John Marcy Mecray (February 13, 1937 – November 1, 2017) was an American realist painter best known for his marine art.

Formative Years
He was raised in Cape May, New Jersey where family roots pre-date the 19th century. John's namesake was a Civil War soldier killed in action

at Williamsburg, Virginia on May 5, 1862, and memorialized by the GAR with a ten-foot obelisk in the Cold Spring Presbyterian Cemetery, Lower Twp., New Jersey.  John's grandfather, James E. Mecray, started one of the nation's first Ford agencies in Cape May in 1903.

He won a number of awards for his artwork in the Cape May public school system.  In 1954 he was accepted at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) where he majored in illustration under Henry Pitz and Joe Krush.  After John's third year at PCA he fulfilled his military obligation and spent two and a half years in the US Army in Germany
. He quickly transferred from the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment to become set and graphic designer for the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra & Soldier Shows Company in Stuttgart. He then secured the position of illustrator for Seventh Army Headquarters' Psychological Warfare Company, designing leaflets and posters. During his two and a half years in Germany he had the opportunity to visit scores of museums throughout Europe.

After his tour of duty he returned to art college. While still in his senior year he obtained a commission to illustrate the Senior Girl Scout Handbook. He graduated in 1961, and was asked back to teach a drawing class one day a week. After two years increasing freelance work brought an end to teaching.  His early varied clients included Smith Kline & French Pharmaceuticals, Philadelphia Electric, the Franklin Mint, and a number of clients through Philadelphia's Bruno/Mease Studio and the N.W. Ayer Agency. He illustrated several books, mainly for the teen-age market.

Painting & Publishing

Inspired by a number of offshore yacht deliveries to the Virgin Islands in the 1970s he gave up his Philadelphia-based illustration career to devote full-time to marine painting. In 1976 Mecray, his wife, young son and daughter, moved to Newport, RI where he set up a working studio on the third floor at 166 Thames Street, a block from Newport's harbor. He had purchased a weatherworn, ca. 1798, early Federal style house at 83 Division Street in Newport's 'Historic Hill' district and undertook a total restoration in addition to starting a new career.

His second painting completed in Newport in 1976/77 was the J-Class yacht Rainbow. 1977 was the year of the 23rd Defense of the America's Cup, and John's background in illustration served him well. He contacted Yachting magazine, which resulted in Rainbow being published as a two-page spread in Yachtings America's Cup Issue. That summer Ted Turner commissioned a painting of Courageous.  Gary Jobson purchased the Rainbow painting and commissions from both Jobson and Turner followed over the years.  In 2007 Turner commissioned another painting of Courageous, which he gifted to the New York Yacht Club on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Courageouss victory over the 12-metre yacht Australia in 1977.

In 1978 Mystic Seaport Museum Store became publisher of Mecray's limited edition prints. Mecray took over the publishing in 1987 and Mystic Seaport Wholesale has remained Mecray's print distributor ever since. Between 1976 and 2009, forty-six limited editions and six open editions have been published and distributed worldwide.  Since 1981, Mecray's original paintings have been represented by the dealer Marguerite Riordan. She successfully presented his work to a wider audience more attuned to period American painting.  Over the years she mounted several exhibits at her gallery in Stonington, CT, and she represented his work until she retired in 2008.

Restoration Background

John Mecray grew up in a restoration environment, beginning with Cape May's renaissance in the early 1950s. The restoration of that city's many Victorian houses left a lasting impression. In the 1970s Newport, RI was the epicenter for 18th century house restorations and John's Division Street Federal was one of them. More recent restorations include a 1936 race car, a 1958 sports car and a 1953 motorcycle, in addition to his involvement since its founding with the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, RI.

MOY & IYRS
In 1978 Mecray and a small group of friends met in his studio on several occasions to discuss the possibility of starting a museum. Discussions ultimately led to the founding of The Museum of Yachting in 1979. In March 1980 John convinced Tom Benson to take the position of executive director, which effectively brought the museum to life. On September 13–14 of that year the museum held its first annual Classic Yacht Regatta which is still a popular Labor Day weekend event for classic yachts.

In 1992 John resigned his trustee position with the museum to join with Elizabeth Meyer at the start of the International Yacht Restoration School.  Shortly after its founding in 1993 IYRS acquired an historic waterfront site vacated by the Newport Electric Company, and within nine months one of its two buildings was rehabbed, and classes had begun. The accredited vocational school has gained recognition and respect worldwide.

In 2007 John was involved in negotiations that successfully merged the museum and the school.

Schooner CORONET

In 1980 an article about the 1885 schooner yacht Coronet in WoodenBoat magazine caught the artist's eye. After visiting the yacht he explored options to see if the 133 foot schooner could be saved and restored. To this end he painted his first (1981) of three works of Coronet, then published a print using most of the proceeds to set up a museum fund to stabilize and help maintain the yacht. In 1995 the deteriorated vessel was accepted by the International Yacht Restoration School. The yacht was secured and documented in preparation for restoration. Coronet's importance has been recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and has been called America's Most Historic Yacht. Finally, in late 2008, a full restoration under the auspices of Dr. Robert McNeil, a noted restorer of classic yachts, commenced on the IYRS Waterfront campus.

Recognition

On October 29, 2007, John was honored by the National Maritime Historical Society when it presented its 'Distinguished Service Award' during their Annual Awards Dinner held in the New York Yacht Club's model room on 44th Street in Manhattan.

It was an appropriate setting since John has utilized the model room on numerous occasions to sketch yacht models in preparing for a painting. The NMHS award said: "John Mecray [is] honored for using his considerable influence as America's preeminent artist of yachts and yachting to preserve our maritime heritage by working to restore the historic schooner Coronet."

John married Mary Gillette of Newport in 1995.

The minister who performed the service was the Reverend Frank S. Murray, Captain for 36 years of the schooner yacht Coronet. He married the couple on the lawn of the Newport Art Museum.

At John's Memorial Service on Dec 1st, 2017 at the International Yacht Restoration School it was announced that the Restoration Hall would be renamed in his honor.  Students also dedicated a Japanese Maple tree which will be planted in the grounds

Death

Mecray was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2015 and died November 1, 2017.

References

Further reading
 John Mecray Website
 Henry Pitz
 Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra
 Museum of Yachting
 Classic Yacht Regatta
 International Yacht Restoration School
 Wooden Boat Magazine

1937 births
2017 deaths
American realist painters
American marine artists
University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni
Artists from New Jersey
People from Cape May, New Jersey
People from Ridley Park, Pennsylvania
People from Jamestown, Rhode Island

John Mecray


Anne Marie "Ree" Drummond (née Smith, born January 6, 1969) is an American blogger, author, food writer, and television personality. Drummond became known for her blog, The Pioneer Woman, which documented her life in rural Oklahoma.

Capitalizing on the success of her blog, Drummond stars in her own television program, also titled The Pioneer Woman, on The Food Network which began in 2011. She has also written cookbooks, a children's book, and an autobiography. In 2015, Drummond launched a "homey lifestyle" product line of cookware, cutlery, appliances, clothing and outdoor living products.

Early life
Anne Marie, nicknamed Ree, grew up in a home overlooking the grounds of a country club in the oil town of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, with two brothers and a sister. She graduated from Bartlesville High School in 1987 after which she left Oklahoma to attend college in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from the University of Southern California in 1991, having first studied journalism before switching to gerontology. After graduation she hoped to attend law school in Chicago, but her plans changed unexpectedly when she met and married her husband, Ladd Drummond. Her husband is a member of the wealthy Drummond ranching family.

Drummond was raised Episcopalian. She is an alumna of Pi Beta Phi sorority.

Blog at ThePioneerWoman.com
Drummond began blogging in May 2006, initially using the subdomain pioneerwoman.typepad.com within the Typepad blogging service. She registered her own domain thepioneerwoman.com on October 18, 2006. Drummond's blog, The Pioneer Woman, was originally titled Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. The site is hosted by Rackspace.

Drummond writes about topics such as ranch life and homeschooling.  About a year after launching her blog, she posted her first recipe and a tutorial on "How to Cook a Steak". The blog became popular and won Weblog of the Year in the 2010 Bloggies.

As of September 2009, Drummond's blog reportedly received 13 million page views per month. On May 9, 2011, the blog's popularity had risen to approximately 23.3 million page views per month and 4.4 million unique visitors. According to an article in The New Yorker, "This is roughly the same number of people who read The Daily Beast". An article in the Toronto newspaper The Globe and Mail described it as "[s]lickly photographed with legions of fans ... arguably the mother of all farm girl blogs." Estimates for her site's income suggest it earns $1 million or more per year from display (advertisement) income.

Food community (TastyKitchen.com)
 In April 2008, Drummond held a giveaway contest in the cooking section of her blog The Pioneer Woman in which she asked readers to share one of their favorite recipes; the response inspired her to create a recipe sharing site. In 2009, Drummond launched TastyKitchen.com – community recipe-sharing site.

Books
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl
Drummond's first cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, was published in October 2009. A New York Times reviewer described Drummond as "funny, enthusiastic and self-deprecating."

Black Heels to Tractor Wheels
Published in February 2011  by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Charlie the Ranch Dog
In April 2011, Drummond published a children's book titled Charlie the Ranch Dog, featuring her family's beloved Basset Hound Charlie. According to Publishers Weekly, "Adult readers will recognize in Charlie's voice the understated humor that has made Drummond's blog so successful; kids should find it irresistible." The book was illustrated by Diane deGroat, an illustrator of more than 120 children's books.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier
Drummond's second cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier,  released in March 2012.

Charlie and the Christmas Kitty
A children's book about the family's dog. Released in December 2012.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays: 140 Step-by-Step Recipes for Simple, Scrumptious Celebrations
Released October 29, 2013.

Charlie and the New Baby
Another children's book about the family's basset hound. Released on April 29, 2014.

Charlie the Ranch Dog: Charlie Goes to the Doctor
Released June 17, 2014.

Charlie the Ranch Dog: Stuck in the Mud
Released January 6, 2015.

Charlie Plays Ball
Released March 24, 2015.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime
A cookbook featuring 125 dinner recipes. Released October 20, 2015.

Charlie the Ranch Dog: Rock Star
Released November 17, 2015.

Little Ree
Released March 28, 2017

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Come and Get It!
A cookbook featuring 120 recipes. Released October 24, 2017.

Little Ree: Best Friends Forever!
Released March 27, 2018

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Super Easy!
Released October 19, 2021.

Ree's Best Family Meals
Released online August 2, 2022.

Television
Drummond made her television debut on an episode of Throwdown! with Bobby Flay in 2010.

In April 2011, the Food Network announced that Drummond would host her own daytime television series on the network. The Pioneer Woman premiered on Saturday, August 27, 2011.

Film
On March 19, 2010, Drummond confirmed media reports that Columbia Pictures had acquired the film rights to her book From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. The production company was reported to be in talks with Reese Witherspoon to star as Drummond in a motion picture based on the book. As of 2023, no further information has been released about this project.

Personal life
On September 21, 1996, Drummond married Ladd Drummond (born January 22, 1969), a fourth-generation member of the prominent Osage County cattle ranching Drummond family whom she refers to as "the Marlboro Man" in her books and her blog. They spent their honeymoon in Australia and live on a remote working cattle ranch approximately 8 miles west of Pawhuska, Oklahoma.  They have five children. Her husband's second cousin is Gentner Drummond, an Attorney General of Oklahoma.

In late 2016, the Drummonds opened The Mercantile, a restaurant retail store located in a 100-year-old downtown Pawhuska building that they bought and began renovating in 2012.

In 2018, the Drummonds opened a bed and breakfast in downtown Pawhuska, "The Boarding House", as well as a pizzeria, "P-Town Pizza". The Drummonds opened "Charlie's Sweet Shop", an ice cream and candy shop, in 2020. The shop was named for their basset hound Charlie, who died in 2017.

References

External links
The Pioneer Woman official website
Tasty Kitchen food community
Pioneer Woman cooking show on Food Network

 Ree Drummond on IMDB

1969 births
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American women writers
American bloggers
American food writers
American television chefs
American women bloggers
American women chefs
Food Network chefs
Living people
Ree Drummond
People from Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Oklahoma culture
Women cookbook writers
University of Southern California alumni

Ree Drummond


"Glitter"/"Fated" is the forty-first single by Japanese pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki, released on July 18, 2007. "Glitter"/"Fated" was Hamasaki's first single of 2007 and first single in over a year, since the release of "Blue Bird" in June 2006.

History
The first signs of a new single emerged when Hamasaki stated on her Team Ayu fanclub blog on April 26, 2007, that she had just finished writing a new song and was preparing to go record it. On May 17, 2007, the title was revealed on Tower Records' website. On the same date, it was announced that like last year's summer song Blue Bird, glitter would be used as a tie-up to promote Zespri's golden kiwi once again. On May 18, the single was announced officially on Hamasaki's official website. It was stated that this single would be the opening of her "third chapter." Upon availability for preorder on May 19, "Glitter"/"Fated" topped the CD sales chart on Japanese music vendor "Neowing" and its English counterpart "CDJapan" because of the amount of pre-orders that it received. On May 22, several Japanese news websites and vendors reported that "Fated" would be the theme song of the Japanese film Kaidan. It was reported that the theme song would not only be used for the film's release in Japan, but it would also accompany the film's release in over 50 countries. On May 30, 2007, Hamasaki reported on her Team Ayu fanclub blog that she would be flying to Hong Kong after her Asia tour performances in Osaka to film a new short film alongside actor Shawn Yue. The film will feature both "Glitter" and "Fated" and is actually a short movie that runs approximately 18 minutes. She would also share her first onscreen kiss in this video. On June 12, the songs "Glitter" and "Fated" were both leaked in their entirety.

Short film Distance Love

Rather than having two conventional music videos, both songs are featured in one short film starring Hamasaki herself alongside Hong Kong actor Shawn Yue.
Hamasaki flew to Hong Kong on June 1, 2007, to begin filming the short film which took a total of eight days of filming to complete. This was the first time Hamasaki had ever worked with a Chinese actor. Hamasaki had three translators with her at all times and Shawn Yue had two. Despite the large number of translators present, Yue stated that it was hard to get close to Hamasaki on a personal level because of the number of people constantly around them as well as the language barrier. Although this was difficult for Yue, he stated in phone interview with On.cc that he and Hamasaki are now, in fact, friends. During the filming one scene towards the ending of the film, Hamasaki wore a beautiful yet heavy wedding dress and ran around frantically for at least ten takes. Despite the 30 °C (86 °F) weather and several rain showers, Hamasaki continued filming relentlessly.

Plot summary
Distance Love depicts Hamasaki as herself, on a tour of Hong Kong, with Yue as her bodyguard, whom Hamasaki later falls in love with. In the later half of Distance Love, Yue is injured while riding his motorcycle, leaving behind a ring, which Hamasaki later finds.

Track listings
CD Maxi Single

 "Glitter"
 "Fated"
 "Secret"
 "Glitter" (Instrumental)
 "Fated" (Instrumental)
The single contains the track "Secret", the title track of her most recent studio album. This marks the first time she released a track on a single in its original form after it was featured on an album.

DVD
  (Short film)

Release history

Televised performances
Ayumi promoted Glitter/Fated by live performances on the following networks:
July 13, 2007 – Music Station – "Glitter"
July 13, 2007 – Music Fighter – "Fated"
July 14, 2007 – CDTV – "Glitter"
July 16, 2007 – Hey!Hey!Hey! – "Glitter"
July 20, 2007 – Music Japan – "Glitter"
July 20, 2007 – Music Station – "Fated"

Charts
"Glitter"/"Fated" debuted in Oricon as #1, where it remained until the end of the week and reached #1 weekly chart with sales of approximately 110,000 copies. This is Hamasaki's 16th consecutive number one single and 28th #1 single in total. Beginning in the second week, the single fell down to #6 and eventually climbed back to #4 on the weekly chart with sales around 22,000 copies. By the end of 2007 Avex reported that "Glitter"/"Fated" had sold 244,000 copies.

Physical sales charts

Oricon sales chart (Japan)

  Total sales :  195,000 (Japan)
  Total sales :  244,000 (Avex)
 RIAJ certification: Gold

Digital sales charts

References

Ayumi Hamasaki songs
2007 singles
Oricon Weekly number-one singles
Japanese film songs

Glitter/Fated


Lapponia is a book written by Johannes Schefferus (1621 - 1679) in Latin covering a very comprehensive history of Northern Scandinavia topology, environment and Sami living condition, dwelling-places, clothing, gender roles, hunting, child raising, shamanism and pagan religion. It was published in late 1673 and closely followed by English, German, French and Dutch translations. Adapted and abridged versions followed, where only the original chapters on shamanism and religion were preserved, the others being replaced by tales of magic, sorcery, drums and heathenism.

The book uses "Lap" mainly to notice that Samis are still pagan and it is concluded that Lap is a word introduced by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus (ca. 1150–1220) to distinguish Sami peoples living near the ocean (coast-fenni) and in the woodland (lapp-fenni).

It was aimed to meet rumors, or as the councillor Magnus De La Gardie saw it, degrading propaganda, from particular German pamphlets claiming the Swedes had used "Sami magic" on European battlefields.

The book was not fully translated into Swedish (as Lappland, Acta Lapponica 8, Uppsala 1956) until 1956. Its references are, however, based on "clergy correspondence", that is, reports made by priests.

A smaller part of the geographical region described in the book is today named Lappland (or Laponia.)

See also
Sápmi (area)
Olaus Sirma, who acted as one of Schefferus' informants.

External links

 Johannes Schefferus (1621 - 1679) in the web exhibit «The Northern Lights Route» Tromsø University Library, 1999

1673 books
Sápmi
Sámi history
Swedish books

Lapponia (book)


Ronald Jon Roenicke ( ; born August 19, 1956) is an American former professional baseball outfielder, coach, and manager. During his playing career, Roenicke played eight seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, and Cincinnati Reds. He later served as a coach for the Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, and Boston Red Sox, and as manager for the Milwaukee Brewers and Red Sox. He is the younger brother of former MLB outfielder Gary Roenicke.

Early life and playing career

Roenicke attended Edgewood High School in West Covina, California, and Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California. He was drafted four times (Oakland Athletics in 1974; San Francisco Giants in 1975; Detroit Tigers in 1976; and Atlanta Braves in 1976) but declined to sign each time. He played college baseball at UCLA in 1977 where he hit .284 with 9 home runs and 40 runs batted in (RBI).

In the 1977 Major League Baseball draft, Roenicke was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1st round (17th overall), and decided to join the Dodgers organization. He spent time in the Dodgers' farm system until making his major league debut with the club on September 2, , where he remained until released by the club in . He signed with the Seattle Mariners in 1983 and played for the  National League Champion San Diego Padres. He played in two games of the 1984 World Series against the Detroit Tigers, serving as an outfielder and pinch runner.

Roenicke continued to bounce around the major leagues, playing as an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants (1985), Philadelphia Phillies (1986–87), and Cincinnati Reds (1988). In his playing career, he compiled a .238 batting average, with 17 home runs, and 113 RBI.

Post–playing career

Coaching career
From  to , Roenicke served on the coaching staff of the Dodgers' major league team. He began his managerial career in 1994 with the Rookie-level Great Falls Dodgers, and was named California League Manager of the year as he led the Single-A San Bernardino Spirit to a league title in 1995. He served as the hitting instructor for Triple-A Albuquerque in 1996 before being named Texas League Manager of the Year for guiding the Double-A San Antonio Missions to the Texas League championship in 1997. He managed San Antonio until 1998 when Glenn Hoffman's elevation as the Dodgers' interim manager led to his return to Albuquerque, this time as manager.

In 1999, Roenicke left the Dodgers organization after seven seasons to manage the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, the Fresno Grizzlies. He led them to a 73–69 record, only one game behind the eventual league champion, Los Angeles Angels affiliate Salt Lake.

Roenicke switched allegiances once again in , joining the Angels organization as the third base coach for the major league club. After six seasons in that role, he was promoted to bench coach in 2006 after long-time bench coach Joe Maddon departed to manage the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

After a brawl between the Angels and the Texas Rangers on August 16, 2006, led to a four-game suspension for Angels skipper Mike Scioscia, Roenicke served as the club's acting manager. He compiled a 4–0 record during his tenure, leading the team to its first four-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners since 1986. He served his one-game suspension immediately afterwards.

Brewers manager

Roenicke was interviewed by the Milwaukee Brewers for their managerial opening in October 2010. He was a finalist along with Bob Melvin, Bobby Valentine, and Joey Cora. He was hired as Brewers manager on November 2, 2010.

Roenicke's first season as the Brewers manager was a resounding success as the Brewers finished the season 96–66, the most wins in franchise history, and also won the National League Central Division title, the first divisional title for the team in 29 years and their first as a National League team. The Brewers went on to win the NLDS against the Arizona Diamondbacks but lost the NLCS to the St. Louis Cardinals. Roenicke became the fourth manager in Brewers history to have a winning season in his first full season as manager, joining George Bamberger, Tom Trebelhorn, and Phil Garner.

Roenicke was also only the fourth Brewers manager to make the playoffs and the first to do so while managing the team for a full season: Harvey Kuenn and Dale Sveum each took over for a fired manager during their playoff seasons, and Buck Rodgers managed the team during a season shortened by a players' strike. The Brewers' success in 2011 resulted in Roenicke finishing in second in NL Manager of the Year voting, which went to Kirk Gibson of the Diamondbacks.

Roenicke and the Brewers looked to try to capitalize on their success in 2012, but inconsistent play from several players caused the Brewers to scuffle for most of the season. However, the team was able to rebound and finish the season 83–79, the first time since 2008 that the Brewers had finished with back-to-back winning seasons. In 2014, the Brewers led the NL Central for much of the season, but collapsed in late August and September, resulting in an 82-80 record and failure to make the postseason. On May 3, 2015, Roenicke was fired after a poor 7–18 start to the season. He finished with a record of 342 wins and 331 losses in 673 games as Brewers manager. He also had five wins and six losses in 11 post–season games.

Return to coaching
On August 17, 2015, with seven weeks left in the season, Roenicke was hired by the Los Angeles Dodgers to be their third base coach. In November 2015, he joined the Los Angeles Angels as their third base coach; he was with the team for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. On November 2, 2017, he was announced as the bench coach for the Boston Red Sox, serving under rookie manager Alex Cora.

Red Sox manager
Following the mutual decision of the Red Sox and Alex Cora to part ways in January 2020, in the wake of the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal, Roenicke was named interim manager of the Red Sox on February 11, 2020. The "interim" tag was removed in April, following MLB's investigation about sign-stealing by the 2018 Red Sox. During the start-delayed 60-game season, the 2020 Red Sox finished last in the American League East with a record of 24–36, a .400 winning percentage, the lowest for the franchise since the 1965 Red Sox finished with a .383 winning percentage (62–100). On September 27, 2020, prior to the team's final regular season game, the Red Sox announced that Roenicke would not return as manager for the 2021 season. He was replaced by Cora, the manager he had replaced a year earlier.

Front office role with Dodgers
In February 2021, the Los Angeles Dodgers hired Roenicke as a special assistant to the general manager.

Managerial record

Personal life
Roenicke's nephew, Josh (his brother Gary's son), has also played in the major leagues while his son, Lance, has played and coached in the minor leagues. Roenicke's wife, Karen, was a physical education teacher at Chino Hills High School in California. Roenicke is a Christian.

References

Further reading

External links

1956 births
Living people
Albuquerque Dukes players
Anaheim Angels coaches
Baseball coaches from California
Boston Red Sox coaches
Boston Red Sox managers
Cincinnati Reds players
Clinton Dodgers players
Las Vegas Stars (baseball) players
Lodi Dodgers players
Los Angeles Angels coaches
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim coaches
Los Angeles Dodgers coaches
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Maine Guides players
Major League Baseball bench coaches
Major League Baseball outfielders
Major League Baseball third base coaches
Milwaukee Brewers managers
Mt. SAC Mounties baseball players
Nashville Sounds players
Oklahoma City 89ers players
People from Chino Hills, California
Baseball players from Covina, California
Phoenix Giants players
Philadelphia Phillies players
San Antonio Dodgers players
San Antonio Missions managers
San Bernardino Pride players
San Diego Padres players
San Francisco Giants players
Seattle Mariners players
Tacoma Tigers players
UCLA Bruins baseball players
Mat-Su Miners players
Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks players
Baseball players from San Bernardino County, California

Ron Roenicke


The Bijawar-Panna Plateau covers portions of Chhatarpur and Panna districts in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Geography
Behind the Bijawar Hills in Sagar Division is the 25-30 km wide Bijawar-Panna Plateau. The Bijawar-Panna Plateau rises from the north to south in three well marked escarpments roughly followed by 300, 375 and 450 m contours, towards the longitudinal valleys of the rivers Mirhasan and Sonar. To the north-east of Panna there are two main branches – the southern is called Panna hills and the northern one Vindhyachal Range. The Panna Range merely forms a table land 15 km broad. Its general slope is from south-west to north-east.

It is part of the Bundelkhand Plateau.

A series of plateaux runs along the Kaimur Range. These fluvial plateaux, consists of a series of descending plateaux, starting with the Panna Plateau in the west, followed by Bhander Plateau and Rewa Plateau and ending with Rohtas Plateau in the east.

Crossing the Bijawar-Panna hills, the Ken River cuts a 60 km long, and 150-180 m deep gorge. Several streams join the Ken in this gorge making waterfalls.

References

Plateaus of Madhya Pradesh

Bijawar-Panna Plateau


Massimo Sarmi (born 4 August 1948 in Malcesine) is an Italian businessman. He was the chief executive officer of Poste italiane Spa from May 2002 to April 2014.

Career
Massimo Sarmi began his career as an engineer in the Italian Air Force.

In 1995 he became the managing director of the newly established TIM, a position that he left in 1998 and took the position of codirector for the parent company Telecom Italia.

In 2001 Siemens Italia appointed him CEO, a position he left in 2002 to become CEO of the Poste Italiane Group.

Since 2002 he has been a member of the Board of Administration of the Bocconi University in Milan.

In May 2009 he was elected for the second time to the board of Ipc, International Post Corporation, the association of the largest postal operators in the world.

Since June 2010 Massimo Sarmi is also chairman of the Global Cyber Security Center (Gc-Sec), the international study and research body for digital communication security established in Rome on the initiative of Poste Italiane.

Poste Italiane
Massimo Sarmi was appointed CEO of the Poste Italiane Group in May 2002 and has been reconfirmed three times (2005, 2008 and 2011).
At the head of the Group, Massimo Sarmi has developed a strategy for strengthening the post office network, technological innovation, expansion of the range of services and entry into new business sectors, obtaining significant results on the financial level.
Poste Italiane, under the guidance of Massimo Sarmi, has established relationships with important national and international players, such as UPS, Finmeccanica, Russian Post, Microsoft, IBM, HP, Cisco, Vodafone and Ferrovie dello Stato.

Poste Italiane, under the leadership of Massimo Sarmi, has been placed in the list of the "World's Most Admired Companies" drawn up by the US magazine Fortune, for five years. In 2011 Poste Italiane has been placed in fifth position in the list of the leading global operators in the delivery sector.

From July 2011 to April 2015 he is the chairman of the board of directors of Banca del Mezzogiorno – MedioCredito Centrale, a subsidiary of Poste italiane.

Milano Serravalle – Milano Tangenziali
On 6 October 2014 Sarmi became the CEO of Milano Serravalle – Milano Tangenziali.

See also
Poste Italiane
PosteMobile

Notes

External links
 Poste Italiane Website

1948 births
Living people
Italian businesspeople
People from the Province of Verona

Massimo Sarmi


The psychrometric constant  relates the partial pressure of water in air to the air temperature.  This lets one interpolate actual vapor pressure from paired dry and wet thermometer bulb temperature  readings.

 psychrometric constant [kPa °C−1],

 P = atmospheric pressure [kPa],

 latent heat of water vaporization, 2.45 [MJ kg−1],

 specific heat of air at constant pressure, [MJ kg−1 °C−1],

 ratio molecular weight of water vapor/dry air = 0.622.

Both  and  are constants.
Since atmospheric pressure, P,  depends upon altitude, so does .
At higher altitude water evaporates and boils at lower temperature.

Although  is constant, varied air composition results in varied .

Thus on average, at a given location or altitude, the psychrometric constant is approximately constant.  Still, it is worth remembering that weather impacts both atmospheric pressure and composition.

Vapor Pressure Estimation
Saturated vapor pressure,
Actual vapor pressure,

 here e[T]  is vapor pressure as a function of temperature, T.
Tdew = the dewpoint temperature at which water condenses.
Twet = the temperature of a wet thermometer bulb from which water can evaporate to air.
Tdry = the temperature of a dry thermometer bulb in air.

References

Chemical properties
Gas laws
Chemical engineering thermodynamics
Physical chemistry
Gases
Underwater diving physics

Psychrometric constant


Juan de Espinal (1714-1783), a Spanish historical painter, was a native of Seville. He was the son and pupil of Gregorio Espinal, who was also a painter, but he afterwards entered the school of Domingo Martinez, whose daughter he married. He was chosen director of the School of Design which Cean Bermudez and other lovers of art established at Seville. Cean Bermudez says that he possessed more genius than any of his contemporaries, and but for his bad training and indolence would have been the best painter whom Seville had produced since the time of Murillo. A visit to Madrid late in life made apparent his misspent time, and he returned saddened and abashed to Seville, where he died in 1783. His chief works were scenes from the life of St. Jerome, painted for the monastery of San Geronimo de Buenavista, and now in the Seville Museum, and some frescoes in the collegiate church of San Salvador.

References

1714 births
1783 deaths
Painters from Seville

Juan de Espinal


USNS Big Horn (T-AO-198) is a  of the United States Navy.

Big Horn, the twelfth ship of the Henry J. Kaiser class, was laid down at Avondale Shipyard, Inc., at New Orleans, Louisiana, on 9 October 1989 and launched on 2 February 1991. She entered non-commissioned U.S. Navy service under the control of the Military Sealift Command with a primarily civilian crew on 21 May 1992. She serves in the United States Atlantic Fleet.

This ship was one of several participating in disaster relief after the  2010 Haiti earthquake. The Big Horn brought relief supplies to Haiti. During Operation Unified Response, Big Horn transferred 618 pallets of cargo and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief supplies and over 2,000,000 gallons of fuel. USNS Big Horn got underway from Naval Station Norfolk the day after the earthquake struck, arrived on scene in Haiti on January 17 and worked until being relieved by USNS Leroy Grumman on 11 February. In 2015, she refuelled RFA Gold Rover in the South Atlantic.

References

External links

 NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive: USNS Leroy Grumman (T-AO-195)
 USNS Big Horn (T-AO 198)

Henry J. Kaiser-class oilers
Ships built in Bridge City, Louisiana
1991 ships

USNS Big Horn


Madrasi chess is a chess variant invented in 1979 by Abdul Jabbar Karwatkar. The game uses the conventional rules of chess with the addition that when a piece is attacked by a piece of the same type but opposite colour (for example, a black queen attacking a white queen) it is paralysed and becomes unable to move, capture or give check.

Paralysis
Most of the time, two like pieces attack each other mutually, meaning they are both paralysed.  En passant pawn captures are an exception to this, since the attack is not mutual.  (The status of an en passant capture is open to debate, according to Pritchard.)

This paralysis rule is not usually extended to the kings, meaning that as in orthodox chess, the two kings cannot move to adjacent squares; when it is extended to kings, the variant is called Madrasi rex inclusive (sometimes shortened to Madrasi RI). Although it is possible to play complete games of both Madrasi chess and Madrasi RI, they have mainly been used as a condition in chess problems.

The diagram demonstrates some of the peculiarities of Madrasi. The black king is not in check from the rook on c5, because it (the rook) is attacked by the black rook on g5, meaning it is paralysed. In its turn, the c5 rook attacks the g5 rook, paralysing it. Likewise, the white rook on g2, also attacked by the g5 rook, is paralysed. The black rook on h4, however, is not paralysed, and is free to move. The knights on d8 and f7 also attack each other, as do the pawns on c2 and d3, so these pieces are also paralysed. Note that the bishop on d1 is not paralysed by knight on f2 attacking it – units have to be of a similar type (both knights, both bishops and so on) for paralysis to happen.

Releasing paralysis
There are two ways in which a paralysis may be released. The first is for a non-paralysed pieces to make a capture. In the example, White cannot play cxd3 because his pawn is paralysed, but he can play Nxd3, thus unparalysing his c2 pawn. The second way to unparalyse a piece is to cut off the line of attack from the paralysing unit by interposing a third piece. For example, 1.Be5 in the diagram cuts the line of attack from the g5 rook to the c5 rook and so unparalyses it. As a result, the white rook on c5 is now giving check. The only way for Black to escape the check in this instance is to re-paralyse the checking rook, which can be done by 1...Rc4. White then has the reply 2.bxc4 which is checkmate: Black has no safe squares for his king, he cannot capture the checking unit, he cannot interpose a piece between the checking unit and the king, and he cannot paralyse the checking unit (note that ...Rxe5 paralysing the c5 rook is not possible, because the g5 rook is paralysed by its counterpart on g2).

References

External links
Madrasi Problems

Chess variants
Fairy chess
1979 in chess
Board games introduced in 1979
Chess in India
Chennai
Madras Presidency

Madrasi chess


The tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) is a small species of wallaby from Australia. They were the first macropods to be seen by Europeans. Francisco Pelsaert, captain of the Batavia, saw them when the ship was wrecked on the Abrolhos Islands in 1629. He said they looked like hopping cats. There are three sub-species of tammar wallaby:
M. e. eugenii from mainland South Australia.
M. e. derbianus from Western Australia.
M. e. decres, the darma or dama wallaby, from Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

The name tammar comes from the word tamma, meaning sheoak. The wallaby lives under sheoak plants.

Tammar wallabies became extinct on mainland South Australia in the 1930's.  Extinction has been caused by habitat destruction, hunting, and foxes.  In 1998 a small population of South Australian wallabies was found living on Kawau Island near Auckland, in New Zealand. This group had been established by former South Australian governor, Sir George Grey in 1862 as part of his own private zoo. In New Zealand these wallabies were seen as a pest, and scientists have been studying ways to get rid of them. 85 wallabies were taken back to South Australia. After extensive fox controls at Innes National Park, 10 wallabies were released in November 2004. Another 36 were released in June 2005. These first releases were tracked with radio collars. Another group has been put into a captive breeding program at Monarto Zoo.

Tammar wallabies live in thick scrub during the day and come out into grassland to feed at night. They eat mainly grass and herbs. In dry areas they have been known to survive by drinking seawater. They range over an area of about .

They are about  in height, with a dark grey brown fur. They have reddish colour on their arms and sides, with pale grey fur on their bellies. They may also have a feint white line on their cheeks.

The wallabies have a very unusual breeding pattern. The fertilized eggs remain dormant inside the mother until the summer solstice when foetal development restarts. This is called "embryonic diapause". All the young are born on the same day about 31 days later, at the end of January or the beginning of February.

The tammar wallaby is the marsupial chosen for the genome sequencing project. Scientists are studying the milk from the wallaby as they think it might contain a new and powerful antibiotic.

References

Macropods
Marsupials of Australia

Tammar wallaby


Oswaldo da Silva (14 January 1926 – 25 March 1997), commonly known as Baltazar, was a Brazilian footballer. He has played for Brazil national team. He was given the nickname Cabecinha de Ouro (Golden Head) by fans. Baltazar played as a striker. He was consecrated as a player for Corinthians Paulista team from São Paulo, his main characteristic was the header of the ball to the goal. Baltazar came to recognize that he was so good technically, but according to the player himself, with his head, not even Pelé was as efficient as he was. He scored 267 goals, of which 71 with his head, which earned him the nickname "Cabecinha de Ouro" (Golden Head) by his fans because of his skill in the air. Widely considered as one of the best strikers of all time. He was renowned for his finishing, speed, acceleration and ability to read the game.

Club career

He started his professional career at União Monte Alegre and then Jabaquara, with his good performances and goals he soon drew the attention of a great club in the capital, Corinthians Paulista. Baltazar arrived at Corinthians in 1945, he started as a right midfielder, but soon moved to a center forward, a position in which he established himself. He played for Corinthians for 12 years, until 1957. He was present in the Rio-São Paulo titles in 1950, 1953 and 1954; and also in the two-time São Paulo championship in 1951 and 1952 and in the conquest of the São Paulo 4th Centenary of the City of São Paulo in 1954. In 1957, at the end of his career, he moved to Juventus, returned to Jabaquara and ended his career at União Paulista in 1959.

International career

Baltazar was a Brazilian international and took part in the 1950 and 1954 World Cups. The 1950 World Cup on home soil was tragic: in the decisive game, a draw would have been enough for Brazil to win the title, but they lost to Uruguay 2-1 but he did not play. Baltazar scored twice in the tournament, was among four players remaining in the Brazil squad in 1954. In Brazil's qualification for the 1954 World Cup, he scored five of Brazil's eight goals. Baltazar scored once at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland. Brazil were eliminated by top favorites Hungary in the quarterfinals. The game in the Wankdorf Stadium was canceled due to numerous unsportsmanlike behaviors during and after the game Battle of Bern in World Cup history. Two years later he was selected to play for Brazil in the Copa América 1956 but the national team did not perform well. He played 31 matches and scored 17 goals for the national team.

Death

He died in 1997 at the age of 71. His end of life was sad, he ended up in poverty

References

1926 births
1997 deaths
Brazilian footballers

Baltazar (footballer, born 1926)


Karl Albert Kasten (March 5, 1916 – May 3, 2010) was a painter-printmaker-educator in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Early life
Kasten, fourth child of Ferdinand Kasten and his wife Barbara Anna Kasten, grew up in San Francisco's Richmond District. He was a student of art from an early age and regularly competed with his older brother Fred in battleship drawing contests. Fred eventually gave up but Karl continued. At times, Kasten's art seemingly got in the way of his schoolwork and his sixth grade teacher was driven to send a note home: "Dear Mr. Kasten, Do something about your son. All he wants to do is draw. He's not paying attention in school" Fortunately, his father sent a note back to the teacher: "Let him draw."  The same year, with financial help from his older brother Fred, Karl furthered his artistic advancement at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) and his explorations of art continued from there. Following his graduation from San Francisco Polytechnic High School, Kasten pursued an education in fine art.

Education
Kasten attended College of Marin, and later transferred to UC Berkeley. His early mentors came from the "Berkeley School" - John Haley, Erle Loran, Margaret Peterson and Worth Ryder. Following the mode of the "Berkeley School" Kasten painted landscapes with flat planes punctuated with color. His work from this period earned him recognition and prizes in annual painting competitions held at the San Francisco Museum Of Art (now MOMA).

Kasten was also an editorial cartoonist and Arts Editor for The Daily Californian newspaper. His cartoons regularly featured reflections on the New Deal and the conflicts in Europe. By coincidence the success of Berkeley's Golden Bears also marked an interesting chapter in Kasten's artistic adventure. As part of the Rally Committee, Kasten designed and directed the card stunts for the 1938 Rose Bowl against Alabama's Crimson Tide. The card sequence depicted Berkeley's Campanile covered over by a surging red tide. As the tide receded, a bear appeared in a rowboat and rowed across the tide. Cal won, 13-0. Kasten describes the stunts as, "The greatest work of art I ever did." He went on to complete his B.A and M.A at UC Berkeley. Following his graduation he taught briefly at the California School of Fine Arts but the attack on Pearl Harbor led him to wartime service.

World War II
Kasten enlisted in the U.S. Army following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Kasten was initially assigned to the medical corps but ended up in the engineers corps where his artistic skills were used for camouflage. After Officer Candidate School he was deployed to England to serve with the 295th Engineer Combat Battalion. On D-Day he was promoted to captain and put in charge of the Intelligence unit of the Battalion.  Kastens' memories of the war are dark and he recalls bluntly, "My job was to kill people", and "I was pretty miserable inside."

Educator
After the war, Kasten continued with his art education. Rather than return to his budding career in the Bay Area Kasten chose to establish himself in a new area without ties. He taught for two years (1946-1947) at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor under the chairmanship of Jean Paul Slusser. Ultimately the Michigan winters drove his return to the Bay Area where he again took an assistant professor of art position at the San Francisco State University. He spent three years at SFU (1949-1950) where he introduced a printmaking program. During the summer of 1949 he studied modern etching techniques and printmaking with Lasansky at the University of Iowa. The following year he was offered a professorship UC Berkeley which he was to hold until 1983. "That was Nirvana" he said. "My greatest satisfaction is that I was a pretty good teacher."

Painting and printing

In the early 1950s Kasten experimented with Cubism and non-objective painting but after studying at the Hans Hofmann School in Provincetown, Mass in '51 he turned to Abstract Expressionism. Hofmann's modern art philosophy stressed "pictorial structure, spatial illusion, and color relationships." In her biography of the San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism Susan Landauer noted Kasten as the artist who came closest to these tenets. Of that period Kasten said, "It was a great period to work in. Just letting things flow and seeing what happens... I think I got more color into painting during that time than most guys."

Kasten's paintings are predominantly acrylics on canvas, but he also works in watercolor and gouache. The graphics are primarily drawings in pencil, monoprints, drypoints and collagraphs. In the 1960s he began working in collography which is a variation of the etching process first practiced by Rudolph Nesch in the 1930s. Kasten's collographs are noteworthy for the sensitivity in texture and for the use of insertable parts such as coins and found objects to print a range of colors.

In addition to his wide record of painting exhibitions, Karl Kasten is known worldwide as a master printer. In 1950, he established the Printmaking program and a course in Materials and Techniques at UC Berkeley. Kasten's aim and underlying credo with the courses was that printmaking could equal traditional painting through creative exploration. After viewing his colorful etchings of the 1950s, art critic Alfred Frankenstein observed that Kasten had "discovered a new softness, liquidity, and fluency of effect in the bitten plate and with this a new way of expressing the modern artist's preoccupation with space and movement." Susan Landauer recognized Kasten in her monograph Breaking Type: The Art of Karl Kasten, with one or two exceptions 'there were few examples of serious printmaking among Abstract Expressionists in New York.' Kasten has also been recognized for his printing accomplishments with the 1997 Distinguished Artist award of the California Society of Printmakers, the Humanities Research Fellowship and Tamarind Lithography Fellowship. David Acton refers to Kasten succinctly as "the dean of Bay Area printmaking."

In 1960 Kasten unexpectedly met Willem de Kooning at an art gathering. The meeting resulted in Kasten inviting de Kooning to the Berkeley campus where he pulled his first lithographs. Kasten has since lectured widely on the unique tools, technique and genius which de Kooning employed in the two lithographs.

In the 1970s, he designed a lightweight press (The KB Press) in conjunction with the Berglin Corporation that can now be found in schools and studios around the world.

Collections
Kasten has exhibited in the São Paulo Bicentennial and World Print III Traveling Show, as well as the M. H. de Young Museum and [[California Palace of the Legion of HAuckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmakionor]], the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.

His works are in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Oakland Art Museum; San Jose Museum of Art; New York Public Library; Museum of Modern Art, New York City; M. H. de Young Memorial Museum; Achenback Collection; Musée des Beaux Arts, Rennes; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, New Zealand; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Texts dealing with his work include "Etching" by L. Edmondson, 1973; "Modern Woodcut Techniques" by A. Kurasaki, 1977; "The California Style", by G. McClelland and J. Last, 1985; "Breaking Type, The Art of Karl Kasten" by Susan Landauer.

Kasten retired from teaching in 1983 but his passion for art and learning kept him busy. He continued to lecture occasionally, paint enthusiastically, and work on his memoirs until his death. He also continued to draw.

References

External links
 Trocadero
 Mendocino Art Center
 Karl Kasten's obituary

20th-century American painters
American male painters
21st-century American painters
21st-century American male artists
Painters from California
1916 births
2010 deaths
University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
College of Marin alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
San Francisco Art Institute alumni
University of Michigan faculty
20th-century American male artists

Karl Kasten


In aviation, uncontrolled airspace is airspace in which an Air Traffic Control (ATC) service is not deemed necessary or cannot be provided for practical reasons.  It is the opposite of controlled airspace.  It is that portion of the airspace that has not been designated as Control Area, Control Zone, Terminal Control Area or Transition Area.

According to the airspace classes set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the uncontrolled classes of airspace are class F and G.

Class F
Class F (uncontrolled) is rarely encountered in ICAO member-states' airspace systems. In the UK, it was formerly a hybrid between class E (controlled) and G (uncontrolled) as Advisory Routes (ADRs). In the UK, all airspace previously designated as class F was re-assigned to either class E or G on 13 November 2014.

Class G
Individual countries designate different portions of airspace as class G, e.g. in the UK, airspace above FL660 (Flight Level 660 or 66,000 feet) is uncontrolled and belonging to class G, while in the US, any airspace above FL600 (60,000 feet) is designated as class E and therefore controlled. Similarly, large parts of lower airspace in the UK are uncontrolled while in the US any airspace above 700-1200 feet up to FL145 (14,500 feet), not designated as any other class of airspace (A-D) belongs to class E and is controlled.

Air traffic control
ATC does not exercise any executive authority in uncontrolled airspace, but may provide basic information services to aircraft in radio contact.  The aircraft commencing its flight in uncontrolled airspace, and subsequently proceeding into controlled airspace, should obtain clearance from the ATC unit in whose area the controlled part will begin. If a flight starts in controlled airspace but its subsequent portion will be uncontrolled, its clearance should be up to the point at which the controlled portion of the flight terminates.

Flight in uncontrolled airspace will typically be under VFR.  Aircraft operating under IFR should not expect separation from other traffic; however, in certain uncontrolled airspace, this might be provided on an 'as far as is practical' advisory basis. Controlled flights should not be vectored (directed) by ATC into uncontrolled airspace except for weather avoidance or in an emergency.

References

Air traffic control

Uncontrolled airspace


The lek is the money used in Albania. For values higher than 1 it is called lekë.  100 qindarka make 1 lek but qindarka are not used any more.

The lek was formed in 1926 by King Zog and it is named after Alexander the Great.

Other websites
 Banknotes of Albania

Currency of Europe
Albania

Albanian lek


The Ethiopian Empire (),  also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya:  , , Oromo: , Somali: , Afar: ), was an empire that historically spanned the geographical area of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea from the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty by Yekuno Amlak approximately in 1270 until the 1974 coup d'etat of Emperor Haile Selassie by the Derg. By 1896, the Empire incorporated other regions such as Hararghe, Gurage and Wolayita, and saw its largest expansion with the federation of Eritrea in 1952. Throughout much of its existence, it was surrounded by hostile forces in the African Horn; however, it managed to develop and preserve a kingdom based on its ancient form of Christianity.

Founded in 1270 by Yekuno Amlak, who claimed to descend from the last Aksumite king and ultimately King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, it replaced the Agaw kingdom of the Zagwe. While initially a rather small and politically unstable entity, the Empire managed to expand significantly under the crusades of Amda Seyon I (1314–1344) and Dawit I (1382–1413), temporarily becoming the dominant force in the Horn of Africa. The Ethiopian Empire would reach its peak during the long reign of Emperor Zara Yaqob (1434–1468). He consolidated the conquests of his predecessors, built numerous churches and monasteries, encouraged literature and art, centralized imperial authority by substituting regional warlords with administrative officials, and significantly expanded his hegemony over adjacent Islamic territories.

The neighboring Muslim Adal Sultanate began to threaten the empire by repeatedly attempting to invade it, finally succeeding under Imam Mahfuz. Mahfuz's ambush and defeat by Emperor Lebna Dengel brought about the early 16th-century Jihad of the Adalite Imam Ahmed Gran, who was only defeated in 1543 with the help of the Portuguese. Greatly weakened, much of the Empire's southern territory and vassals were lost due to the Oromo migrations. In the north, in what is now Eritrea, Ethiopia managed to repulse Ottoman invasion attempts, although losing its access to the Red Sea to them. Reacting to these challenges, in the 1630s Emperor Fasilides founded the new capital of Gondar, marking the start of a new golden age known as the Gondarine period. It saw relative peace, the successful integration of the Oromo and a flourishing of culture. With the deaths of Emperor Iyasu II (1755) and Iyoas I (1769) the realm eventually entered a period of decentralization, known as the Zemene Mesafint where regional warlords fought for power, with the emperor being a mere puppet.

Emperor Tewodros II (r. 1855–1868) put an end to the Zemene Mesafint, reunified the Empire and led it into the modern period before dying during the British Expedition to Abyssinia. His successor Yohannes IV engaged primarily in war and successfully fought the Egyptians and Mahdists before dying against the latter in 1889. Emperor Menelik II, now residing in Addis Ababa, subjugated many peoples and kingdoms in what is now western, southern, and eastern Ethiopia, like Kaffa, Welayta, Harar, and other kingdoms. Thus, by 1898 Ethiopia expanded into its modern territorial boundaries. In the northern region, he confronted Italy's expansion. Through a resounding victory over the Italians at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, utilizing modern imported weaponry, Menelik ensured Ethiopia's independence and confined Italy to Eritrea.

Later, after the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Benito Mussolini's Italian Empire occupied Ethiopia and established Italian East Africa, merging it with neighboring Eritrea and the Italian Somaliland colonies to the south-east. After World War II, the Italians were driven out of Ethiopia with the help of the British army. The Emperor returned from exile and the country became one of the founding members of the United Nations. However, the 1973 Wollo famine and domestic discontent led to the fall of the Empire in 1974 and the rise of the Derg.

History

Background

After the fall of the Kingdom of Aksum in the 10th century AD, the Ethiopian Highlands would fall under the rule of the Zagwe Dynasty. The new rulers were Agaws that had come from the Lasta region, later ecclesiastical texts accused this dynasty of not having pure "Solomonic" stock and derided their achievements. Even at the zenith of their power, most Christians would consider them to be usurpers. However, the architecture of the Zagwe shows a connotation of earlier Aksumite traditions, among those can be seen in Lalibela, the building of rock hewn churches first appeared in the late Aksumite era and reached its peak under the Zagwe.

The Zagwe were not able to stop squabbling over the throne, diverting men, energy and resources that could have been used to affirm the dynasty's authority. By the late 13th century, a young Amhara nobleman named Yekuno Amlak rose to power in Bete Amhara. He was strongly supported by the Orthodox Church as he promised to make the church a semi independent institution, he had also enjoyed support from the neighboring Muslim Makhzumi dynasty. Yekuno Amlak then rebelled against the Zagwe king and defeated him at the Battle of Ansata. Taddesse Tamrat argued that this king was Yetbarak, but due to a local form of damnatio memoriae, his name was removed from the official records.  A more recent chronicler of Wollo history, Getatchew Mekonnen Hasen, states that the last Zagwe king deposed by Yekuno Amlak was Na'akueto La'ab.

Early Solomonic Period

Yekuno Amlak would rise to the throne by 1270 AD. He was allegedly a descendant of the last king of Aksum, Dil Na'od, and hence the royal kings of Aksum. Through the Aksumite royal lineage, it was also claimed that Yekuno Amlak was a descendant of the biblical king Solomon. The canonical form of the claim was set out in legends recorded in the Kebra Nagast, a 14th century text. According to this, the Queen of Sheba, who supposedly came from Aksum, visited Jerusalem where she conceived a son with King Solomon. On her return to her homeland of Ethiopia, she gave birth to the child, Menelik I. He and his descendants (which included the Aksumite royal house) ruled Ethiopia until overthrown by the Zagwe usurpers. Yekuno Amlak, as a supposed direct descendant of Menelik I, was therefore claimed to have "restored" the Solomonic line.

Throughout Yekuno Amlak reign he would enjoy friendly relations with the Muslims. He not only had established close ties with the neighboring Makhzumi dynasty but had also made contact with the Rasulids in Yemen and the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate. In a letter sent to the Mamluke Sultan Baybars, he would state his intention of friendly cooperation with the Muslims of Arabia, and described himself as being a protector of all Muslims in Abyssinia. A devout Christian, he would order the construction of the church of Genneta Maryam, commemorating his work with an inscription that reads, "By the grace of God, I king Yekuno Amlak, after I had come to the throne by the will of God, built this church."

In 1285 Yekuno Amlak was succeeded by his son Yagbe'u Seyon, who wrote a letter the Mamluke Sultan, Qalawun asking him to allow the patriarch of Alexandria to send an abuna or metropolitan for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, but also protesting the Sultan's treatment of his Christian subjects in Egypt, stating that he was a protector of his own Muslim subjects in Ethiopia. Towards the end of his reign, Yagbe'u refused to appoint one of his sons to be his successors and instead decreed that each of them should rule for one year, he was succeeded by his sons in 1294 but this agreement immediately broke down, by 1299 one of his sons Wedem Arad seized the throne. Wedem Arad seems to have been in conflict with the neighbouring Sultanate of Ifat who were trying to expand in eastern Shewa.

Amda Seyon's Conquests

Wedem Arad was succeeded by his son, Amda Seyon I, whose reign witnessed the composition of a very detailed and seemingly accurate account of the monarch's various campaigns against his Muslim enemies. This was the first of a series of royal chronicles which were written for the Ethiopian Emperors until modern times. These royal chronicles provided an unbroken chronological record of the entire medieval period in the Horn of Africa. A no less important work produced during his reign was the Fetha Nagast or "Law of the Kings," which served as the country's legal code. Largely based on biblical principles, it codified the legal and social ideas of the time and remained in use until the early 20th century.

The warlike emperor of Amda Seyon I conducted many campaigns in Gojjam, Damot and Eritrea, but his most important campaigns were  against his Muslim enemies to the east, which shifted the balance of power in favour of the Christians for the next two centuries. Around 1320, Sultan an-Nasir Muhammad of the Mamluk Sultanate based in Cairo began persecuting Copts and destroying their churches. Amda Seyon then threatened to divert the flow of the Nile if the sultan did not stop his persecution. Haqq ad-Din I, sultan of Ifat, seized and imprisoned an Ethiopian envoy on his way back from Cairo. Amda Seyon responded by invading the Sultanate of Ifat, killing the sultan, sacking the capital and ravaging the Muslim territories, taking livestock, killing many inhabitants, destroying towns and mosques, and taking slaves.

The Ifat sultan was succeeded by Sabr ad-Din I who rallied the Muslims and waged a rebellion against the Ethiopian occupation. Amda Seyon responded by launching another campaign against his Muslim adversaries to the east, killing the Sultan and campaigning as far as Adal, Dawaro and Bali in present day eastern Ethiopia. Amda Seyon's conquests significantly expanded the territory of the Ethiopian Empire, more than doubling it by size and establishing complete hegemony over the region. Relations between the Muslims of the Horn and the Ethiopian Empire seems to have broken down completely around this era, with the chronicler referring to the Muslims in the east and along the coast as "liars, hyenas, dogs, children of evil who deny the son of Christ."

Golden age of Solomonic Rule

Following Amda Seyon's campaigns to the east. Most of the Muslims in the Horn would become tributaries to the Ethiopian Empire, among them being the Ifat Sultanate. Amda Seyon was succeeded by his son Newaya Krestos in 1344. Newaya Krestos would put down several Muslim revolts in Adal and Mora. Towards the end of his reign he aggressively helped the Patriarch of Alexandria Mark IV, who had been imprisoned by As-Salih Salih, the Sultan of Egypt. One step Newaya Krestos took was to imprison the Egyptian merchants in his kingdom, the Sultan was forced to back down.

In 1382, Dawit I succeeded the son of Newaya Krestos, Newaya Maryam, as Emperor of Ethiopia. The tributary state of the Ifat Sultanate had begun to resist Ethiopian hegemony and assert their independence under Sultan Sa'ad ad-Din II. Sultan Sa'ad as-Din would then raid the Ethiopian frontier provinces capturing much loot and slaves, this resulted in Emperor Dawit I declaring all the Muslims of the surrounding region to be "enemies of the Lord" and invading the Ifat Sultanate, After a battle between Sa'ad ad-Din and the Emperor, in which the Ifat army was defeated and "no less than 400 elders, each of whom carried an iron bar as his insignia of office" were killed, Sa'ad ad-Din with his remaining supporters were chased to as far as Zeila on the coast of Somaliland. There, the Ethiopian army besieged Zeila, finally capturing the city and killing Sultan Sa'ad ad-Din, ending the Ifat Sultanate. After Sa'ad ad-Din's death "the strength of the Muslims was abated", as Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi states, and then the Amhara settled in the Muslim territories "and from the ravaged mosques and they made churches". The followers of Islam were said to have been harassed for over twenty years. Following this victory, Ethiopian power would reach its zenith and this era would become legendary as a golden age of peace and stability for the Ethiopian Empire.

However, the remaining Walashma returned from their exile in 1415 and established the Adal Sultanate centred around the Harar region. The Muslims then began to harass Christian held territories in the east prompting Emperor Yeshaq I to dedicate much of his time to defending his eastern peripheral territories, he seems to have employed several Egyptian Christian advisors to drill his army and teach them how to make Greek fire. These advances were not enough to keep the Muslims at bay and Emperor Yeshaq was soon killed fighting the Adalites in 1429. Yeshaq's death was followed by several years of dynastic confusion during which 5 emperors succeeded each other in 5 years. However in 1434, Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia would establish himself on the throne.

During his first years on the throne, Zara Yaqob launched a strong campaign against survivals of pagan worship and "un-Christian practices" within the church. He also took measures to greatly centralize the administration of the country, bringing regions under much tighter imperial control. After hearing about the demolition of the Egyptian Debre Mitmaq monastery, he ordered a period of national mourning and built a church of the same name in Tegulet. He then sent envoys to Egyptian Sultan, Sayf ad-Din Jaqmaq strongly protesting against the persecution of Egyptian Copts and threaten to divert the flow of the Nile. The Sultan would then encourage the Adal Sultanate to invade the province of Dawaro to distract the Emperor, however this invasion was repulsed by the Emperor at the Battle of Gomit. The Egyptian sultan then had the Patraich of Alexandria severely beaten and threaten to execute him, Emperor Zara Yaqob decided to back down and did not move in to Adal territory. Zara Yaqob persecuted many idolaters who admitted to worshipping pagan gods, these idolators were decapitated in public. Zara Yaqob later founded Debre Berhan after seeing a miraculous light that in the sky. Believing this was a sign from God showing his approval for his persecution of pagans, the emperor ordered a church built on the site, and later constructed an extensive palace nearby, and a second church, dedicated to Saint Cyriacus.

Zara Yaqob was succeeded by Baeda Maryam I. Emperor Baeda Maryam would give the title of the Queen Mother to Eleni of Ethiopia, one of his father's wives. She was proved to be an effective member of the royal family, and Paul B. Henze comments that she "was practically co-monarch" during his reign. After the death of Baeda Maryam in 1478 he was succeeded by his 7 year old son Eskender, to whom Eleni would serve as his regent. She would attempt to establish peace with the Adal Sultan Muhammad, but could not prevent the Emir of Harar, Mahfuz from making raids into Ethiopian territory. When Eskender was of age, he invaded Adal and sacked its capital, Dakkar but was killed in an ambush returning home. His successor, Emperor Na'od was eventually killed defending Ethiopian territory from Adalite raids. In 1517 Mahfuz invaded the Ethiopian province of Fatager, but was killed and ambushed by Emperor Dawit II (Lebna Dengel). His chronicles state that the Muslim threat was finished and the Emperor return to the highlands as a hero.

Ahmad Gragn's invasion

In 1527 a young imam by the name of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi would rise to power in Adal after years of internal strife. The Adal Sultanate would stockpile on imported firearms, cannons and other advanced weaponry from Arabia and the Ottoman Empire. He invaded Ethiopia in 1529 and inflicted a heavy defeat on Emperor Dawit II, but later withdrew. He returned two years later to begin a definite invasion of the empire, burning churches, forcibly converting Christians and massacring the inhabitants. According to the chroniclers everywhere he went his men "slew every adult Christian they found, and carried off the youths and the maidens and sold them as slaves." By the mid 1530s most of Ethiopia was under Adalite occupation and Lebna Dengel fled from mountain fortress to mountain fortress until he finally died of natural causes in Debre Damo.

The Emperor was succeeded by his 18 year old son, Gelawdewos, who faced a desperate situation but rallied his soldiers and people to resist the Muslim invasion. By 1540 Gelawdewos led a small force of around 70 men resisting in the highlands of Shewa. However, in 1541 four hundred well armed Portuguese musketeers had arrived in Massawa where they were reinforced by small contingents of Ethiopian warriors, this modest force made their way across Tigray where they would defeat much larger contingents of Adalite men. Alarmed by the success of the Portuguese, Gragn would send a petition to the Ottoman Empire and would receive 2,900 musket armed reinforcements. Together with his Turkish allies Gragn would attack the Portuguese camp at Wofla killing 200 of their rank and file including their commander, Cristóvão da Gama.

After the catastrophe at Wofla, the surviving Portuguese were able to meet up with Gelawdewos and his army at Siemen. The Emperor did not hesitate to take the offensive and won a major victory at the Battle of Wayna Daga when the fate of Abyssinia was decided by the death of the Imam and the flight of his army. The invasion force collapsed and all the Abyssinians who had been cowed by the invaders returned to their former allegiance, the reconquest of Christian territories proceeded without encountering any effective opposition.

Early modern period

The Ottoman Empire made another attempt at conquering Ethiopia, from 1557, establishing Habesh Eyalet, the province of Abyssinia, by conquering Massawa, the Empire's main port and seizing Suakin from the allied Funj Sultanate in what is now Sudan. In 1573 the Adal Sultanate attempted to invade Ethiopia again however Sarsa Dengel successfully defended the Ethiopian frontier at the Battle of Hadiya.

The Ottomans were checked by Emperor Sarsa Dengel's victory and sacking of Arqiqo in 1589, thus containing them on a narrow coastline strip. The Afar Sultanate maintained the remaining Ethiopian port on the Red Sea, at Baylul. Oromo migrations through the same period, occurred with the movement of a large pastoral population from the southeastern provinces of the Empire. A contemporary account was recorded by the monk Abba Bahrey, from the Gamo region. Subsequently, the empire organization changed progressively, with faraway provinces taking more independence. A remote province such as Bale is last recorded paying tribute to the imperial throne during Yaqob reign (1590–1607).

In 1636, Emperor Fasilides founded Gondar as a permanent capital, which became a highly stable, prosperous commercial center. This period saw profound achievements in Ethiopian art, architecture, and innovations such as the construction of the royal complex Fasil Ghebbi, and 44 churches that were established around Lake Tana. In the arts, the Gondarine period saw the creation of diptychs and triptychs, murals and illuminated manuscripts, mostly with religious motifs. The reign of Iyasu the Great (1682-1706) was a major period of consolidation. It also saw the dispatching of embassies to Louis XIV's France and to Dutch India. The Early Modern period was one of intense cultural and artistic creation. Notable philosophers from that area are Zera Yacob and Walda Heywat. After the death of Iyasu I the empire fell into a period of political turmoil.

Modern era

From 1769 to 1855, the Ethiopian empire passed through a period known as the Princes Era (in Amharic: Zemene Mesafint). This was a period of Ethiopian history with numerous conflicts between the various Ras (equivalent to the English dukes) and the Emperor, who had only limited power and only dominated the area around the contemporary capital of Gondar. Both the development of society and culture stagnated in this period. Religious conflict, both within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and between them and the Muslims were often used as a pretext for mutual strife. The Princes Era ended with the reign of Emperor Tewodros II.

In 1868, following the imprisonment of several missionaries and representatives of the British government, the British engaged in the punitive Expedition to Abyssinia against Emperor Tewodros. With the backing of most nobles in Ethiopia, the campaign was a success for Britain and the Ethiopian Emperor committed suicide rather than surrender.

From 1874 to 1876, the Empire expanded into Eritrea, under Yohannes IV King of Tembien, whose forces led by Ras Alula won the Ethiopian-Egyptian War, decisively beating the Egyptian forces at the Battle of Gundet, in Hamasien. In 1887 Menelik king of Shewa invaded the Emirate of Harar after his victory at the Battle of Chelenqo.

The 1880s were marked by the Scramble for Africa. Italy, seeking a colonial presence in Africa, was awarded Eritrea by Britain which led to the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1887–1889 and the scramble for Eritrea's coastal regions between King Yohannes IV of Tembien and Italy. After the death of Emperor Yohannes IV, Italy signed a treaty with Shewa (an autonomous kingdom within the empire), creating the protectorate of Abyssinia.

Due to significant differences between the Italian and Amharic translations of the treaty, Italy believed they had subsumed Ethiopia as a protectorate, while Menelik II of Shewa repudiated the protectorate status in 1893. Insulted, Italy declared war on Ethiopia in 1895. The First Italo-Ethiopian War resulted in the 1896 Battle of Adwa, in which Italy was decisively defeated by the numerically superior Ethiopians. As a result, the Treaty of Addis Ababa was signed in October, which strictly delineated the borders of Eritrea and forced Italy to recognize the independence of Ethiopia. Due to the Entoto Reforms, which provided the Ethiopian Military with modern rifles, many Italian Commanders expressed shock when seeing that some Ethiopians had more advanced rifles then the average Italian Infantryman.

Beginning in the 1890s, under the reign of the Emperor Menelik II, the empire's forces set off from the central province of Shewa to incorporate through conquest inhabited lands to the west, east and south of its realm. The territories that were annexed included those of the western Oromo (non-Shoan Oromo), Sidama, Gurage, Wolayta, and Dizi. Among the imperial troops was Ras Gobena's Shewan Oromo militia. Many of the lands that they annexed had never been under the empire's rule, with the newly incorporated territories resulting in the modern borders of Ethiopia.

Delegations from the United Kingdom and FranceEuropean powers whose colonial possessions lay next to Ethiopiasoon arrived in the Ethiopian capital to negotiate their own treaties with this newly-proven power.

Italian invasion and World War II

In 1935 Italian soldiers, commanded by Marshal Emilio De Bono, invaded Ethiopia in what is known as the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. The war lasted seven months before an Italian victory was declared. The Ethiopian Empire was incorporated into the Italian colony of Italian East Africa. The invasion was condemned by the League of Nations, though not much was done to end the hostility.

During the conflict, both Ethiopian and Italian troops committed war crimes. Ethiopian troops are known to have made use of Dum-Dum bullets (in violation of the Hague Conventions) and mutilated captured soldiers (often with castration). Italian troops used sulfur mustard in chemical warfare, ignoring the Geneva Protocol that it had signed seven years earlier. The Italian military dropped mustard gas in bombs, sprayed it from airplanes and spread it in powdered form on the ground. 150,000 chemical casualties were reported, mostly from mustard gas. In the aftermath of the war Italy annexed Ethiopia, uniting it with Italy's other colonies in eastern Africa to form the new colony of Italian East Africa, and Victor Emmanuel III of Italy adopted the title "Emperor of Abyssinia".

On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on the United Kingdom and France, as France was in the process of being conquered by Nazi Germany at the time and Benito Mussolini wished to expand Italy's colonial holdings. The Italian conquest of British Somaliland in August 1940 was successful, but the war turned against Italy afterward. Haile Selassie returned to Ethiopia from England to help rally the resistance. The British began their own invasion in January 1941 with the help of Ethiopian freedom fighters, and the last organized Italian resistance in Italian East Africa surrendered in November 1941, ending Italian rule.

Post War Ethiopia

On 27 August 1942, Haile Selassie abolished the legal basis of slavery throughout the empire and imposed severe penalties, including death, for slave trading. After World War II, Ethiopia became a charter member of the United Nations. In 1948, the Ogaden, a region disputed with Somalia, was granted to Ethiopia. On 2 December 1950, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 390 (V), establishing the federation of Eritrea (the former Italian colony) into Ethiopia. Eritrea was to have its own constitution, which would provide for ethnic, linguistic, and cultural balance, while Ethiopia was to manage its finances, defense, and foreign policy.

Despite his centralization policies that had been made before World War II, Haile Selassie still found himself unable to push for all the programs he wanted. In 1942, he attempted to institute a progressive tax scheme, but this failed due to opposition from the nobility, and only a flat tax was passed; in 1951, he agreed to reduce this as well. Ethiopia was still "semi-feudal", and the emperor's attempts to alter its social and economic form by reforming its modes of taxation met with resistance from the nobility and clergy, which were eager to resume their privileges in the postwar era. Where Haile Selassie actually did succeed in effecting new land taxes, the burdens were often passed by the landowners to the peasants. Despite his wishes, the tax burden remained primarily on the peasants.

Between 1941 and 1959, Haile Selassie worked to establish the autocephaly of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church had been headed by the abuna, a bishop who answered to the Patriarchate in Egypt. Haile Selassie applied to Egypt's Holy Synod in 1942 and 1945 to establish the independence of Ethiopian bishops, and when his appeals were denied he threatened to sever relations with the See of St. Mark. Finally, in 1959, Pope Kyrillos VI elevated the Abuna to Patriarch-Catholicos. The Ethiopian Church remained affiliated with the Alexandrian Church. In addition to these efforts, Haile Selassie changed the Ethiopian church-state relationship by introducing taxation of church lands, and by restricting the legal privileges of the clergy, who had formerly been tried in their own courts for civil offenses.

During the celebrations of his Silver Jubilee in November 1955, Haile Selassie introduced a revised constitution, whereby he retained effective power, while extending political participation to the people by allowing the lower house of parliament to become an elected body. Party politics were not provided for. Modern educational methods were more widely spread throughout the Empire, and the country embarked on a development scheme and plans for modernization, tempered by Ethiopian traditions, and within the framework of the ancient monarchical structure of the state. Haile Selassie compromised when practical with the traditionalists in the nobility and church. He also tried to improve relations between the state and ethnic groups, and granted autonomy to Afar lands that were difficult to control. Still, his reforms to end feudalism were slow and weakened by the compromises he made with the entrenched aristocracy. The Revised Constitution of 1955 has been criticized for reasserting "the indisputable power of the monarch" and maintaining the relative powerlessness of the peasants.

On 13 December 1960, while Haile Selassie was on a state visit to Brazil, his Imperial Guard forces staged an unsuccessful coup, briefly proclaiming Haile Selassie's eldest son Asfa Wossen as emperor. The coup d'état was crushed by the regular army and police forces. The coup attempt lacked broad popular support, was denounced by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and was unpopular with the army, air force and police. Nonetheless, the effort to depose the emperor had support among students and the educated classes. The coup attempt has been characterized as a pivotal moment in Ethiopian history, the point at which Ethiopians "for the first time questioned the power of the king to rule without the people's consent". Student populations began to empathize with the peasantry and poor, and to advocate on their behalf. The coup spurred Haile Selassie to accelerate reform, which was manifested in the form of land grants to military and police officials.

The emperor continued to be a staunch ally of the West, while pursuing a firm policy of decolonization in Africa, which was still largely under European colonial rule. The United Nations conducted a lengthy inquiry regarding the status of Eritrea, with the superpowers each vying for a stake in the state's future. Britain, the administrator at the time, suggested the partition of Eritrea between Sudan and Ethiopia, separating Christians and Muslims. A UN plebiscite voted 46 to 10 to have Eritrea be federated with Ethiopia, which was later stipulated on 2 December 1950 in resolution 390 (V). Eritrea would have its own parliament and administration and would be represented in what had been the Ethiopian parliament and would become the federal parliament. However, Haile Selassie would have none of European attempts to draft a separate Constitution under which Eritrea would be governed, and wanted his own 1955 Constitution to apply in both Ethiopia and Eritrea. In 1961, tensions between independence-minded Eritreans and Ethiopian forces culminated in the Eritrean War of Independence. The emperor declared Eritrea the fourteenth province of Ethiopia in 1962.

In 1963, Haile Selassie presided over the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the precursor of the continent-wide African Union (AU). The new organization would establish its headquarters in Addis Ababa. In May of that year, Haile Selassie was elected as the OAU's first official chairperson, a rotating seat. Along with Modibo Keïta of Mali, the Ethiopian leader would later help successfully negotiate the Bamako Accords, which brought an end to the border conflict between Morocco and Algeria. In 1964, Haile Selassie would initiate the concept of the United States of Africa, a proposition later taken up by Muammar Gaddafi.

Student unrest became a regular feature of Ethiopian life in the 1960s and 1970s. Marxism took root in large segments of the Ethiopian intelligentsia, particularly among those who had studied abroad and had thus been exposed to radical and left-wing sentiments that were becoming popular in other parts of the globe. Resistance by conservative elements at the Imperial Court and Parliament, and by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, made Haile Selassie's land reform proposals difficult to implement, and also damaged the standing of the government, costing Haile Selassie much of the goodwill he had once enjoyed. This bred resentment among the peasant population. Efforts to weaken unions also hurt his image. As these issues began to pile up, Haile Selassie left much of domestic governance to his Prime Minister, Aklilu Habte Wold, and concentrated more on foreign affairs.

Fall of monarchy

The government's failure to adequately respond to the 1973 Wollo famine, the growing discontent of urban interest groups, and high fuel prices due to the 1973 oil crisis led to a revolt in February 1974 by the army and civilian populace. In June, a group of military officers formed the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army also known as the Derg to maintain law and order due to the powerlessness of the civilian government following the widespread mutiny.

In July, Emperor Haile Selassie gave the Derg key concessions to arrest military and government officials at every level. Soon both former Prime Ministers Tsehafi Taezaz Aklilu Habte-Wold and Endelkachew Makonnen, along with most of their cabinets, most regional governors, many senior military officers and officials of the Imperial court were imprisoned. In August, after a proposed constitution creating a constitutional monarchy was presented to the Emperor, the Derg began a program of dismantling the imperial government to forestall further developments in that direction. The Derg deposed and imprisoned the Emperor on 12 September 1974 and chose Lieutenant General Aman Andom, a popular military leader and a Sandhurst graduate, to be acting head of state. This was pending the return of Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen from medical treatment in Europe when he would assume the throne as a constitutional monarch. However, General Aman Andom quarrelled with the radical elements in the Derg over the issue of a new military offensive in Eritrea and their proposal to execute the high officials of Selassie's former government. After eliminating units loyal to him: the Engineers, the Imperial Bodyguard and the Air Force, the Derg removed General Aman from power and executed him on 23 November 1974, along with some of his supporters and 60 officials of the previous Imperial government.

Brigadier General Tafari Benti became the new chairman of the Derg and the head of state. The monarchy was formally abolished in March 1975, and Marxism-Leninism was proclaimed the new ideology of the state. Emperor Haile Selassie died under mysterious circumstances on 27 August 1975 while his personal physician was absent. It is commonly believed that Mengistu Haile Mariam killed him, either by ordering it done or by his own hand although the former is more possible.

Society
According to Bahrey, there were ten social groups in the feudal Ethiopia of his time, i.e. at the end of the 16th century. These social groups consisted of the monks; the debtera; lay officials (including judges); men at arms giving personal protection to the wives of dignitaries and to princesses; the shimaglle, who were the lords and hereditary landowners; their farm labourers or serfs; traders; artisans; wandering singers; and the soldiers, who were called chewa. According to modern thinking, some of these categories are not true classes. But at least the shimaglle, the serfs, the chewa, the artisans and the traders constitute definite classes. Power was vested in the Emperor and those aristocrats he appointed to execute his power, and the power enforcing instrument consisted of a class of soldiers, the chewa.

Military

From the reign of Amde Tseyon, Chewa regiments, or legions, formed the backbone of the Empire military forces. The Ge'ez term for these regiments is ṣewa (ጼዋ) while the Amharic term is č̣äwa (ጨዋ). The normal size of a regiment was several thousand men. Each regiment was allocated a fief (Gult), to ensure its upkeep ensured by the land revenue.

In 1445, following the Battle of Gomit, the chronicles record that Emperor Zara Yaqob started garrisoning the provinces with Chewa regiments.

Major divisions of the military were :
 Regiments at the court, under high court officials
 Regiments in the provinces, under regional Rases or other officials
 Regiments in border regions, or more autonomous provinces, such as Hadiya, Bahir Negash, Bale, under azmač who were military officials appointed by the king.

One of the Chewa regiments, known as the Abe Lahm in Geez, or the Weregenu, in Oromo, lasted, and participated to the Battle of Adwa, only to be phased out in the 1920s.

The modern army was created under Ras Tafari Makonnen, in 1917, with the formation of the Kebur Zabagna, the imperial guard.

Economy

The economy consisted of centuries old barter system with "primitive money" and currency of various kinds until the 20th century in the framework of feudal system. Peasants worked to produce and fixated their activities to taxation, marketing infrastructure and agrarian production.

In 1905, Menelik II established the first bank, Bank of Abyssinia  following concession from British occupied National Bank of Egypt in December 1904, that used to monopolize all government public funds, loans, print banknotes, mint coins and other privileges. It expanded branches to Harar, Dire Dawa, Gore and Dembidolo and agencies in Gambela and transit office in Djibouti. In 1932, it was renamed as "Bank of Ethiopia" following paid compensation by Emperor Haile Selassie. To promote industrial and manufacturing expansion, Haile Selassie, with assistance of National Economic Council, embarked development plan encompassing three Five-Years Master Plan from 1957 to 1974. Between 1960 and 1970, Ethiopia enjoyed an annual 4.4% growth rate in per capita and gross domestic product (GDP). There was an increase of manufacturing growth rate from 1.9% in 1960/61 to 4.4% in 1973/74, with wholesale, retail trade, transportation, and communication sectors increased from 9.5% to 15.6%. Ethiopia exported around 800,000 bushels of wheat, mainly to the Kingdom of Egypt, The Dutch East Indies, and Greece. The GDP of Ethiopia around 1934 was $1.3 billion, before dropping drastically due to the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.

Government

As feudalism became the central tenet in the Ethiopian Empire, it developed into an authoritarian system with institutionalized social inequality. As land became the prime commodity, its acquisition became the main driving force behind imperialism, especially from the reign of Menelik II onwards.

As part of Emperor Haile Selassie's modernization efforts, the traditional monarchical regime was reformed through the introduction of the 1931 and 1955 constitutions, which introduced a unitary parliamentary system with two legislative bodies: the Chamber of Senate (Yeheggue Mewossegna Meker Beth) and Chamber of Deputies (Yeheggue Memeriya Meker Beth). Under the 1956 constitution Article 56, no one can be simultaneously a member of  both chambers, who meet at the beginning or ending of each session.

In the parliamentary structure, the Chamber of Deputies consisted of 250 members elected every four years, whereas the Senate consisted of one-half of the Deputies (125) and were appointed by the Emperor in every six years.

See also

 Army of the Ethiopian Empire
 Crown Council of Ethiopia
 East African Campaign (World War II) (1941)
 Ethiopian Civil War (1974–1991)
 First Italo-Ethiopian War (1895–1896)
 History of Ethiopia
 Ethiopian historiography
 Italian East Africa (1936–1941)
 Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia (1941–1943)
 List of Emperors of Ethiopia
 Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1936)
 Sultanate of Ifat
 Sultanate of Shewa
 Zemene Mesafint (1755–1855)

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the World Factbook
Countries in precolonial Africa
Christian states
2nd millennium in Ethiopia
1270 establishments
13th-century establishments in Africa
1974 disestablishments in Ethiopia
Former countries in Africa
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Former monarchies of Africa
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Ethiopian Empire