Civilopedia entry for Ethiopia (you may need to adjust the characteristics/start-up techs section...)
#RACE_Ethiopia
^The Ethiopians are $LINK<militaristic and commercial=GCON_Strengths>. They start the game with
$LINK<Warrior Code=TECH_Warrior_Code> and $LINK<Pottery=TECH_Pottery> and build
$LINK<javelineers=PRTO_Javelineer> instead of normal $LINK<spearmen=PRTO_Spearman>.
^
^
^The earliest known kingdom in the region occupied by Ethiopia was centred around the city of Aksum (on the Tigray Plateau) and the port of Adulis.
Sitting astride several important trade routes, the Aksumite kingdom soon became a dominant and wealthy trading centre, and
the cultural contacts which this provided made Aksum into a remarkably cosmopolitan city - this cultural exchange has become enshrined
in the legend of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, whose mythical union was said to have produced Menilek I, progenitor of the
Ethiopian royal dynasty. As a result of this cultural melting-pot, Monophysite Christianity arrived from the eastern Mediterranean
in the 4th century AD and King Ezana began actively to convert not only his subjects, but also the neighbouring peoples.
^With the rise of Arab power in the 7th and 8th centuries, Aksum's trade routes were severed and its leaders looked south to
the grain-rich highlands occupied by the Agew. Eventually this gave rise to the Zagwe dynasty centred at Roha, which the church
hierarchy viewed with distaste - thinking it not sufficiently "Solomonid" - and when the Amhara prince Yekuno Amlak
rebelled in 1270 he was supported by a large church faction which ultimately condoned his killing of the old emperor and "legitimized"
his descent from Solomon.
^During the next few centuries, Ethiopia found itself in an almost continuous struggle with Islamic expansion from the
Arabian peninsula. The most notable Ethiopian rulers of this period were the great emperor Zara Yakob, who (in 1445) dealt a crushing
defeat to the sultanate of Ifat and Galawdewos who (in 1543) meted out similar treatment to Ifat's successor, the sultanate of Adal.
^The effects of this constant struggle against the Islamic threat, combined with a second struggle against the attempts of
European (mainly Portuguese) missionaries to convert the populace to Roman Catholicism, gradually weakened the fabric of the
kingdom and ultimately caused it to fracture into a period of what was effectively feudal anarchy, known as the [Zamana Masafent] or
"Age of Princes"
#DESC_RACE_Ethiopia
^
^In the 19th century, a succession of much stronger rulers (notably Tewodros and Yohannes IV) began the attempt to reunite these
factions into a coherent whole. This process culminated in the reign of one of Ethiopia's greatest rulers, Menilek II. By this time,
Ethiopia's strategic position had started to interest the European powers - notably Italy, with whom Menilek signed the Treaty of
Wichale (1889) granting Italy control over the costal region of Eritrea. However, this collapsed when Italy attempted to use the treaty
to claim a protectorate over the whole of Ethiopia, a claim that arose through a mistranslation of the Amharic version into Italian.
This claim culminated in the battle of Adwa (1896) when an undersized and poorly organized Italian army under General Baratieri was dealt
a decisive and humiliating defeat by Menilek's well-armed force. This led to the abrogation of the Treaty of Wichale and allowed Menilek
to oversee the expansion of the state: in the period between 1896 and 1906 this expansion led the country to its current borders.
^On Menilek's death, power first fell to his grandson Iyasu and then - after Iyasu was deposed by the aristocrats of Addis Ababa,
amidst accusations of subversion - to his daughter {Zawditu}. Because it was deemed "unseemly" for a woman to serve in her own right,
Menilek's cousin [Ras} (prince) Tafari was appointed as regent and heir-apparent. In 1930, Zauditu died and Tafari proclaimed himself emperor,
taking the name Haile Selassie, and began a series of wide-ranging reforms. His success in modernizing the country had the effect of causing the
Italian dictator Mussolini to make a pre-emptive strike against Ethiopia to prevent it getting strong enough to oppose his own ambitions in the area.
This led to the exile of the emperor from 1936 until 1941 when, with British help, he was able to regain power.
^In the post-World War II era, Ethiopian history was a difficult one.Frequent and increasingly violent separatist struggles
broke out in provincial areas, and in June 1974 and Marxist-led coup d'etat deposed (and ultimately murdered) Haile Selassie and
installed Major Mengistu Haile Mariam as head of state. This, however, did little to lessen the internal strife. More recently still,
Ethiopia has been front-page news as a result of a devastating famine - and the widely-held suspicion that its effects were being
worsened by Mengistu using starvation as a political weapon - and the resultant international aid effort.
Edit
Tried uploading a text file and it always ended up empty on the server(!) So you'll have to cut'n'paste from here...
