Yohannes IV of Ethiopia
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Emperor Yohannes IV (or Yohannis IV Ge'ez ዮሓንስ Yōḥānnis, Amh. Yōhānnis, "John," c.1831 - March 10, 1889), also known as "Johannes IV" or "John IV," born Dejazmach Kassay (ካሳይ "my restitution") or Ras Kassa, was Nəgusä Nägäst of Ethiopia (1872 - 1889).
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[edit] Early Life
Born the son of Mercha the Shum of Tembien, and his wife Woizero Silass Dimtsu (Amata Selassie) of Enderta, Dejazmatch Kassai could claim Solomonic blood through the line of his paternal grandmother Woizero Workewoha KaleKristoss of the Adwa family, herself the granddaughter of Ras Mikael Sehul of Adwa, a Prince of Tigray, and his wife Aster Eyasu, daughter of Empress Mantuab and her lover Melmal Eyasu. Melmal Eyasu was a Solomonic prince, and nephew of the widowed Empress Mentuab's husband Emperor Bakaffa. Kassai could also claim Solomonic descent more distantly through his father's Tembien family, also through a female link to the dynasty. Amata Selassie's father Dimtsu of Endarta belonged to the family which in late 1700s and early 1800s had held overlordship of Tigray, and her mother descended from the aristocratic line of the Shums of Agame. Mercha of Tembien's mother was also a granddaughter of Suhul Mikael, whose family held Tigray's overlordship in throughout 18th century.
[edit] Rise to power
Dejazmach Kassai was a sworn enemy of Emperor Tewodros II, and gave logistical and political support to the British forces who arrived to defeat Emperor Tewodros in 1868. In gratitude, the British gave Dejazmatch Kassai a large number of modern firearms as they withdrew following their victory at Magdala. This helped him to control the province of Tigray, and he became one of the three most powerful princes in Ethiopia (the others being Wagshum Gobeze of Lasta and Wag i.e the future Emperor Tekle Giyorgis II, and Negus (King) Menelek of Shewa i.e the future Emperor Menelek II), each of whom vied to become sole ruler, and who could claim to be descended from the Solomonic kings. Dejazmach Kassai's rivalry with the Wagshum was further complicated by the fact that Dejazmatch Kassai's sister, Dinqinesh Mercha, was married to Wagshum Gobeze. Only five years earlier, Wagshum Gobeze had played the decisive military role in ensuring that Dejazmatch Kassai defeated his rivals as the pre-eminent figure in Tigray. Their new rivalry was therefore awkward for both of them on a personal level.
In 1868, Wagshum Gobeze proclaimed himself Emperor Tekle Giyorgis II of Ethiopia at Soqota in his district of Wag. Due to the fact that the Abuna of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church had died shortly before, there was no one to crown the new Emperor. In an effort to get Kassai to recognize this title, Tekle Giyorgis gave his brother-in-law the title of "Re-ese Mekwanint", or "first among the nobles". Dejazmach Kassai promptly started using the title, but still did not recognize Tekle Giyorgis' claim to the throne and refused to pay homage to him.
Tekle Giyorgis after consolidating support with Ras Adal of Gojjam and King Menelik of Shewa through marriage ties, and in Wollo by force, crossing the Takazze River into Tigray in 1871 in a campaign against Kassai. Relying on the training the British adventurer John Kirkham had given his troops, and the considerable amount of weapons left to him by the British expedition that had defeated Emperor Tewodros II, Dejazmach Kassai met the Emperor near Adwa on July 11 of that year, capturing and deposing him. Emperor Tekle Giyorgis died in captivity the next year. Following Tekle Giyorgis' death, his widow, Empress Dinkinesh Mercha settled in Mekele at the court of her brother the new Emperor Yohannes IV, and continued to be accorded the title and dignity of an Empress throughout his reign.
Kassai had long prepared for this day, and had gathered the funds to pay the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria to appoint a new Archbishop over the Ethiopian Church. However this time, instead of a single Archbishop, he requested that the Patriarch send 4 to serve the large number of Christians in Ethiopia and the far flung regions of the Empire. The new bishops arrived arrived in June 1869. They were led by Abune Atnatewos as Archbishop, Abune Matewos for Shewa, and Abune Petros for Gojjam and Abune Markos for Gondar Abune Markos died shortly after arriving, so his diocese was included with that of Abune Atnatewos. It was the first time that the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria had appointed four Bishops for Ethiopia. Atnatewos then crowned Kassai emperor January 12, 1872 at Axum. He took the name and title of Emperor Yohannes IV, King of Zion and King of Kings of Ethiopia, becoming the first emperor crowned in that historic city since Fasilides in 1632. Ras Adal of Gojjam soon after submitted to Yohannes and recognized him as Emperor, and was rewarded with the title of Negus of Gojjam, and the new name of Tekle Haymanot.
[edit] War with Egypt
Throughout his reign, Yohannes was embroiled in military struggles on his northern frontiers. First was from Khedive Isma'il Pasha of Egypt, who sought to bring the entire Nile River Basin under his rule. The Egyptians flirted with encouraging Menelik of Shewa against the Emperor, but earned Menelik's enmity by marching from the port of Zeila and occupied the city-state of Harrar on October 11, 1875. Both Menelik and Yohannes had regarded Harrar as a renegade province of Ethiopia, and Egyptian seizure of the Emirate was not welcome to either of them. The Egyptians then marched into northern Ethiopia from their coastal possessions around the port of Massawa. Yohannes pleaded with the British to stop their Egyptian allies, and even withdrew from his own territory in order to show the Europeans that he was the wronged party and that the Khedive was the aggressor. However, Yohannes soon realized that the Europeans would not stop the Khedive of Egypt and so he gathered up his armies and marched to meet the Egyptian force.
The two armies met at Gundat (also called Guda-gude) on the morning of November 16, 1875. The Egyptians were tricked into marching into a narrow and steep valley and were wiped out by Ethiopian gunners surrounding the valley from the surrounding mountains. Virtually the entire Egyptian force, along with its many officers of European and North American background, was killed. News of this huge defeat was suppressed in Egypt for fear that it would undermine the government of the Khedive. A new Egyptian force was assembled and sent to avenge the defeat at Gundat. The Egyptians were defeated again at the battle of Gura (March 7-9, 1876), where the Ethiopians were led again by the Emperor, and his loyal general, the capable (future) Ras Alula. This victory was followed by Menelik's submission to Yohannes March 20, 1878, and in return Yohannes recognized Menelik's hereditary right to the title of king of Shewa, and re-crowned him on March 26. Yohannes took this opportunity to try to tie the Shewan King more closely to him by arranging for Menelik's daughter Zewditu (future Empress of Ethiopia in her own right), to be married to his own son and heir, Ras Araya Selassie. He also arranged for a general council of the Ethiopian Church in which various heresies were stamped out in Gojjam and Shewa. Yohannes also ordered the Moslems of Wollo to convert to Christianity within six months or face forfeiture of their properties. Ras Ali of Wollo became Ras (later King) Michael of Wollo, and the Emperor stood as his Godfather at his baptism. He was given Menelik of Shewa's other daughter, Shewarega Menelik, as his wife.
[edit] War with Sudan
When Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself the Mahdi, and incited Sudan into a long and violent revolt, his followers successfully either drove the Egyptian garrisons out of Sudan, or isolated them at Suakin and at various posts in the south. Yohannes agreed to British requests to allow these Egyptian soldiers to evacuate through his lands, with the understanding that the British Empire would then support his claims on important ports like Massawa on the Red Sea to import weapons and ammunition, in the event that Egypt was forced to withdraw from them. This was formalized in a treaty signed with the British at Adwa known as the Hewit treaty. The immediate result was that the wrath of the Mahdiyah fell upon Ethiopia: Ras Alula defeated an invading Mahdist army at the Battle of Kufit on September 23, 1885. About the same time, Italy took control of the port of Massawa, frustrating Ethiopian hopes and angering Yohannes. Yohannes attempted to work out some kind of understanding with the Italians, so he could turn his attention to the more pressing problem of the Mahdists, although Ras Alula took it upon himself to attack Italian units that were on both sides of the ill-defined frontier between the two powers. Domestic problems increased when the Kings of both Gojjam and Shewa rebelled against Yohannes, and the Emperor had to turn his attention from the encroaching Italians to deal with his rebellious vassal kings. Yohannes brutally crushed the Gojjame rebellion, but before he could turn his attention to Shewa news arrived that the Mahdist forces had sacked Gondar and burned its holy Churches. He marched north from Gojjam to confront the armies of the Mahdi.
[edit] Death and legacy
Yohannes' life came to an end while he was dealing with another invasion by the followers of Muhammad Ahmad's successor, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, at the Battle of Metemma on March 9, 1889. Mortally wounded by a sniper during the battle, he had been carried to his tent, where he announced that his nephew Ras Mengesha was actually his natural son, and named him his heir (his elder son Ras Araya Selassie had died a few years earlier). He died hours later. Although the Ethiopian army had almost annihilated their opponents in this battle, hearing that their ruler had been slain shattered their morale and allowed the Mahdists to counterattack, scattering the Ethiopian forces and capturing the body of the emperor. It was brought back to their capital at Omdurman, where the head was put on a pike and paraded through the streets.
Although a group of Tigrean nobles led by Ras Alula attempted to promote the claim of Yohannes' son, Ras Mengesha Yohannes (whose mother was Yohannes's wife, Wongel Berhan), as emperor, many of the dead monarch's other relatives on both the Enderta and Tembien sides of his family objected and went into open rebellion against Mengesha. Many refused to accept Ras Mengesha as the son of Yohannes, having long known him as his nephew. Tigray was torn assunder by the rebellions of various members of the Emperor's family against Mengesha and each other. Menelik of Shewa took advantage of Tigrean disorder, and after the Italians occupied Hamasien,(a district previously taken from it's former noble family by Yohannes IV and bestowed upon Ras Alula) he was proclaimed Emperor of Ethiopia as Menelik II. Yohannes IV's death reduced the influence of Tigrayans in the Ethiopian government, and opened the way for Italians to occupy more districts previously held by Tigrayan nobles, a seizure that later resulted in the creation of the colony of Eritrea, and the later defeat of Italy at the Battle of Adowa at the hands of Emperor Menelik II. The Tigrean nobility retained influence at the Imperial court of Menelik and his successors, although not at the level they enjoyed under Yohannes IV. Yohannes' descendants ruled over Tigray as hereditary Princes until the Ethiopian Revolution and the fall of the monarchy in 1974 ended their rule. There are two lines of descent from Yohannes IV, one through his elder son Ras Araya Selassie by way of his son Ras Gugsa Araya, and the second through Ras Mengesha Yohannes. Yohannes IV is still remembered in Ethiopia by some as a great patriot and martyr for his country and his faith. He is regarded with less sympathy by Muslims who remember him as intolerant of their faith, and oppressive of their rights with his harsh requirements that they convert. He is also remembered by others as a usurper of power that asserted his dominance as a mercenary of the British who had offered him military provisions in exchange for guiding the 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia to his long time enemy EmperorTewodros II.
Note: sources give both 1821 and 1831 as his year of birth.
[edit] Bibliography
- Paul B. Henze. "Yohannes IV and Menelik II: The Empire Restored, Expanded, and Defended" in Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia. New York: Palgrave, 2000. ISBN 0-312-22719-1
- David Levering Lewis. "Pawns of Pawns" in The Race to Fashoda. New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987. ISBN 1-55584-058-2
[edit] External links
- Yohannes IV
- Ethiopian Treasures - Emperor Yohannes IV, Battle of Metema - Ethiopia
- Imperial Ethiopia Homepages - Emperor Yohannes IV
| Preceded by Tekle Giorgis II |
Emperor of Ethiopia {{{years}}} |
Succeeded by Menelek II |
