[3][4]: 2 Later in his reign, Menelik established the first cabinet of ministers to help in the administration of the empire, appointing trusted and widely respected nobles and retainers to the first ministries.

Menelik was the son of the Shewan Amhara king, Negus Haile Melekot, and probably of the palace servant girl Ejigayehu Lemma Adyamo.

Although the Shewan royals imprisoned at Magdela had been largely complacent as long as a member of their family ruled over Shewa, this usurpation by a commoner was not acceptable to them.

While Menelik reclaimed his ancestral Shewan crown, he also laid claim to the imperial throne, as a direct descendant male line of Emperor Lebna Dengel.

"[12] Not wishing to take part in the 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia, he allowed his rival Kassai to benefit from gifts of modern weapons and supplies from the British.

"[12] Afterward other challenges – a revolt amongst the Wollo to the north, the intrigues of his second wife Befana to replace him with her choice of ruler, military failures against the Arsi Oromo to the southeast – kept Menelik from directly confronting Kassai until after his rival had brought an Abuna from Egypt who crowned him Emperor Yohannes IV.

He organised extravagant three-day feasts for locals to win their favour, liberally built friendships with Muslims (such as Muhammad Ali of Wollo), and struck alliances with the French and Italians who could provide firearms and political leverage against the emperor.

In 1876, an Italian expedition set out to Ethiopia led by Marchese Orazio Antinori who described Menelik as "very friendly, and a fanatic for weapons, about whose mechanism he appears to be most intelligent".

On 3 November 1889, Menelik was consecrated and crowned emperor before a glittering crowd of dignitaries and clergy by Abuna Mattewos, Bishop of Shewa, at the Church of Mary on Mount Entoto.

In the 16th century, the Portuguese Bermudes documented depopulation and widespread atrocities against civilians and combatants (including torture, mass killings, and large-scale slavery) during several successive Gadaa conquests led by Aba Gedas of territories located north of Genale river (Bali, Amhara, Gafat, Damot, Adal.

[20][21] Warfare in the region essentially involved acquiring cattle and slaves, winning additional territories, gaining control over trade routes, carrying out ritual requirements, or securing trophies to prove masculinity.

[22][23][24][25][26] Menelik's clemency to Ras Mengesha Yohannes, whom he made hereditary prince of his native Tigray, was ill-repaid by a long series of revolts.

[13] The League of Nations in 1920 reported that after the invasion of Menelik's forces into non-Abyssinian lands of Somalis, Harari, Oromo, Sidama, Shanqella, etc., the inhabitants were enslaved and heavily taxed by the Gabbar system leading to depopulation.

[38][39][40] However, in the territories incorporated by military conquest, Menelik's army carried out atrocities against civilians and combatants including torture, mass killings, and large scale slavery.

Delegations from the United Kingdom and France—whose colonial possessions lay next to Ethiopia—soon arrived in the Ethiopian capital to negotiate their own treaties with this newly proven power.

Quickly taking advantage of the Italian defeat, French influence increased markedly and France became one of the most influential European powers in Menelik's court.

Menelik assured the British that he would not support the Mahdists and declared them as the enemy of his country in exchange for cession of the northeastern part of the Haud region, a traditional Somali grazing area, to Ethiopia.

Following the rush by the major powers to establish diplomatic relations following the Ethiopian victory at Adwa, more and more Westerners began to travel to Ethiopia looking for trade, farming, hunting, and mineral exploration concessions.

In 1906 when France, the United Kingdom, and Italy agreed on the subject, granting control to a joint venture corporation, Menelik officially reaffirmed his full sovereign rights over the whole of his empire.

[74] After meeting him, Count Gleichen wrote: "Menelik's manners are pleasant and dignified; he is courteous and kindly, and at the same time simple in manner, giving one the impression of a man who wishes to get at the root of a matter at once, without wasting time in compliments and beating about the bush, so often the characteristics of Oriental potentates...He also aims at being a popular sovereign, accessible to his people at all hours, and ready to listen to their complaints.

For many years, she was widely suspected of being secretly in touch with Emperor Yohannes IV in her ambition to replace her husband on the throne of Shewa with one of her sons from a previous marriage.

An attempt at reconciliation failed, but when his relatives and courtiers suggested new young wives to the king, he would sadly say "You ask me to look at these women with the same eyes that once gazed upon Befana?

Empress Taytu Betul was a noblewoman of imperial blood and a member of one of the leading families of the regions of Semien, Yejju in modern Wollo, and Begemder.

Emperor Yohannes was able to broaden his power base in northern Ethiopia through Taytu's family connections in Begemider, Semien and Yejju; she also served him as his close adviser, and went to the Battle of Adwa with 5,000 troops of her own.

They had two children, namely a daughter, Woizero Zenebework Mikael, who would be married at the age of twelve to the much older Ras Bezabih Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, and would die in childbirth a year later; and a son, Lij[nb 8] Iyasu, who would nominally succeed as emperor after Menelik's death in 1913, but would never be crowned, and would be deposed by powerful nobles in favour of Menelik's younger daughter Zewditu in 1916.

However, it was suspected that Iyasu was a secret convert to Islam, which was the religion of his paternal ancestors, and having a Muslim on the throne would have grave implications for Ethiopia in future generations.

[86] The latter, in turn, was later rumoured to be the natural grandfather of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam,[87][86] the communist leader of the Derg, who eventually deposed the monarchy and assumed power in Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991.

After that, Menelik was no longer able to reign, and the office was taken over by Empress Taytu,[88] as de facto ruler, until Ras Bitwaddad Tesemma was publicly appointed regent.

[41][92][93] According to Awol Allo: The historical figure that masterminded the victory at Adwa, Emperor Menelik II, also presided over some of the most brutal atrocities committed against the various groups in the southern part of the country, particularly the Oromos, as they resisted his southward expansion.

[91] A desire to share in the glamor Menelik enjoyed after his victory over Italy may explain an improbable Serb legend, recounted by English anthropologist Mary E. Durham, portraying Menelik and the Serb king of Montenegro as kinsmen, based on little more than the similarity between the Ethiopian honorific Negus and the name of the Herzegovinian village, Njegushi, from which the Montenegrin royal family originated:When these Herzegovinese migrated to Montenegro, a large body of them went yet farther afield and settled in the mountains of Abyssinia, among them a branch of the family of Petrovich of Njegushi, from which is directly descended Menelik, who preserves the title of Negus and is a distant cousin of Prince Nikola of Montenegro, and to this large admixture of Slav blood the Abyssinians owe their fine stature and their high standard of civilisation, as compared with the neighbouring African tribes.