The father of Ras Wele was half-brother to Wube Haile Maryam who had conquered Tigray in 1831, invading it from his ancestral province of Semien, and had ruled it until 1855.
Welle and his brother Alula, first enter the historical record when they became prisoners of Emperor Tewodros II at Amba Mariam in about 1857.
'"[3][4] In 1889, when Menelik became emperor he gave Welle the title of Ras and expanded his domain to include Begemder, a vast increase.
The threat angered Empress Taytu who was outraged on behalf of her brother, when Zewde employed verb forms that were used for servants and children.
In 1897, the British journalist Augustus B. Wylde wrote after meeting Ras Welle: Wale's house, "the best I have seen in Abyssinia," was furnished with a couch and two chairs of Austrian bent wood.
He had also expelled the Catholic missionaries from Agame, and prevented the Protestant Swedish mission from crossing Tigray to distribute their newly printed Oromo Bible in the southwest.
[8] When Taytu was forced from power, and a regency under Ras Tessema Nadew took over in 1910, Welle rebelled, fighting government troops from June to November, when he decided to surrender.