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This is one of the (many) ideas I have for an Ethiopia TL in the planning stages.
What if the Russians had approached Emperor Menelik II about entering into an alliance with the Russians and French in the aftermath of the First Italo-Ethiopian War?
I was thinking that if a more decisive victory had been obtained by the Ethiopians at the Battle of Adwa, it impresses the Franco-Russian alliance more than OTL and causes them to approach Ethiopia about the possibility of it joining them. I could the Russians doing it to further destabilize British influence in her ever expanding Empire and defend fellow Orthodox Christians whereas the French do it to increase their own influence in the Horn of Africa and contain Anglo-Italian expansion. Emperor Menelik II could secure a source of arms and advisors to establish his own professional Ethiopian Army to back him in further reforming and modernizing Ethiopia as she is further threatened by European colonial empires flanking her on all sides.