- Ethiopia 1889. After the conquest of the counties of Tigray and Amhara, Meneli II was appointed emperor of Ethiopia. He immediately took novel measures: avoiding slavery, introducing compulsory education, starting to build the railroad... And he did not forget that in the conquests he had the help of the Kingdom of Italy. It gave the Italians the Red Sea coast and thus Eritrea was the first Italian colony in Africa. In addition, on May 2, 1889, the emperor and Count Pietro Antonelli, representing King Umberto I, signed a treaty of friendship and free trade in the city of Wuchale.
According to the first article of the treaty, “there will be peace and friendship between the king of Italy and the king of Ethiopia, as well as between all the heirs, descendants and subjects of both.” Article 17, on the other hand, in the text written in the Amharic language: “The king of Ethiopia can use the government of the king of Italy in his relations with other powers and governments.” But, in the Italian translation, it may be what it needs and that in practice led to Ethiopia being protectorate from the Italians.
Menelg denounced "the mistake", but Umberto I.ak, in addition to making deaf ears, mobilized his troops on the border with Ethiopia. And that peace treaty finally brought war with it. The conflict began in 1894 and ended in 1896, when the Ethiopians won the Battle of Adua. Later, the Ethiopian Italy of Mussolini took over Ethiopia between 1935 and 1941, but until his death in 1913, Meneli remained on the throne of Ethiopia.
What changed was the throne itself. Lover of new technologies, when Menelg learned that in the United States a new form of execution had been invented, the electric chair, commissioned three. But he soon realized that the artifact did not kill anyone and opted for reuse, using from then on one of those electric chairs as a throne.