Menelik & Taytu: The Ethiopian Rulers Who Kicked Italy In The Meatballs

the bottom of the ocean, A lot of pressure. Yeah, there's one thing I don't need more of in my life. It's pressure and vampire squids, which I don't have any in my life currently. And I like that you've never heard of the vampire squid. We'll look them up because they have a little light bulb on the uncle and

they look like an alien monster from Hell. I mean, and I'm sure they're actually really cute or whatever, but they look very scary because they live in the darkest part of the ocean, so they just you know, they have not evolved at all the same and it's anything I'm used to know mirrors, so they can't ever take a look at themselves and decide to change and be like, wow, I'm starting with the fish in the mirror telling him to change his face. You're terrifying, sir. This water couldn't

get I bet it could. But that's like that blob fish. It was going around the internet a few years ago. I feel like, and it looked so gross and people are like, oh, it's like so saggy and weird looking, and then but of course it's because it doesn't. It doesn't live in this pressure much more pressure environment. So if you're actually seeing it where it's from, it's a

totally normal looking fish. It's all put together. Me in the southern heat, if you saw me in you know, upstate New York in November, that's when I look my best, much like the block fish, my true form Rochester in the Fall. We're in our true form today telling another ridiculous romance. So excited about this episode. This is one of those ridiculous romance that like, gave us a whole lot of insight into a subject we did not otherwise know about, and that is the history of Ethiopia. Awesome,

I know right, I love that that. You know, sometimes they these stories direct us somewhere or I might not have chosen. Oh, let me, let me learn about the history of Ethiopia today. But then I had to for this and I'm like, jeez, what was I missing? Lots of history. I mean, we've seen on this show a bunch of times in the past that countries across the globe are dealing with the aim, high stakes, high drama

games of thrones that we see so often. We only learn about them in Western Europe mostly, but it was happening everywhere. And Menelik the Second is considered to be the founder of modern Ethiopia, and his wife, Empress Tai Tubit Tool, was heavily involved in the country's unification and she helped win one of the most important battles between an African and a European nation. So let's learn a little about Ethiopia and hear what's so powerful about this

power couple. I'm in, let's do this. Hey, their friends come listen. Well, Elia and Diana got some stories to tell. There's no match making, a romantic tips. It's just about pardiculous relationships a lover. It might be any type of person at all, and abstract concept on a concrete wall. But if there's a story where the second glance ridiculous role. That's a production of I heart Deo. Ethiopia long also known as Abyssinia, is one of the oldest countries in Africa.

Tools and spears have been found their dating back almost three hundred thousand years In archaeologists discovered the fossils of a female Artipithecus remedis named Artie, who is the oldest human ancestor ever found at about four million years old. It's really not polite to ask, well, you don't look a day over three point eight million. Now. The earliest records of Ethiopia pop up in Egypt's Old Kingdom period

around three thousand BC. So this is a country with a lot of history, maybe the most history, right, I mean, we're talking about early predecessors of humans left from here. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahido Church is the dominant religion there and they have been there since the fourth century. Europeans didn't even really get involved with Ethiopia until the fourteen hundreds.

So Christianity came from its original place, not from Western Europe when it came into I don't know why, but I always assumed that Christianity was brought to African nations by European colonization. I know that's true for some, but a version of it was certainly brought there, you know. But yeah, right, but they're closer to Jerusalem than I am.

I don't know, I thought I thought that, but definitely. Now, in the sixteen hundreds, Emperor Susneos converted the empire's official religion to Catholicism, and this caused riots and revolts and assassination attempts. So Cisneos changed his mind. He was like, never mind, Yeah, y'all be whatever religion you want, cool with me. It's like Homer going into the bush. Right.

Then he set the country's official religion back to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, not is kicked off a period referred to as the Age of Princes for almost a hundred years from seventeen sixty nine until eighteen fifty five, where emperors became only figureheads while regional lords kind of held the actual power. And during this time, Ethiopia had very little contact with Europe, and that brings us to the

point in history where our story today begins. In eighteen forty four, the King of Sahwah, which was a semi independent region in northern Ethiopia knocked up a servant girl. In August of that year, she gave birth to Menelik, and the king didn't recognize the child as his son, because you know, just a servant girl, right, But the boy still grew up with more or less the royal treatments. He got a very good education, He had a very privileged upbringing. You're not my son, but you know, here's

some nice things. Yeah, but no son of mine's going to run around with the servants. In eighteen fifty five, the new Emperor of Ethiopia, to Woodrow the Second invaded this kingdom of Shewa, killed the king and captured young Menelik and took him back to the imperial stronghold. And even here though Metelick was treated really well, the emperor even offered him his daughter to marry Metelicks just like charming. I guess people just like immediately like you're all right.

Probably sense if the emperor, for any reason knew that he was the son of the king, he probably was thinking to like, well, and if you marry my daughter, then I could lay some claim to this territory. Because these were all kingdoms that were technically in his empire, but they all kind of acted autonomously and a lot of them didn't listen to the emperor that much, so it was hard. It was tough for him to hold

it all together. Yeah, this just reminded me of lu Bu Weai because when they had all the different states of China and they were kind of all fighting with each other totally. Also would imprison royal kids in in palaces, so kind of like the prison they're like mink lined cells, like right, So yeah, that was kind of happening here. You know. Menelik was a prisoner, but he was also treated kind of like a son by the emperor. He was his education continued, he was given a very royal life,

you know, a lot of privileges. And then Emperor to Woodrows put a new governor in charge of Shewa. It was a non royal guy named bes Abe. But as soon as Besab got there, he rebelled against the emperor and named himself the King of Shea. Emper is like here, giving you this land and you can govern it for me, Like, you just go and act my rule over there, right, I'll tell you what to do and you do it. Yeah, And the king says, oh, yeah, sure, I'll take it. Thanks.

Let me just get over there real quick. And he gets there, gets in his little palace and it's like, now I'm king of this place. Emperor, you can go screw up. These hose ain't loyal. The emperor had all these Shewan royals that he had imprisoned in the same stronghold where Menelick was living. Now, as long as a member of their own royal family was ruling over Siwa, they were pretty chilled. They didn't cause much of a fuss.

They're like, sure, I'm living here in this like palace prison, but at least one of my boys is in charge back home. But once this usurper Besaba came in and declared himself king, they got pissed. There's like, no, he's not one of ours, Emperor, what do you mean you put him in charge. The Emperor's like, look, I didn't name him king. He did that on his own. They didn't care. They got really mad, and from within the stronghold they helped Menelik escape. They're like, you're of the

proper bloodline, so you go back home. You be king of Shewa. So Menelik escaped the stronghold. He left his wife, the Emperor's daughter, behind, and he returned to Shewa to reclaim his ancestral crown. The emperor heard about this and got so pissed that he slaughtered twenty nine hostages and had twelve Shawan nobles beaten to death with bamboo. Damn, this guy overreacts, for really, he's having a full temper tantrum. And in saw Menelik basically took control with no trouble.

Bisiba tried to raise an army to defend himself and and the crown that he claimed for himself, but even his own soldiers defected in favor of this guy who showed up and who was legitimately a prince. So Menelek easily snatched up the crown and afterwards also made it clear that he had a pretty strong claim to the imperial throne through his bloodline, but he did not make

any attempt to take the throne. In Harold Marcus's book The Life and Times of Menelik the Second, he says that the king was quote emotionally incapable of helping to destroy the man who had treated him as a son. That's nice. Usually they don't seem a lot of times. They don't seem to have a problem with that royal just like killed my dad, kill my brother, rods Aches Metelka. We'll see as a sentimental guy. Yeah, he seems like

sweetie pie. Meanwhile, Emperor to Woodros drama Queen sent out letters to a bunch of European nations asking for help to fight off expanding Muslim powers that were at Ethiopia's door. You know, he's like, hey, you're a Christian, I'm Christian, let's fight these Muslims together. And France kind of like half responded like they were like yeah, but nobody else responded at all. So to Woadros decided to capture a few Englishmen and hold them hostage in order to get

Queen Victoria's attention. Well it got her attention alrighty, and in eighteen sixty seven she announced that she was sending in a huge military contingent to go in and rescue the hostages and slap around the Ethiopians a little while they were at it. There were thirteen thousand British and Indian soldiers, twenty six thousand camp followers, and over forty

thou animals, including elephants. They set sail from Bombay aboard two and eighty ships, and they called this the British Expedition to Abissidia, which sounds like such a parade, like just a nice little festival we're going to have, when it was like meant to subjugate an entire country, you know, a don'ty holiday to colonize an African exactly. Now, it would have actually been quite difficult for the British because

nobody had invaded Ethiopia in hundreds of years. The terrain was super unfamiliar, and the Ethiopians were a strong and ancient civilization. But to Wodrow's, you know, he was not holding all these kingdoms together, and he didn't have a lot of friends left. A few princes even pledged aid to the British. So the British faced very little resistance in their march to the Imperial fortress. To Wodrow's had

alienated and attacked allies. He got angry and slaughtered people who just committed like minor of enses against him, and then he sent thousands of his own soldiers, many of them only armed with spears, to charge against the British forces. They were met with cannon, fire, rockets and artillery, and nearly eight hundred Ethiopians were killed, with many more wounded, while only two British soldiers died. So they literally brought

a knife too again. Yeah yeah. Rather than face captivity to Woodrow's committed suicide using a pistol that had been given to him as a gift by Queen Victoria, the British forces looted and burned the fortress, including its churches, and it took fifteen elephants and two hundred mules to carry all the historical and religious artifacts that they stole

back to their ships to take back to England. But I'm gonna ask you a little trivia question here, Diana, where do you think we can find these Ethiopian artifacts today? I'm gonna guest that they're still at the British Museum.

Still at the British Museum today. Yes, there is an article in the Atlantic from that says they're actually eleven wood and stone tablets in a storeroom of the British Museum that represent the Ark of the Covenant, and according to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, only it's priests should ever be able to see them. That's how sacred these objects are.

The Brits even brought along on their holiday expeditions an expert from the British Museum whose whole job was to just a praise and bid on items that they could take back with them from Ethiism, which I guess bidding is nice. Maybe they bought some of them. No, no, they bought them from each other. It was like he was a rep from the British Museum to say, I'll buy these from the army that took them. Oh, okay, they had like individual soldiers would bid to buy items,

the museum bought whatever. They were just like, well, we're taking this now, let's all sell it to each other. It's crazy that they brought an appraiser with them because they knew they were going to take home a bunch of ships. Mostly yeah, they were like, part part of the reason we're going is to pick up some stuff. Absolutely, just like any holiday Stupidish shopping. So for the last one hundred and fifty years, Ethiopia has repeatedly asked for this stuff back because it is their stuff and it

was taken wrongly, maybe they should get it back. But as of the article, the British museum's best offer was quote, it would consider the possibility of a long term loan. Oh, but you're the one with the long term. I don't call in it, invested it back, loan over, give me my ship back. Insane. And the thing is the British Museum has these tablets and they're honoring the fact that no one else is allowed to look at them besides Ethiopian Orthodox priests by keeping them in a storeroom under

the museum. And Ethiopia is like, then, why the hell are you keeping them exactly what's the point? Just give them back and now no one can see them, so you're technically still infringing on their religious freedom because their priests can't look at their fucking arc of the Covenant. It's crazy. England is still clutching to this stuff right

after all this time. And I'm like, part of me is like I would not necessarily want every country of origins stuff to go back to that country, and is that you know, not everyone gets to go to Ethiopia in their life, sir, But this way they get to see some cultural items and stuff like that. But okay, by them, by them or ask for some stuff from them that they would like to give those countries take

their own ship and put it into a touring exhibition. True, and then they can make the money off of it. To you, I mean, yes, exactly who are we enriching? And yeah, okay, alright, enough shipping on the British Museum. I'm sure we'll get many more opportunities and next episode, but we want to get to this romance. So after to woodross suicide, Menelick was pretty broken up because remember this is the guy like raised him like a son, and he was like, even though you're crazy, I can't

can't fight check. But he publicly threw a big celebration. According to Harold Marcus's book, when Menelick was asked why he did this, he said, quote, to satisfy the passions of the people. As for me, I should have gone into a forest to weep. I have now lost the one who educated me and toward whom I had sincere affection. That is tough stuff. And I could see it if he was really unpopular. It was like, cool, he died.

Everyone's happy. Even then I'm not happy. We should we should I should enter into my personal feelings do not necessarily reflect my my subjects in my kingdom, you know. Yeah. Now, after twelve jurs death, one of metalicks rivals took the imperial crown as Emperor, Johannis the Fourth, and Metalick didn't really make too much of a fuss about it. At this time. He was busy being a great king. He

was also busy getting married two more times. One marriage didn't go so well and the other would change Ethiopia forever. And we will hear about those right after this commercial break. Welcome back to the show, everybody. So, Johannis the fourth is Emperor of Ethiopia and mentally is the king of Shwah, which is, you know, again a northern kingdom and Ethiopia

semi independent. But he needed a queen, of course. Menelick had had to leave his first wife, Altash two DROs, the daughter of the previous emperor, when he escaped captivity. We don't really know what kind of relationship they had, but I like to assume maybe it was strained, you know, a complicated union probably, and then the fact that he

just had like I'm escaping, bye bye. They had no children together, and he did officially divorce her in eighteen sixty five, when he had plans to marry another woman. She was a noble named Buffana Wolde Mikhail, and Menelick was so fond of her. He really fell in love with this woman. She was beautiful and smart and strong, but she didn't really think much of him at all. Yeah, she apparently had a bunch of kids from previous marriages, and she only agreed to marry Menelek basically as a

means of keeping them well cared for. H So she was like, I don't really like you, but you are the king, so you'll keep my kids nice and they'll be they'll be in soft And she was from a noble background, so she probably had ambitions for her family herself, you know. And she did start to take that a little too far, and she was widely suspected of making secret plans with Emperor Johannes the Fourth to replace Menelick

with one of her own sons. Now Buffana got found out and Menelick's advisers had to separate them once again, someone he really cared for ended up being his enemy. And his friends and his relatives would try to introduce him to new wives, but he said to them, quote, you asked me to look at these women with the same eyes that once gazed upon Buffana and they're like, yeah, bro,

she sucked. It's like come on, you know. They they list that quote and say it was really a testament to not only how much in love he was with her, how how great he thought she was, but how beautiful he thought that she was too. Like my eyes can't handle looking at anybody less than her. Yeah, they all look like ship in comparison. But in eighty two, after seventeen years of marriage, Menelek divorced Buffana, and again not a ton of info, but he was probably pretty bummed.

I mean again, he was like really into infatuated with his wife. Um, so probably a lot of moping around the palace. He's listening to The Cure, eating ice cream by the pint more in the same T shirt day and brow you gotta get back out. They're like coming and rip open the curtains and they're like, listen, king, get out of it, get out of here. It's like stoner friend because he's like, hey, man, you know what we're going dance in tonight. We're going out. You're gonna

find some not gonna yeah, man, pick it up. We're going all right, but I'm not gonna have any fun, I promise cut to him at the club. Okay, alright, I'm single, but at some point he did meet tie To tie To bed Tool was born probably in eighteen

fifty one to an aristocratic family. Her father was a raz which is sort of like a duke or a prince, and they had like a ruling foothold in the north, and her great grandfather, raz Gibris of Simeon ruled during the Age of Princes and was remembered for having treated his subjects so well and providing them with enough food and water that they didn't actually have to farm to feed themselves. They could farm fully commercially just to make money.

Can you imagine? Incredible? He's not coming from a scarcity mindset. A ruler providing his subjects with enough food and water they don't have to pay for her and then they prosper insane, and so does the kingdom. That's so weird now. Tai two was also descended from Emperor the guy who

never minded Catholicism, if you remember, he tried it. And then when her father died at the Battle of a Shaw, her mother married an administrator of a monastery, which is where it's believed t Too got her education, which was pretty unusual for Ethiopian women in her time. She could read and write multiple languages, she wrote poetry, She loved centaeres, which is an Ethiopian variant of chess, and she played

the bagana, which is like a tall stringed instrument. It kind of looks like a big harbor, a liar or something so very accomplished. I gotta say though it was probably was. I think from other stories we've told it was unusual at the time for women of many cultures to get educated. Who is it La Cruz right? She she was educated in a monastery, which is the only way women could get educated at the time. That's true. And what's funny is that in yes, Tchestro was in

medieval times. This is which if you do compare to other episodes, I mean in America many women are being educated. They still couldn't go to colleges. So it was like they wanted you to know how to read and stuff, but like, don't go too far start the start of everybody else. Or remember Clementine Churchill who like could learn, but they didn't want her to, especially not maths. Which was a subject for men only. I know you don't want to be a blue stocking darling. There's nothing men

hate more than a bookish lady. Well, Ty two was first married off at the age of ten to an officer of emperor. To address the second and Encyclopedia dot Com says, quote sex was considered normal for Ethiopians of Tyto's age at the time. That's a bit of uncomfortable history. That's extremely young, yes, but I will say the age of consent in Ethiopia today is eighteen. No need to

write any letters right now. While marriages were fairly patriarchal, it was also quote not unusual for Ethiopian women to marry several times or to take several lovers when they were older. Now, her first marriage didn't go so well. Uh, not just because she was tant and I imagine, but because two DROs who remember had a real problem with overreacting.

He arrested and chained up her husband for some some minor offense that he did, and Ty two was chained at the wrist and forced to follow along behind the army on foot and cook for the soldiers at their camp. Now, their marriage eventually ended and ty two was then wed to the brother of a consort of minelek Up in Shawa. So she's like getting closer to him. She's she's in his sphere right now. But this guy was an abusive

dick and he beat her. So Tai to who's considerably older by now, she's you know, in her like early twenties. She gets beaten by this guy, and the next day she says, um, you know what, I'm gonna go visit with my mother back home for a little while in the neighboring kingdom. Understandable. And when she left, quote a great deal of her abusive husband's property as well as many of his servants went with her. Yeah, let me

pack a bag real quick, I'm gonna go. And then she loads up, you know, two mules with like a procession of all the events. And then he comes home to just an empty house. Where is everybody? Where's my bed? It looks like that grinch was there. This's like a couple of wires on the wall of the rug. All the gifts she can read, just back takes the last crumb.

I won't leave you, rom. I love that she divorced his ass and she didn't even bother trying to get a settlement out of the divorce because she had already taken so much of his ship. She's like, what you got left? Nothing too. We learned was not to be trifled with. No, ma'am t two married two more times, and it became clear over the course of these marriages

that she was unable to bear children. Some sources say this is due to the genital mutilation she was subjected to as a baby, which is unfortunately still pretty common practice in many countries in Africa. Regardless, she was very beautiful, she was incredibly smart. She's quick witted, and as historian Haywan Seaman says, quote, there was a prophecy that she heard as a young girl that said she would be

the next Empress of Ethiopia. Yeah, and that guided her in like all the decisions she made in her life. She was like, I'm supposed to be the empress. Yeah. I wonder if I would have been a more ambitious person if someone had come up to me as a child and said, you're destined, right, Maybe just we should all go to hospitals, go to the baby room and just tell them all and just see what happens. Actually, you know what, I just realized, maybe it's all my

own fault. I've long blamed as as a as a teenager, some of my teachers and stuff and directors in theater they would tell me, oh, you're going to be famous one day, and I think I took that as a reason to not work very hard. You know. I was like, well, everyone says I don't even I don't have to try, damn,

And uh look look where that got us. Do you talk a lot about like gifted kids or whatever who are very anxious and prospectionous and can't get anything done because they're afraid of doing it wrong and stuff like that. Oh yeah, yep, yep. I was the gifted program for I feel like if you did tell a generation of children that they were all destined for greatness, it was it would turn out pretty chaotic, Like some people would be awesome like hero types. Others would take it a

very different direction. Only one of who gets to be emperor fight amongst yourselves. So but she did hear this cool prophecy about herself, and she was like, Okay, great, well, I guess I need to do everything I can do to make that come true. She took it better than I did. She was like, gotta work, got a hustle, So anyway be in This hot and rich badass with her eyes on the prize probably caught the attention of

King Menelik of she Wa. Some historians think it was love at first sight, because Menelik, as we've seen, is attracted to powerful women. He like, he likes. He doesn't want a dumb mass next to him. He wants her to be good looking and smart. But even if it wasn't a love connection right away, um, it was still a smart move because Menelick was trying to consolidate his power subtly, you know, without bringing too much attention from Emperor Johannes the fourth, So marrying into Tai Tu's powerful

family would give him a real edge. And they started according in three and though he was merely King of Shehwa at that time, he told her about his big plans. Yeah, because Menelick claimed a paternal lineage that could be traced all the way back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba like Old Testament ship sure now, according to the cabre Negast, which is an old text where Ethiopia derives much of its tradition, and law Ethiopia must be ruled by someone of that lineage. So Menelick staked his

claim to the imperial throne. And he told tay To about this. You know, He's like, hey, let's get together. I know you're cool. You got a lot of power. And guess what, I'm going to be emperor one day. I'm the I'm the guy who should be. I was gonna say, do you think She was like, well, I don't want to be just a queen. I thinken to be empress. And there was a whole prophecy about me. And it's like, oh, actually, it's so funny you say that. Turns out my dad's dad's dad dad. It's probably exactly

more or less what happened. And on Easter Sunday of eighteen eighty three they were married. Raymond Jonas writes in his book The Battle of Odwa that Menelik and Tai two were actually very affectionate with each other. Um, so we can we can imagine that there was some real love and romance here and it wasn't all political, which I like to hear that for both of them. It feels like they deserve a break in the love. There's some candid photos of their personal lives that show how

comfortable they are together. They would eat meals together, which wasn't necessarily common and quote their interactions were described as attentive and tender. And like you said, both of them had some really ugly divorces behind them, so they must have really considered this union carefully. But through this marriage and some other careful alliances, Menelik turned Shewa into the

most powerful kingdom in Ethiopia. He also buddied up with the Italians and the French, and they were really keen on having an ally down in this region to help stop British expansion. So he's playing the Europeans against each other too, very smart. Yeah, they were like, oh, they already took a bunch of stuff we wanted. Then, in March of eighteen eighty nine, Emperor Johannes the fourth was killed in a battle. It said that with his dying breath he declared that his son would be heir to

the throne. That sounds convenient. Well. Metelk and t two heard about this and they were like, Okay, the time is now to strike. And Metelick stepped up and proclaimed himself Emperor of Ethiopia, and some people were like, wait a minute, but Johannes was just here. He just said it would be his son, and Menelik was like, I know, that's very confusing, but let me lay it out for y'all. Johannes was a descendant from King Solomon. Sure, great, but

it was through the female side. Boo. My bloodline is through the male lineage, so it counts for more. And he had enough of the nobility on his side in addition to the backing of the Italians that in November of that year he was crowned. Emperor. Johannes's son didn't really have his ship together, he couldn't contest it. He didn't have no friends with the Italians or anything like that. So Menelik gave him a governorship as like a consolation prize.

So Emperor Menelik the Second and Empress Tai Tu, we're now ruling all of Ethiopia, and we'll hear about their remarkable, sometimes ridiculous exploits right after this. Welcome back everyone. Now, Menelick the Second is generally considered to be the founder

of modern Ethiopia. Like we said at the top of the episode, there had been so many wars going on, and the country was so split into these many little regions that had, you know, pretty much little to do with each other besides this idea of an emperor who ruled them, but they were kind of self governing. So Menelick's very first mission was to modernize and unite the empire. But he couldn't have done any of this without Tie

too at his side. She made sure to get herself involved in all matters of policy, and Menelik was very glad to have her assistance because while Menelik was fairly he was kind of approachable and amenable rejected princesses dot Com calls Tie to quote, the bad cop Empress of Ethiopia. So they had this kind of like a go ask your mother sort of thing going on there, this routine that helped them kind of pacify a lot of conflict and get ship done when he had to take an

unpopular stance. Mentally had a catch phrase where he basically said, yes tomorrow, somebody's like, hey, should we raise taxes? Yeah, we'll talk about that tomorrow. You know, should we do this and that, Yeah, we'll talk about it tomorrow. Tomorrow, come back and ask me again today is crazy? Get it? But Tie two had no problem with her catchphrase, absolutely not. And she was involved in all of his political moves, and she would interrupt negotiations quote often in a decisive

and resolutely hostile way. I could totally see this working. I mean, his strength is that he makes friends, right, people like him throughout his life. That's been everything that's helped him is that people like him. But then if you can't really lead and stay likable because you have to say no. So he's like, great, you say no. She's like cool, I don't mind being unlikable. I will say no. Now, Medelick was still getting some on the side. He had his little side pieces going on, and Tie

too tolerated it. But she kept a sharp eye on things, and she would not tolerated if a woman looked like they were vying for power. They thought, you know, they could compete with her. You can sleep with that girl. But that second I see her eyeball on that throne. Okay, she's out, she's far out, Like we'll kick her as to the other borders, probably like why didn't you date that bimbo? Why don't you date some dummies? And I'd be fine with me. She's like, you'll get so bored

listen to her chatter. I don't have to worry about you disappearing for life. It said that one of these ladies started maybe asking a few too many questions, making some suggestions that were a little too suggestive, and Tie two poisoned her. In fact, Ty two was rumored to be connected to quite a few poisonings dating back to her teenage years, but rejected. Princesses dot Com says that

a lot of these claims are probably rumor mongering. They're not backed up by evidence um which we've seen many times in the past with queens getting getting smeared and dragged, you know. But a couple of them quote aren't out of the question. So Tie two probably did not poison a lot of people, but she not against it. But she did start to curb mentalis womanizing, and this helped

him be a more focused and serious ruler. There was a popular song at the time that said, quote the sun has dissipated the fog that Ti two is Gayez for sun, and the fog clearly meant these foggy as bitches. That mentally because in her ound with so people were pretty happy that she rained him in a bit when it came to that. But do you unite the empire and bring all these kingdoms together? Menelik needed to establish a new capital city because for a long time there

wasn't a permanent capital. The Emperor's royal encampment was basically like a capital that just moved around wherever needed to be. I could see that being useful, and like battles should keep moving retreating. And he had been parked for a while on Mount and Toto. But in eight eighties six, Empress Tai Tu took a little trip south of the mountain to one of these hot springs while Menelick was out fighting off a little battle or something. And she

gets there and she's like, yeah, this is it. And she built a little house for herself, and she said, I'm gonna be here from now on. If anybody's looking for me, this is where I live now. I found paradise, very nice spot, and she called it addis Ababa, which means new flower. So mentel gets bred of this. He sends his generals down there to start allocating land and building their own houses. And in eighteen eighty nine they

started building the Royal Palace. Over the next twenty years, the city grew to a population of over a hundred thousand, and it is still Ethiopia's capital city today. Right now, it's the eighth wealthiest city in Africa, and it's home to the oldest university in Africa as well as the h Q for the African Union. And it's just we're looking it up and it is just full of diversity and food that looks incredible, and museums and architecture. It just sounds amazing. Now I really want to get on

the list for absolutely it looks amazing. I read if any of you live in Ethiopia and would like to provide us a couch together, Menelik and Tai to continue to bring Ethiopia into the modern era. Previous emperors Johannes the Fourth and to Woodros the second had both outlawed slave trading, but they had had a hard time suppressing it because a lot of the disparate tribes were not against it, so they didn't really enforce any of that. Raiders came into the country from all sides to capture people.

But as Metelis reach expanded out into these tribal kingdoms, either through military conquest or diplomatic agreements. He was able to actively suppress the slave trade. He had slave markets across Ethiopia destroyed, and he enforced serious punishments for anyone caught working in that industry. In addition to founding Addis Ababa, Taied two helped homeless orphans by educating them to become deacons, priests,

or even government officials. Wow, can you imagine a ruler coming in and being like, hey, homeless folks, I'm going to educate you and make you government officials. I mean a world, why would you want a lot of homeless people? I have to ask that, even an o U. And then what a great perspective to be working in government? Yeah, boy, I don't want people to have to go through what

I went through. Let me try and make that not happen. Well, I wondered too, since she was able to get an education and knew that that was kind of a privilege. She was like, seriously, this is transformational. You will not be the same once you've opened your eyes in this way. I'm thinking about these people, and they both, you know, obviously came from privileged households, but they were also both

imprisoned at different times. I'm thinking of her, you know, being forced to walk behind the army and chains and forced to cook for them and stuff, and him being locked up in this palace and like, you know, pretty much forced to marry the emperor's daughter and you know, and and give up all of his lineage and everything. And they just have like a really unique perspective as rulers. Tied To also built the first hotel, the Tegway tie To Hotel, which still stands today. And that's where I'd

like to stay. You can afford it, you go to Athiopia. I don't know anything about the hotel itself. I know, maybe it's like a Best West and I don't know, but maybe it's like a fucking four C, you know. Fancy and a Metallick spoke fluent French, Italian and English and started to get involved in global investments very smart.

He heavily invested in American railroads, and according to a New York Times article from nineteen o nine, he had a private fortune of around twenty five million dollars, which today, let me check here, would be over eight hundred million dollars. Dang metal, that's pretty good, can I get you won't even notice it in the ocean. Now. He was constantly reading books from all over the world, and he had

a library in his palace of ten thousand volumes. Imagine, I'm picturing you totally just as Bell on the ladder, like rolling through those blick shelves singing. That's how I always I always related to her so hard, because he was like, wait, you just want me to hang out in a soft bed surrounded by books with like things that talk to me and I could get delicious food. I don't know why I should be upset right now. Yeah, you can see how the Stockholm sunt term sent pretty fast.

It said that when asked about a new upcoming author in England or something like a European author who was new and fresh and hot, you could go ask him about it and he already knew who they were. He was real up to date. Dang okay. He was like a literal literature subscriber. He was like he wanted it all. He clearly valued knowledge and intelligence. You know it served him well. Yeah, so, yeah, amazing library. He built modern roads, expanding out from the capitol. He introduced the first modern

postal system, and through his relations with the French. He introduced electricity, telephones, cars, and modern plumbing, and more and more Westerners were looking to Ethiopia as a trade hub. So you really like elevated this whole country in the eyes of the globe, in the the continents. Definitely, yeah, that Taitu was instrumental in this work. She was a shrewd strategist and she was a real force in negotiations. Remember,

she would interrupt them hostily, sometimes resolutely hostile. Historians mostly agree that she was quote seen as meneliks equal and often took a tougher stance on matters than her husband. According to an article on dw dot com, she also really really, really really did not trust Europeans. Why we're

so cool to yall? Though European colonization was expanding rapidly across Africa and Italy, who had only unified as a single country in the eighteen sixties, so very recently, they felt like they were falling behind the other European countries in terms of colonization across the globe. But they found this port city in Eritrea, and by the late eighteen eighties they had expanded through Eritrea and Somalia, which border the entirety of eastern Ethiopia, and it did cut off

Ethiopia's coastal access. So the Italians came to emperormental Like the second and they said, hey, oh, we want to colonize Ethiopia. And Metelick replied no. And the Italians were like, okay, fat enough. We had to ask, you know, oh, how did you get here? So they said, how about this nice treaty? And they brought him the Treaty of Wuchale in eighteen sixty nine, also known as the Italo Ethiopian Treaty of Friendship and Commerce. What a nice little nail.

I like that. The treaty contained twenty articles, and they wrote two copies, one in the Ethiopian language of Amharik and one in Italian. Everything sounded great. Emperor Menelek the Second signed the treaty, presumably with Tito behind him, with her arms crossed, frowning, looking very disapproving and untrusting. But the Italians took their treaty and they went home. Great, that's probably what she wanted. She's like, great, they left.

That's all I care about. Except there was one teeny tiny little difference between the two translations of this treaty. The Amharic version of article seventeen said the Emperor of Ethiopia could go check with Italy before he had any dealings with other foreign powers, but the Italian version said the emperor must go check with Italy first. What you see why the lawyers are always so serious about their definitions and stuff, because these tiny little things make a

big difference. And now when the Italians got home, they're like, hey, good news, Ethiopia is an Italian protect or it and they won't do anything without our say so Chow and Metelick, you know, and Tai two, we're like, what are y'all talking about? They heard about this, They were obviously like, hell no, if y'all are not even going to keep up the treaty that we thought we signed, and then we don't have to keep it up either. And it said that Tai two took the contract and tore it

to pieces, which I love. I hope she threw it in the air and danced around. Now, negotiators came back from Italy and they tried to be like, okay, that was just a little mistranslation, but that's what you agreed to. You signed it right here. Sucks to be you, but whatever.

And during deliberations, Tay too obviously very indignant. She wanted the Italians to pack up and leave Ethiopian territories altogether, get out away from a borders, and according to historian An Chiho, the lead at Italian negotiator, Count Pietro and Tonelli said, quote, Menelick is playing games on me by giving up his regal authority to a woman, to which Empress Ty two said, quote, my womanliness and your manliness is going to be tested on the battlefield. Do not

absent yourself. So Tie two was like threw down a gauntlet. She was like, I'm ready to fight you hear, and now any time you say when? And so unsurprisingly, negotiations failed and Menelik was wavering on what to do next, but Tie two kept telling him, you know what you have to do next. We are going to war with the Italians. There's only one thing to do here, And finally she got through to him and Menelik declared war. Now,

the Italians thought this was so cute. Europeans were victorious over African armies for centuries, so they just thought their win was like in the bag basically a given, don't even have to worry about it. And in January six Menelik and Tie two together attacked an Italian fort at Adigrat, and that did not go well for the Ethiopians. Italians slaughtered five Ethiopian soldiers easily and they barely suffered any

casualties themselves. And Menelik here i I feel like it's probably thinking about two DROs and his really bad loss against the British during that expedition to Abyssinia, when that he sent all those soldiers out against that heavily armed British force. But Tie two had a plan. Now, she had her own private army of about five thousand soldiers,

including a hundred women. She took nine hundred of her people and they snuck around the ravine where the fort was situated, and they cut off the stream that was supplying water to the fort. The Italians were not good at the local geography, their maps were outdated, they had no idea what to do, and the Ethiopians just backed up, settled in out of firing range and waited. And after ten days the Italians stumbled out of this sport totally

dehydrated and sick and they surrendered. Yeah, that's home field advantagement exactly. She's like, they don't know about this place, let's use that against them. Welcome to my house, exactly. Welcome to my house. And now the Italians basically thought, Okay, you got lucky. We didn't know about the water. Sue us this time. I'm amia. Now, this time, we'll send some serious firepower to Ethiopian a deal with these locals. So they sent seventeen thousand men to march through Ethiopia

towards the capital city of Addis Ababa. They knew this would put a stop to these uncivilized Ethiopians once and for all. But on their march to Addis Ababa, they were intercepted by Menelik tai Tu and their forces in the mountains near the town of Adwa, and the Battle of Adwa would prove to be one of the most significant in African history. Italian general Baratieri had been marching south from Eritrea, but his seventeen thousand men were again

unprepared for the Ethiopian terrain. They were already low on water, munitions and morale. Then he saw the Ethiopian forces. Now Menelik had for years, led the Italians to believe that Ethiopia was just a disparate collection of disorganized tribes without any modern weaponry. But he had united most of the kingdoms, and this war with Italy did more for that than anything.

Barrattieri looked up and saw Menelick's army of over a hundred thousand soldiers, and while half of them were armed with spears and swords and shield the other half had modern rifles. What what? What? Menelik had been making deals with the Russians, who were also Orthodox Christian, and they didn't want Catholic European expansion in Africa, so they came to a good arrangement, and they had been supplying Menelik with weapons for years. There he goes again, finding allies

in the most strange places. I love that. Meanwhile, tai To gathered up ten thousand women and had them fill water jugs to supply the Ethiopian troops and tend to the wounded, which is of course something the Italians didn't know where to get or even think ahead to do. Barrittieri wanted to retreat, but the Italian Prime Minister Crispy ordered them to attack. But they were like, Oh, you're about to have a crispy ass because I burned you

out of office. Crispy mother, crispy bitch. Now, when the fighting began, hied To rushed in with her five thousand soldiers, shouting, quote courage, victory is ours strike, and Encyclopedia dot com says, quote cannoneers to the right of where she stood fired so continuously that they broke the center of the enemy army. And the Italians tried to split into three contingents, gain

the high ground and flank the Ethiopians. But again, they had outdated maps and they were not only completely separated from each other, but they were way more out in the open than they thought they would be, and they were easily spotted by Ethiopian scouts. So Metalis massive army decimated all three contingents. By the afternoon the battle was over.

The Ethiopians had lost between ten and fifteen percent of their men, the Italians had lost nearly six When news got back to Italy, there were riots in the reads protesting Prime Minister Crispi's handling of the war. That was crispy bitch signs and they had to make peace with the Ethiopians. So soon they were back at the table signing the Treaty of Addis Ababa, in which Italy recognized Ethiopia's complete independence. And I bet Ti too read that

ship a couple of times. Italy was humiliated across the world and Europe had to think twice about their arrogance in fighting African forces. Again, they're just using everything. They all the tools available. You know. He's like, y'all are so racist, and you think you're so condescending about us, you think we got nothing. I guess I'll use that instead of trying to persuade you, I'll just one day prove it to you. Now. Count Pietro Antonelli remember him.

He was the negotiator who was talking shit about tai To after the treaty, of which who said, you know, I can't believe Emperor is listening to a woman. She said, I'll see you on the battlefield. Well he did absent himself from the battlefield, of course, and after this he changed his tune a bit. Now he said, quote. The Empress, like all other Ethiopian women, is brave. She has a

strong character, sometimes haughty and just interesting in appearance. Her look is commanding and at the same time as spaness. In some she is a great lady who perhaps in another milieu would have been a Christina of Sweden or a Catherine the Great, but rejected Princesses dot Com points out this is European code for quote if she wasn't black, pretty obvious, Pretty obvious there. I liked her appearance is interesting, right, Oh, if she were white, she might be like Catherine the Great.

I'm like she is like now. Europeans got pretty aggres with their racism about Tie two two after this, saying she was a brutal murderer who based in virgin's blood

and tried to slaughter prisoners who had surrendered. They even said that she was the cause of the war herself, because they believed Menelik would have capitulated and compromised if it weren't for her bloodthirsty hatred of Europeans, and Encyclopedia dot Com says quote, no one outside of Ethiopia seemed to recognize Tie too simply as a patriot fighting for the freedom of her people. I mean, how many times

do you see that? Right? It's like everyone has their own little version of how a conflict goes, and who the oppressor is and who the patriots are just kind of depends which sidere exactly. I think it's pretty clear if you look objectively in this case now. But Tie two was a bit divisive even at home. But in nineteen o six, Menelik suffered a stroke and although he recovered, he was weakened, and Tie two increasingly assumed his powers.

She was known to be merciful and progressive, and she quote applied herself to not only feminine works, but like quicksilver, attended to perplexing business usually done by men and succeeded at it. She was surprised, mind blowing to the author of that piece, like, wow, she could also do this and she succeeded. I don't know what to think anymore. I better write this down. Dogs and cats living together, women succeeding in business. What is happening to the world

this modern era. But she was pretty ruthless as a political ruler, to unsurprising what we've heard about her already. And as her power expanded, it was said that quote nearly half of Ethiopia is in the hands of her relatives. So the people got a little upset about her nepotism. You know, the why is always a bit tool running around. In nineteen o nine, Menelik had a second stroke and

died shortly after. A Council of Regency from which the Empress was excluded, was formed in nineteen ten, and they ruled over Ethiopia until nineteen sixteen, when Empress Zudtu was crowned. Now Tai two was effectively forced out of politics during this Council of Regency, so she moved to live out her days in a nearby palace. She died in nineteen seventeen. Yeah, and Menelik and t two are still celebrated in Ethiopia today.

They're buried next to each other in a monastery in Adis Ababa, and they're remembered as modernizers and patriots who fought for their people and brought prosperity to Ethiopia. And in Italy. There's a common expression when someone is being bold and demanding that things go their way, La gina Tai two, which translates to who does she think she is? Empress two? That's awesome. I saw a woman in one of the comments some one of these articles saying, oh,

my grandmother is Italian. She used to say that to me all the time, like, who do you think you are? Empress ty two? Amazing? Let's start using that around here. That is good. That is yeah, next time I say some some unreasonable demand, Hey babe, can I get some water while you're up? Who do you think you are? Empress two? No? Be like if you were Empress tight too, you'd be cutting off the water. I wouldn't have any

I'd have ten thousand women carrying it around. Right, You'd be like, you're part Italians, sir, You're not get any water. That's what We've never been a strategic thinker, all right, I would never presume to be empressed. I do, right, But that is so smart cut off the water and then just wait him out. She was a thinker. She was so smart. Yeah, A little bit reminded me of Olga of Kiev when she would she would just funk with they're all right, so she didn't even go in there.

She had already decimated so many of them. I love that they're cut the image of them cutting off the water and then go standing out of range and just waiting and just watching them like another day goes by. Boy, they sure they sure do look a little, a little frustrated right now, hot enough for you. They're like, yeah, they're out there, like, you know, just pouring water out

of jugs and taking a bath them. Oh so no, I think I'll go for a swim or doing that mean thing where you're like, hold it and then just pour it on the ground. You don't need it, right, It's like ice cold glass of lemonade. She's like, wouldn't you know, Oh, there's a bug in it. Dump. Honestly, what's probably worse is that they went and set up a little fire and then boiled pasta right in front of them. They were like, it's perfectly audente. How does

it fail? Oh no? Not? The Wall Luigi is so upset. That's the story of when Empress tied too defeated Wall Luigi. I bet she could too, you know, she Mario Party easily easily. I will say that the game Civilization, I want to say Civilization four or five. Some gamer will correct me. But they added Ethiopia as a nation and Emperormentelek is your character if you play that. Yeah, yeah, there's a bunch of history in the game. Cool. I'm

glad we've retained them. In pop cultures. Oh, definitely, They're awesome, and it's you know, we kind of rushed through the end. I'll say that all of the modernizing and the Rhodes and the churches they built, and the government systems they set up and everything like that, a lot of that happened after the war with Italy. Um. You know, there was there was a solid eight or nine years there after the war where they were just prospering and didn't even well. And then when by the time he died

and she got worst doubt. You know, it's politics. It wasn't anything too exciting or dramatic or anything. Um, but they were you know, well thought of and well remembered to this day. You think Tay two was tired or she just was like whatever, Mentalis dead, so I'll just go relax. Now. I wonder years or I wonder it was probably because I mean, you know, she lived well

into her sixties. Yeah. My only question would be because she doesn't strike me as the type who would just let a counsel form around her right and totally exclude her. So I was like, did she have a problem with the hatter or was she kind of like fine, I've had my fun I could crush you all right now,

but almost episode. But I think she needed him. I think they needed each other to be that balance, you know, because I think if if she's got that really harsh attitude like I don't take no ship and I'm not negotiating with you, you know, that only gets you so far, and mentalis attitude of like I don't want to make anybody mad, will work this out? That only gets you so far. Sit together and why why they're such a fascinating couple to me, that's really what made them so strong.

Do you think, like the Italians, that he would have compromised without Taie two hard to say. I think he would have said tomorrow a lot, and they just kept being like, Okay, I guess we'll send him another message. But I don't. Man, you know, I'm not a historian of these people, so it's hard for me to really make a judgment call on what he might have done. From what little I know, it feels like I don't know.

He might have quite as pushy. He might have. He might have tried to negotiate a different deal, maybe so. And she was so bold, like she was willing to go with a fight, and she did have to coax him into it. I imagine he but he just didn't have a better idea. But he might have been pushed into it eventually anyway, because he did care about his power and and out Ethiopian independence. He wanted this united kingdom.

So I think that at some point there there still would have been a war because I'll remember also he was still negotiating and doing deals with the Russians for all those weapons. He was trying to like keep it on the d l that he was building such a powerful nation and did and did pretty good. Yeah, so hard to say a king with a lot of friends

is a very dangerous man. But then you know, you Butterfly effected and you're like, well, if you've taken her out, would he even have gotten to this point where he was emperor? Um, hard to say that as well. They really they really worked well with each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is awesome, What a great story. Yes, I'm so glad that we have so ready to go to Ethiopia. Please, Oh my god, we haven't even really dug into Ethiopian food. Here.

There's a Ethiopian restaurant nearby it we've got to go try out. I've had it once or twice and it's delicious. Yeah, I've I've not had Ethiopian food it since high school, so I need to definitely try it again. I was very adventurous eater, and let's go right now. I'm hungry, jest Ethiopian. Here we go, right, we'll go in. We'll be like, yes, We'll talk to the server and be like, well, have you heard of Empress tie too? And they'll be like, oh, tonight's meals on the house. I was gonna say it's

probably some hipster and no, maybe not. Hopefully they're like, yeah, I heard about it on this episode of Ridiculous Romance. Wow cool, how we just recorded it? I have eyes and everything you do service turning into quite a creepy character. Leave. Well, look, I hope you all enjoyed the story as much as I did learning it um super interesting, fascinating, awesome people. Yes, yes, very cool. Yeah, but yeah, let us know what you thought.

We always love hearing from you and getting your suggestions and all anything you have to say. So yeah, reach out. We are ridic Romance at gmail dot com right or find us on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Oh great, it's Eli I'm at Dianamite Boom and the show is at ridict Romance. Yeah, and don't forget to drop us a rating interview on Apple Podcasts that other people can hear about how great we are, super helpful. We love that, and we love all of you and we will catch

you all the next episode. Thanks for being here, and by so long, friends, it's time to go. Thanks so listening to our show tell your friend's names, Uncle Sandance to listen to a show ridiculous roll Nance