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African History 3: From Aksum to Ethiopia 31 Views
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Description:
Today we're learning about an Aksum—er, awesome warrior woman, and the many rises and falls of what is now known as Ethiopia.
Transcript
- 00:04
After Islam put up its feet on North Africa's couch, saying "I think I'll crash here for [Foot crushes couch]
- 00:09
a couple thousand years"—the poor kingdom of Aksum went kaput.
- 00:14
Without money from trade revenues, the government didn’t have the cash to fund the necessary [Man scooped up by hand]
- 00:17
stuff, like armies.
- 00:19
So eventually local lords got grabby. [Man shooting gun]
Full Transcript
- 00:23
And civil wars, coups, and rebellions ensued.
- 00:26
Legend says that the death knell for Aksum was a rebel warrior woman named Gudit [Gudit fighting king]
- 00:32
It’s said that she overthrew the Christian king in the 900s CE and basically wrecked
- 00:36
the place.
- 00:37
History is a little foggy on whether this really happened—she supposedly got rid of
- 00:42
the record-keeping bureaucrats.
- 00:43
But there probably was a queen ruling the land around that time, and it's a cool story,
- 00:47
so, uh…we're going with it. [Gudit sitting on throne]
- 00:48
With Gudit and her descendants in charge, Ethiopia entered a Dark Age where everybody
- 00:54
said…meh...to writing things down.
- 00:56
But every age has to end.
- 00:58
The Ethiopian Dark Ages ended in 1137 when the last of Gudit's descendants got the boot. [Boot kicks away Gudit]
- 01:04
Who were the new rulers on the block?
- 01:05
A Christian dynasty called Zagwe which founded the new Ethiopian Empire.
- 01:11
The Zagwe Dynasty whipped the land back into shape. [Woman performing sit ups]
- 01:14
And along the way, they built some pretty impressive monuments: the rock churches of
- 01:19
Lalibela Major pilgrimage sights to this day, these
- 01:23
churches were carved directly from the stone of the earth. [Man carving church]
- 01:26
Which is an insane way to build something.
- 01:29
But TOTALLY awesome.
- 01:30
Of course, like every dynasty the Zagwe eventually lost their grip. [Zagwe drops Ethiopia]
- 01:33
Talk about butterfingers.
- 01:35
The Zagwe were replaced by the Solomonic Dynasty, which claimed to be descended from [Solomonic king and soldiers appear]
- 01:40
King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
- 01:42
Nobody knows if that was true or not, but again…it sounds good, right?
- 01:46
Rule of the Ethiopian Empire changed hands plenty over the next 500 years. [Kings tossing Ethiopia]
- 01:50
But the thing that makes Ethiopia truly remarkable is that, for the most part, it kept itself
- 01:54
free of foreign rule.
- 01:56
Muslim invaders tried to step in, but no dice. [Muslims attempt to enter Ethiopia]
- 01:59
Throughout the ages, Ethiopia stayed…Ethiopian.
- 02:02
It wasn’t until 1935 that the Italians under Mussolini got close to taking over.
- 02:08
Still, after a relatively short occupation, the Ethiopians kicked out the Italians with [Boot kicks away Mussolini]
- 02:12
the help of the British.
- 02:13
Yeah, modern Italians are good at making pasta, but not so good at… empiring. [Woman holding bowl of pasta]
- 02:19
Somewhat miraculously, the British actually didn’t stick around…instead letting Ethiopia
- 02:23
continue to rule itself.
- 02:25
Ethiopia’s last ruling emperor was Haile Selassie who claimed
- 02:30
to be descended from the Solomonic Dynasty.
- 02:34
Oh, and he also managed to inspire the Rastafarian religion, which still worships him as a messiah. [Rastafarian man worshiping Selassie]
- 02:40
In the 1970’s, Haile was deposed and possibly murdered in a socialist coup, sweeping Ethiopia
- 02:44
violently into the modern age. [soldiers firing cannons]
- 02:46
You have to hand it to the Ethiopian Empire, though.
- 02:48
Despite all the odds against it, it was the longest-lasting African empire, next to Egypt. [Ethiopia on stage]
- 02:54
And sometimes second place is…still pretty darn impressive. [Audience giving round of applause]
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