Why didn't Ethiopians expand south?

Was there anything, beyond political isolation by the Arabs, that prevented the Ethiopian empire from expanding further into Africa?
 
Was there anything, beyond political isolation by the Arabs, that prevented the Ethiopian empire from expanding further into Africa?

The climate was hostile to their preferred agricultural crops (relying on the staple of tef), plus their horses would die off pretty quickly once they reached the areas that would be OTL's South Sudan and northern Kenya.

And even if they weren't completely surrounded by Arabs, throwing armies at land to the south when most of the maritime trade and military threats were to their north would be a misallocation of resources.
 
The Ethiopians didn't make serious gains against the Oromo until the 19th c. iirc. So yes, it was in a tough spot.

Plus all that decentralization.
 
Good points. I'm curious why the Arabs had better luck influencing the coast than the Axumites did. Was it simply a matter of having more time to spread their trade network and religion? Surely, other than sheer manpower, they had no other advantages.
 
Well, reading Donald Levine's book "Greater Ethiopia" the reason why the Ethiopians had such troubles against the Oromo was due to the division of Ethiopian Society into Ten Social classes which seems to have hampered their campaigns in military and sociological terms. In that the Oromo seemed to have more manpower for campaigns as well as motive.
 
OK stupid question time. Aren't the Oromo Ethiopians rather than their enemies? And if they aren't the Ethiopians who were they who fought the Oromo? Confused.
 
"Ethiopian" is actually a broad, pan-nationalist term for the people that live within the region of Ethiopia. Further more the ethnic make up of the "Ethiopian" Kingdoms has shifted and changed constantly throughout its history.

It first started with the Aksumites who became Tigraeans, the Crown, so to speak, was divided between the Zagwe Dynasty who were Agwe speaking people and the Falasha otherwise known as the Beta Israel. Then around 1270AD the Amaharans who spoke Amaharic constituted the ethnicity of the Empire when one of their chiefs claimed descent from the Rulers of Axum took the Crown as ruler of the Ethiopian Empire. Then gradually the Amaharans and Tigraeans bonded together to form the basic ethnicity while wiping out/intermarrying most of the Agwe and Falasha. THEN from the south (around 17 on the map Which at the time of the 15th-16th Century was outside of Ethiopia), while the Ethiopian empire was fighting the Somalis, the Oromo came and settled across then Ethiopia creating ethnic and linguistic wedges throughout Ethiopia. The Ethiopian empire was thrown for a loop for a while then bounced back and conquered/intermarried the Oromo (who despite constituting an Eth I majority are divided on tribal factors for much if their history) and on and off continued to expand south. For the most part most of Ethiopia was conquered in the period beginning in the 1880s.

First the empire was centered around the region of 78 then it moved to around 85-66 then it kept moving down to 82 around Addis Abba.
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yourworstnightmare

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OK stupid question time. Aren't the Oromo Ethiopians rather than their enemies? And if they aren't the Ethiopians who were they who fought the Oromo? Confused.

The Oromo is one of the ethnic groups of Ethiopia (the largest one), however historically they were an enemy of the Ethiopian empire. Their arrival pretty much was the trigger for the "Age of Princes" where Ethiopia was split into several competing principalities, some of them dominated by the Oromo.

When we speak about ancient Ethiopia we usually speak of the empire of the Habesha peoples (Amharas, Tigreans etc). The language of the court of Ethiopia was Ge'ez for a long time (a Habeshan tongue), before it later switched to Amharic.
 
Despite the fact the Oromo being a large ethnic group and while politically influential in Ethiopian affairs they didn't really have any sort of Pan-Oromo political unity during the Age of Princes which allowed for the Amhara-Tigraeans to gradually dominate Ethiopia again.
Ethiopia_pop_1976.jpg
 
OK stupid question time. Aren't the Oromo Ethiopians rather than their enemies? And if they aren't the Ethiopians who were they who fought the Oromo? Confused.

Ethiopians in the Medieval sense are Amhara and Tigrinya people. The Oromo were at the time just moving into what is now south Ethiopia.
 
Ethiopia till 1887 consisted of the northern highlands, thats all.
The region was and still is multiethnic and multireligous, there is still debate over
whether christianity is the majority or Islam they are probably close in number.

Oromos did not arrive in the region they were always there, so were dozens of different states and ethnic groups.

Between Ethiopia and the Oromos and Somalis were at least 6 major city states that were advanced for the region and highly urbanized and cultured,
The majority were muslim the largest being Ifat and later on Adal.
The Oromo nation was to the south west of Adal and was bordered on the south by the somalis and in the north by the various muslim states.

Back to question in the thread " Why did Ethiopia not expand south".
The short answer is yes is did, since Ethiopia historically was the northern highlands its expansion south and conquest of the various states between it and Adal and the Oromos and the Somalis was a major expansion.

For example Shoa which is today the heartland of the Amhara and the heartland of christian Ethiopia was a muslim sultanate when it was conquered by the Zagwe who evolved into the amhara.
This started a 300 year period of continuous warfare between muslims and Christians that lasted till the campaigns of Ahmed Gurey or Gran as the Ethiopians called him in the 1522-1540.
Till Ahmed gurey the Ethiopians were in constant expansion south and gobbled up most of the muslim states except Adal.

Adal survived and was able to counterattack and attempt reconquest northwards due to the manpower provided by Somalis.
Somalis were brought in similiar to how the Turks were brought into the Abbasid caliphate and used as soldiers.
Somalis assimilated into Adali culture and even joined the nobility,
one of such products Was ahmed gurey who rose from the ranks in the army and launched a coup d'etate in 1520 taking over regency of the Sultanate and launching a jihad that devastated Ethiopia for centuries after.

The Oromo nation were at this time neutral and were perfecting their unique and brilliant political, social and millitary system called gadaa.
Millitarizing their entire society and placing everyone in age grade millitary political units.
After a failed offensive southwards against the Somali Ajuran Sultanate,
they assimilated cavalry tactics bred horses and improved their tactics.
It was fortunate that the timing was perfect for their expansion, as the christians and muslims exhausted themselves in the 300 year war.
The Oromos moved north and destroyed every opposition with ease.
They also assimilated forcefully most of the former states and dozens of ethnic groups that are today thoroughly oromo.
 
Which ones?

The Oromo nation were at this time neutral and were perfecting their unique and brilliant political, social and millitary system called gadaa.
Millitarizing their entire society and placing everyone in age grade millitary political units.

The Amhara and Oromo systems were largely quite the opposite of one another, especially in terms of the former highly pushing for a more individualistic approach while the later was much more communal focused. Though the Gadaa systems as quite oppressive toward non-Oromos.
 
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