At the turn of the century, Menilek II (r. 1888–1913) of Shäwa, the Ethiopian emperor, named his grandson Iyasu (r. 1913–16) as his heir and successor. On the surface, this was another in a long line of passages of authority from the male descendants of Solomon; however, just below this surface, it was the culmination of decades of intermarriage, acculturation, and negotiation that marked the modern Ethiopian state. Decades before, both Menilek II's Shäwa and Iyasu's Wällo were semi-autonomous provinces. The last half of the nineteenth century is defined by the utilization of cultural practices and shared history that bridged religious, political, and ethnic boundaries, which created the modern Habäsha community. Habäsha is a term utilized by both Ethiopians and outsiders to describe the diverse populations of Ethiopia, from which the name of the nation, Abyssinia, was derived. I define it in three ways. One, Habäsha individuals must have a knowledge of Amharic; but generally, Ethiopians, like most Africans, speak more than one language. Two, they are generally Christian, but there are a few Muslim exceptions. Three, they must practice Habäsha norms, such as marriage practices and philosophies on lineage and land tenure, such as rest and gult.1 This term, in the scholarly literature, is applied to the Amhara, Tigrinya, and Agaw—but not to the Northern Oromo, who have had a presence in the highlands and have been a powerful force in all aspects of this civilization for centuries. This group has been neglected in order to preserve singular and ahistorical conceptions of the Oromo and Ethiopia. Positing them as Habäsha will result in a clearer view not only of the Ethiopian past, but of the collective Habäsha community that created modern Ethiopia.

The Ethiopia that existed in 1844 when Sahlä Mariyam (Menilek II’s birthname) was born remained fiercely provincial, and it is a distinct Shäwan culture that marks both this province and the empire that expanded from it in late nineteenth century Ethiopia. The forces of the Zämänä Mäsafent included political marriages, alliances that transcended provinces, Habäsha cultural practices, military force, local legitimacy, and conversions to state religions, which became the key tools of Menilek's rise to power.