Institution: Addis Ababa Science and Technology University
Course Title: History of Ethiopia And The Horn
Credit Hours: 3
Academic Year-2022
Year:
Instructors- Tamirat G/Mariam (MA)
Course Outline
Course Description
The purpose is to help students understand a history of Ethiopia and the Horn from ancient
times to 1995 as a base for shaping and bettering the future. The course generally focuses on
major topics in the history of Ethiopia and the Horn including social, cultural, economic, and
political developments and their interrelations thereof. The contents of the course consider
the chronology and thematic relations of events in time and space. To make this course
inclusive and representative, the course also includes regional histories across the period.
Course Objectives:
The general objective of this module is to introduce students to the diverse histories of
Ethiopia and the Horn the extent to which interaction between peoples throughout the region
and with the outside world have shaped history of the region.
The specific objectives of the module are to enable students to:
Distinguish the nature and uses of history
Identify pertinent sources for the history of the peoples of Ethiopia and the Horn
Describe changes and continuities that unfolded in Ethiopia and the Horn
Elucidate the causes, courses and consequences of events that happened in the region
Explain the nature of the region’s external contacts and their effects
Appreciate peoples’ achievements, heritages and cultural diversities of the region
Unit one: Introduction
The geographical context
The nature and uses of history
Sources and methods of historical study
Historiography of Ethiopia and the horn
Unit two: peoples and cultures in Ethiopia and the horn
Human evolution
Neolithic revolution
Languages and Linguistic Processes
Religion and religious processes
Unit three: Politics, economy and society in Ethiopia and the horn to the end of the thirteenth
century
Emergence of states
The Aksumite State
The Zagwe Dynasty
Unit four: Politics, economy and society from the late thirteenth to the beginning of the
sixteenth centuries
The “restoration” of the “Solomonic’’ dynasty
Power struggle, consolidation, territorial expansion
Agriculture and Land tenure system
Evangelization : Expansion of Christianity
Religious Reform and Movement
Muslim and Omotic States in Ethiopia
The Rivalry between the Christian Kingdom and the Muslim Sultanates
Unit five: Politics, economy and social processes from the early sixteenth to the end of the
eighteenth centuries
The Jesuit interlude
The major population movements
The Gondarine period
Zemene-Mesafint
The process of State Formation in the Gibe Region and the Revival of trade
(c.1750-1850)
Unit six: Internal developments and external relations of Ethiopia and the horn, 1800-1941
The rise of Tewodros
The Times of Yohannes IV
The Main Features of Menelik’s Region
The Expansion of the Kingdom to the South, South-West and South-East
The Road to Adwa
The reigns of Iyyasu , Zawditu and Ras Tafari/ Emperor Haile Sellase I/
The emergency of absolutism (1930-35)
The Italian occupation 1936-1941
The Resistance
Unit seven: internal developments and external relations, 1941–1995
Consolidation of Absolutism
The attempted coup d’état of 1960
Eritrea: federation, union and separatism
The Ethiopian Student Movement
The Derg regime (1974-1991)
Reference
Addis Hewet. Ethiopia: From Autocracy to Revolution. London: Review of the African
Political Economy, Occasional Publication No. 1 1975.
Andargachew Tiruneh. The Ethiopian Revolution 1974-1987: A Transformation from an
Aristocratic to a Totalitarian Autocracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1993.
Aregawi Berhe. "A Political History of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (1975-1991):
Revolt, Ideology and Mobilisation in Ethiopia". PhD Dissertation, University of
Amsterdam, 2008.
Asmerom Legesse. Gada: Three Approaches to the Study of African Society. New York: The
Free Press, 1973.
Assefa Bequele and Eshetu Chole. A Profile of the Ethiopian Economy. London: Oxford
University Press, 1969.
Bahru Zewde. “A Century of Ethiopian Historiography”.Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol.
33, No. 2 (November, 2000).
Bahru Zewde.A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855-1991. Second Edition Oxford: James
Currey, 2002.
Balsvik Rønning Randi. Haile Selassie's Students: The Intellectual and Social Background to
Revolution, 1952-1974. Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1985
Crummey Donald. Land and Society in the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia: From the
Thirteenth to the Twentieth Century. London: James Currey, 2000.
Crummey, Donald. “Tewodros as Reformer and Modernizer” .Journal of African History.
Volume X, No.3, 1969.
Darkwah, H. R. Shawa, Menelik and the Ethiopian Empire, 1813-1889. London, 1975.
Dawit Wolde-Giorgis. Red Tears: War, Famine, and Revolution in Ethiopia. Trenton, NJ:
Red Sea Press, 1989.
Gebru Tareke. Ethiopia: Power and Protest. Peasants Revolts in the Twentieth Century.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Levin, D.N. Greater Ethiopia: The Evolution of a multi-ethnic society. London: 1964.
Marcus, Harold G. A History of Ethiopia. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1994
1994.
Mohammed Hassen. The Oromo of Ethiopia 1570-1860. Cambridge, 1990.
Pankhurst Richard. Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800-1935.Addis Ababa, 1968.
Rubenson, Sven. The Survival of Ethiopian Independence.London, 1976.
Sergew Hable Sellassie. Ancient and Medieval Ethiopian History to 1270.Addis Ababa: HIU
Press, 1972.
Shafer J., Robert. A Guide to Historical Method. 3rd Edition. Homewood, Illinois: The
Dorsey Press, 1980.
Taddesse Tamrat. Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270-1527. Oxford, 1972.
Trimingham, J. Spencer. Islam in Ethiopia. London, 1952.
