 1: with their racism about Tie two two after this, saying
Speaker 1: she was a brutal murderer who based in virgin's blood
Speaker 1: and tried to slaughter prisoners who had surrendered. They even
Speaker 1: said that she was the cause of the war herself,
Speaker 1: because they believed Menelik would have capitulated and compromised if
Speaker 1: it weren't for her bloodthirsty hatred of Europeans, and Encyclopedia
Speaker 1: dot Com says quote, no one outside of Ethiopia seemed
Speaker 1: to recognize Tie too simply as a patriot fighting for
Speaker 1: the freedom of her people. I mean, how many times
Speaker 1: do you see that? Right? It's like everyone has their
Speaker 1: own little version of how a conflict goes, and who
Speaker 1: the oppressor is and who the patriots are just kind
Speaker 1: of depends which sidere exactly. I think it's pretty clear
Speaker 1: if you look objectively in this case now. But Tie
Speaker 1: two was a bit divisive even at home. But in
Speaker 1: nineteen o six, Menelik suffered a stroke and although he recovered,
Speaker 1: he was weakened, and Tie two increasingly assumed his powers.
Speaker 1: She was known to be merciful and progressive, and she
Speaker 1: quote applied herself to not only feminine works, but like quicksilver,
Speaker 1: attended to perplexing business usually done by men and succeeded
Speaker 1: at it. She was surprised, mind blowing to the author
Speaker 1: of that piece, like, wow, she could also do this
Speaker 1: and she succeeded. I don't know what to think anymore.
Speaker 1: I better write this down. Dogs and cats living together,
Speaker 1: women succeeding in business. What is happening to the world
Speaker 1: this modern era. But she was pretty ruthless as a
Speaker 1: political ruler, to unsurprising what we've heard about her already.
Speaker 1: And as her power expanded, it was said that quote
Speaker 1: nearly half of Ethiopia is in the hands of her relatives.
Speaker 1: So the people got a little upset about her nepotism.
Speaker 1: You know, the why is always a bit tool running around.
Speaker 1: In nineteen o nine, Menelik had a second stroke and
Speaker 1: died shortly after. A Council of Regency from which the
Speaker 1: Empress was excluded, was formed in nineteen ten, and they
Speaker 1: ruled over Ethiopia until nineteen sixteen, when Empress Zudtu was crowned.
Speaker 1: Now Tai two was effectively forced out of politics during
Speaker 1: this Council of Regency, so she moved to live out
Speaker 1: her days in a nearby palace. She died in nineteen seventeen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Menelik and t two are still celebrated in Ethiopia today.
Speaker 1: They're buried next to each other in a monastery in
Speaker 1: Adis Ababa, and they're remembered as modernizers and patriots who
Speaker 1: fought for their people and brought prosperity to Ethiopia. And
Speaker 1: in Italy. There's a common expression when someone is being
Speaker 1: bold and demanding that things go their way, La gina
Speaker 1: Tai two, which translates to who does she think she is?
Speaker 1: Empress two? That's awesome. I saw a woman in one
Speaker 1: of the comments some one of these articles saying, oh,
Speaker 1: my grandmother is Italian. She used to say that to
Speaker 1: me all the time, like, who do you think you are?
Speaker 1: Empress ty two? Amazing? Let's start using that around here.
Speaker 1: That is good. That is yeah, next time I say
Speaker 1: some some unreasonable demand, Hey babe, can I get some
Speaker 1: water while you're up? Who do you think you are?
Speaker 1: Empress two? No? Be like if you were Empress tight too,
Speaker 1: you'd be cutting off the water. I wouldn't have any
Speaker 1: I'd have ten thousand women carrying it around. Right, You'd
Speaker 1: be like, you're part Italians, sir, You're not get any water.
Speaker 1: That's what We've never been a strategic thinker, all right,
Speaker 1: I would never presume to be empressed. I do, right,
Speaker 1: But that is so smart cut off the water and
Speaker 1: then just wait him out. She was a thinker. She
Speaker 1: was so smart. Yeah, A little bit reminded me of
Speaker 1: Olga of Kiev when she would she would just funk
Speaker 1: with they're all right, so she didn't even go in there.
Speaker 1: She had already decimated so many of them. I love
Speaker 1: that they're cut the image of them cutting off the
Speaker 1: water and then go standing out of range and just
Speaker 1: waiting and just watching them like another day goes by. Boy,
Speaker 1: they sure they sure do look a little, a little
Speaker 1: frustrated right now, hot enough for you. They're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're out there, like, you know, just pouring water out
Speaker 1: of jugs and taking a bath them. Oh so no,
Speaker 1: I think I'll go for a swim or doing that
Speaker 1: mean thing where you're like, hold it and then just
Speaker 1: pour it on the ground. You don't need it, right,
Speaker 1: It's like ice cold glass of lemonade. She's like, wouldn't
Speaker 1: you know, Oh, there's a bug in it. Dump. Honestly,
Speaker 1: what's probably worse is that they went and set up
Speaker 1: a little fire and then boiled pasta right in front
Speaker 1: of them. They were like, it's perfectly audente. How does
Speaker 1: it fail? Oh no? Not? The Wall Luigi is so upset.
Speaker 1: That's the story of when Empress tied too defeated Wall Luigi.
Speaker 1: I bet she could too, you know, she Mario Party
Speaker 1: easily easily. I will say that the game Civilization, I
Speaker 1: want to say Civilization four or five. Some gamer will
Speaker 1: correct me. But they added Ethiopia as a nation and
Speaker 1: Emperormentelek is your character if you play that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of history in the game. Cool. I'm
Speaker 1: glad we've retained them. In pop cultures. Oh, definitely, They're awesome,
Speaker 1: and it's you know, we kind of rushed through the end.
Speaker 1: I'll say that all of the modernizing and the Rhodes
Speaker 1: and the churches they built, and the government systems they
Speaker 1: set up and everything like that, a lot of that
Speaker 1: happened after the war with Italy. Um. You know, there
Speaker 1: was there was a solid eight or nine years there
Speaker 1: after the war where they were just prospering and didn't
Speaker 1: even well. And then when by the time he died
Speaker 1: and she got worst doubt. You know, it's politics. It
Speaker 1: wasn't anything too exciting or dramatic or anything. Um, but
Speaker 1: they were you know, well thought of and well remembered
Speaker 1: to this day. You think Tay two was tired or
Speaker 1: she just was like whatever, Mentalis dead, so I'll just
Speaker 1: go relax. Now. I wonder years or I wonder it
Speaker 1: was probably because I mean, you know, she lived well
Speaker 1: into her sixties. Yeah. My only question would be because
Speaker 1: she doesn't strike me as the type who would just
Speaker 1: let a counsel form around her right and totally exclude her.
Speaker 1: So I was like, did she have a problem with
Speaker 1: the hatter or was she kind of like fine, I've
Speaker 1: had my fun I could crush you all right now,
Speaker 1: but almost episode. But I think she needed him. I
Speaker 1: think they needed each other to be that balance, you know,
Speaker 1: because I think if if she's got that really harsh
Speaker 1: attitude like I don't take no ship and I'm not
Speaker 1: negotiating with you, you know, that only gets you so far,
Speaker 1: and mentalis attitude of like I don't want to make
Speaker 1: anybody mad, will work this out? That only gets you
Speaker 1: so far. Sit together and why why they're such a
Speaker 1: fascinating couple to me, that's really what made them so strong.
Speaker 1: Do you think, like the Italians, that he would have
Speaker 1: compromised without Taie two hard to say. I think he
Speaker 1: would have said tomorrow a lot, and they just kept
Speaker 1: being like, Okay, I guess we'll send him another message.
Speaker 1: But I don't. Man, you know, I'm not a historian
Speaker 1: of these people, so it's hard for me to really
Speaker 1: make a judgment call on what he might have done.
Speaker 1: From what little I know, it feels like I don't know.
Speaker 1: He might have quite as pushy. He might have. He
Speaker 1: might have tried to negotiate a different deal, maybe so.
Speaker 1: And she was so bold, like she was willing to
Speaker 1: go with a fight, and she did have to coax
Speaker 1: him into it. I imagine he but he just didn't
Speaker 1: have a better idea. But he might have been pushed
Speaker 1: into it eventually anyway, because he did care about his
Speaker 1: power and and out Ethiopian independence. He wanted this united kingdom.
Speaker 1: So I think that at some point there there still
Speaker 1: would have been a war because I'll remember also he
Speaker 1: was still negotiating and doing deals with the Russians for
Speaker 1: all those weapons. He was trying to like keep it
Speaker 1: on the d l that he was building such a
Speaker 1: powerful nation and did and did pretty good. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: hard to say a king with a lot of friends
Speaker 1: is a very dangerous man. But then you know, you
Speaker 1: Butterfly effected and you're like, well, if you've taken her out,
Speaker 1: would he even have gotten to this point where he
Speaker 1: was emperor? Um, hard to say that as well. They
Speaker 1: really they really worked well with each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is awesome, What a great story. Yes, I'm so
Speaker 1: glad that we have so ready to go to Ethiopia. Please,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, we haven't even really dug into Ethiopian food. Here.
Speaker 1: There's a Ethiopian restaurant nearby it we've got to go
Speaker 1: try out. I've had it once or twice and it's delicious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've I've not had Ethiopian food it since high school,
Speaker 1: so I need to definitely try it again. I was
Speaker 1: very adventurous eater, and let's go right now. I'm hungry,
Speaker 1: jest Ethiopian. Here we go, right, we'll go in. We'll
Speaker 1: be like, yes, We'll talk to the server and be like, well,
Speaker 1: have you heard of Empress tie too? And they'll be like, oh,
Speaker 1: tonight's meals on the house. I was gonna say it's
Speaker 1: probably some hipster and no, maybe not. Hopefully they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I heard about it on this episode of Ridiculous Romance.
Speaker 1: Wow cool, how we just recorded it? I have eyes
Speaker 1: and everything you do service turning into quite a creepy character. Leave. Well, look,
Speaker 1: I hope you all enjoyed the story as much as
Speaker 1: I did learning it um super interesting, fascinating, awesome people. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: very cool. Yeah, but yeah, let us know what you thought.
Speaker 1: We always love hearing from you and getting your suggestions
Speaker 1: and all anything you have to say. So yeah, reach out.
Speaker 1: We are ridic Romance at gmail dot com right or
Speaker 1: find us on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Oh great,
Speaker 1: it's Eli I'm at Dianamite Boom and the show is
Speaker 1: at ridict Romance. Yeah, and don't forget to drop us
Speaker 1: a rating interview on Apple Podcasts that other people can
Speaker 1: hear about how great we are, super helpful. We love that,
Speaker 1: and we love all of you and we will catch
Speaker 1: you all the next episode. Thanks for being here, and
Speaker 1: by so long, friends, it's time to go. Thanks so
Speaker 1: listening to our show tell your friend's names, Uncle Sandance
Speaker 1: to listen to a show ridiculous roll Nance