![]() In addition to holding rights of this kind, the nobility held or were assigned certain economic rights in the land, called gult rights, which entitled them to a portion of the produce of the land in which others held rist rights and to certain services from the rist holders. Once held, such rights cannot be withdrawn except in favor of one who presumably holds a better claim or, in extreme cases, by the emperor. Claims must be recognized by the cognatic descent group. This "rist" principle of land tenure among the Amhara and, with some variations, among the Tigray, were land-use rights that any Amhara or Tigray, peasant or noble, can claim by virtue of descent through males and females from the original holder of such rights. In the central and northern highlands, despite regional variations, most peasants had substantial inheritable rights in land. These changes had significant implications for the ordinary cultivator in the south and ultimately were to generate quite different responses there to the land reform programs that would follow the revolution of 1974. Expanding south, Menelik introduced a system of land rights considerably modified from that prevailing in the AmharaTigray highlands. Also subdued were the Kefa and other Oromo- and Omotic-speaking peoples. Enjoying superior firepower, his forces overran the Kembata and Welamo regions in the southern highlands. Menelik embarked on a program of military conquest that more than doubled the size of his domain. Menelik also authorized a French company to build a railroad, not completed until 1917, that eventually would link Addis Ababa and Djibouti. The capital's location symbolized the empire's southern reorientation, a move that further irritated Menelik's Tigrayan opponents and some Amhara of the more northerly provinces who resented Shewan hegemony. His decision in the late 1880s to locate the royal encampment at Addis Ababa ("New Flower") in southern Shewa led to the gradual rise of a genuine urban center and a permanent capital in the 1890s, a development that facilitated the introduction of new ideas and technology. Although in many respects a traditionalist, he introduced several significant changes. From 1889 until after World War II, Ethiopia was deprived of its maritime frontier and was forced to accept the presence of an ambitious European power on its borders.īy 1900 Menelik had succeeded in establishing control over much of present-day Ethiopia and had, in part at least, gained recognition from the European colonial powers of the boundaries of his empire. ![]() During the temporary period of confusion following Yohannis's death, the Italians were able to advance farther into the hinterland from Mitsiwa and establish a foothold in the highlands, from which Menelik was unable to dislodge them. The Shewan ruler became the dominant personality in Ethiopia and was recognized as Emperor Menelik II by all but Yohannis's son and Ras Alula.
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