This piece is prepared in commemoration of Tewodros II’s 200th Birthday. The Emperor is well known in ending the era of division (era of princes). The content is organized by extracting contents from Bahru Zewede’s book, A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855- 1991, Ghelawdewos Araia’s article, The Great Unifier: Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia and other collections written by Ethiopians and foreigners such as Tekletsadiq Mekuria, Sven Rubenson, and Donald Crummey on the life of the Emperor.
Excerpts: According to Ghelawdewos, Emperor Tewodros II is one of the most magnificent Ethiopian leaders and founder of modern Ethiopia.
Tewodros was born as Kassa Hailu in Quara (Gonder) for Ato Hailu and Emmett Atitegeb in 1818. His father died when he was still a child and he was taken care of by his poverty-stricken mother. Kassa attended traditional education and tutorial on Songs of David by the monks at monastery of Mahbere-Selassie. According to Tekletsadiq Mekuria, Kassa was accepted as a rebel leader. In fact, his life as a shifta [banditry] in the plains of Qwara, was a very determining period of his life. Most of the enduring features of his personality were established at the time.
Two of them, according to Bahru, were his simplicity and disdain for pomp. He lived the life of his followers. According to Sven Rubenson, King of Kings: Tewodros of Ethiopia, Kassa “shared out captured grain and money to the peasants in Qwara and told them to buy hoes and plant.” Then after, he left the banditry and settled at the house of Dejach Goshu and Ras Ali and learned royal etiquette, military combat, and work ethic. Soon after, the young Kassa proved his bravery and heroism at the battle of Sennar with the Egyptians. Empress Menen (the mother of Ras Ali) decided to give their great daughter, Tewabech, to Kassa; thus Lij Kassa and Weizero Tewabech were joined in holy matrimony in 1847.
The marriage was intended to entrap and make Kassa loyal to Etege Menen and Ras Ali. But Kassa’s ambition was to end the era of division in Ethiopian history. In Ethiopian history, the time between the mid 18th to 19th centuries is known as ‘Zemene Mesafint’ or Era of Princes. The main feature of the time was absence of central authority that the country was divided between regions run by different princes. It was Emperor Tewodros II who came to the picture at this critical juncture in the country’s history.
Tewodros II’s origins were of course the time, the Era of Princes. But, despite having a humble origin, his aspirations were not as that of the regional nobility. He came to fight for the throne with a vision to reestablish a unified Ethiopian state and make significant reforms. Because the aristocracy was trying to denigrate the humble origins of Kassa and even ridicule him for being the underdog in his marriage relationship, Kassa and Tewabech became rebels with a cause.
Ras Ali was furious when he learned that Kassa and Tewabech became rebels and he ordered one of his lieutenants, Dejach Wodyirad, to undertake a massive war campaign against Kassa. In a conventional battle at Mecho, the forces of Kassa (only 300 strong) defeated the thousands of troops of Dejach Wondyirad.
Then after, Etege Menen herself led a 20,000 strong army against Kassa and defeated. Upon hearing the capture of his mother, Ras Ali suggested that Kassa govern Dembia and Quara in exchange of his captured mother. Kassa agreed Etege Menen was set free; the people at large entrusted the title of Dejach to Kassa and ever since his name clamored all over Ethiopia.
Once he got his mother, however, Ras Ali, in an attempt to call of the truce with Dejach Kassa, he allied himself with Dejach Goshu, governor of Gojjam, and both of them came for a show of force to Dembia. Kassa’s forces’ defeated Dejach Goshu at Gur Amba. Upon the defeat of Dejach Goshu, Ras Ali dispatched the combined forces of various war lords, but these forces were defeated too.
Now, Ras Ali raised huge number of combatants and met Kassa’s forces at Gorgora, near Lake Tana in June 1852. At Gorgora, the seemingly huge force of Ras Ali began to crumble in the face of brave Kassa’s fighters. Ras Ali was defeated, and according to Tekletsadiq Mekuria the Ras is believed to have said, “this stick is God’s stick; not Kassa’s.” At this point, Dejach Kassa, following successive victories amassed a formidable force, felt like going to Gonder and officially observe his own coronation ceremony but he could not do it without the blessing of the patriarch Abune Selama who was then residing with Dejach Wube.
In fact, Kassa sent a messenger to Dejach Wube so that he let the patriarch go to Gonder but Wube, who himself was aspiring to become king of Ethiopia, refused. Kassa campaigned against Wube; hence the battle of Deresghe took place where huge casualty on either side was witnessed. Finally, however, Wube surrendered to Kassa. Dejach Kassa made a victory march toward the church of Deresghe Mariam and the people welcomed them with elulation and applause.
Three days after the victory of Deresghe, Abune Selama crowned Dejach Kassa as Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia on February 1855. Because of his rise from the bottom to the top, from the life of a Shefta (bandit), without having a significant blood connection to the royalty, to a historic emperor who laid the foundation for the modern Ethiopian state, it is fair to say that Tewodros II earned his achievements through personal struggle and sacrifice.
According to Bahru, Kasa became Tewodros II largely by dint of his own personal qualities: his sense of mission, his military skill and valor and his extraordinary intelligence. He was essentially a self-made man. Kasa the shifta became Tewodros the emperor. Although his career was initially formed within the politics of the Zemana Mesafent, finally he proved to be its antithesis. As to Ghelawedios, Tewodros had yet to campaign against a relatively strong King HaileMelekot of Shewa.
In October 1856, with his strong cavalry and ground forces reached Menz and declared to all the people, “if you have a country and a father go back to your country and father; if you don’t have one, I will be your father.” After the defeat of Haile-Melekot, the Shewan aristocracy, serving as entourage to SahleMariam (successor of Haile-Melekot and future Menelik II) planned to fight back and attack Tewodros. Sahle-Mariam was 12 years old at the time and he could only exercise a symbolic power.
Thus, Sahle-Mariam surrendered and became prisoner of war, but contrary to his fear, Tewodros extended love, treated him well, and took him away with him. As soon as he went back to Gonder, Tewodros, now presiding over a reunited Ethiopia, attempted to implement a number of reforms.
The first time in Ethiopian history, the Emperor established a professional standing army and the principle that governors and judges must be salaried appointees. Further, he also collected various valuable books in the form of a library and tax codes. And above all, he formed a centralized political system with respective administrative districts and laid the foundation for the subsequent emperors, Yohannes IV and Menelik II, to accomplish the formation of a modern Ethiopian State as we know it today. Donald Crummey in the Book Tewodros as reformer and modernizer described Tewodros as ‘Ethiopia’s first monarch with a concept (however vague) of modernization.’ Bahiru also noted that given the breadth of his vision and the energy that he brought to the Ethiopian scene, this is a fair assessment.
The Emperor, in an attempt to speed up industrialization in Ethiopia, commissioned a large artillery mortal named after the Crimean town Sevastopol, the site of a battle during the Crimean war. Despite his reform attempts and his relatively strong centralized form of governance, however, the Ethiopian Church opposed Tewodros, that he confronted early on, mainly because of his radical reforms and the mushrooming of revolts all over his nascent empire clearly undermined his legitimacy to power.
Around 1865, various rebels had emerged. In addition to his conflicts with rebels and rivals, Tewodros also entered into confrontation with European forces, particularly with the then superpower the British. In an effort to get military support during his arduous path to power, he had corresponded with the Russians, English, and French, but he always remained skeptical of European motive when it comes to their relations with Africa. But diplomacy with the British was severed when Tewodros negatively interpreted the lack of response to his letter written to Queen Victoria. By default or by design, this letter did not get response and Tewodros put Captain Cameron and other British envoys in jail at Meqdella. This incident finally led to his demise. In an effort to free the hostages, the British sent an expeditionary force in 1968 and stormed his stronghold.
This incident finally led to his demise. The battle of Meqdella took place in April 1867 and once his chief commander Fitwerari Gebrie was shot and killed; Tewodros became desperate. Some commanders close to Tewodros suggested ‘to fight till they die but to finish off the hostages first’ but the emperor is believed to have said, ‘I can’t do that; I can’t see my people pay the price for the wrong that I do.’ In a move to avoid capture and humiliation, Tewodros shoot himself with his gun. His action gave him a heroic status among subsequent generations of Ethiopians.
In the final years of his time, the Emperor said to become harsh and took cruel measures on his opponents, probably because of the death of his beloved wife Empress Tewabech and his frustration because of the slow progress of his vision and reform. Tewabech was by his side all the time and supported him.
According to many sources, the Empress had a positive effect on Tewodros, and that his erratic and violent behavior in his last ten years was due to the lack of her advice and support, which he could not gain from his second wife Empress Turuwork. Unfortunately, Tewodros the great unifier and visionary laid dead after 13 years in power (1855- 1868) before his dream of founding a strong and united Ethiopia beyond what he already presided over was accomplished. Nevertheless, he set forth the reunification of Ethiopia and laid the cornerstone of its modernization. Long after Tewodros is gone, however, he remained a legend and popular hero and at times controversial.
Herald January 17/2019
