User:Elfalem/Portal:Ethiopia/Intro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
 |
|
Ethiopia (IPA: /ˌiːθiːˈoʊpiə/) (Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōṗṗyā), officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country situated in the Horn of Africa that has been landlocked since the independence of its northern neighbor Eritrea in 1993. Apart from Eritrea to the north, Ethiopia is bordered by Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Djibouti to the northeast, and Somalia to the east.
Ethiopia is one of the oldest nations[1] in the world and Africa's second-most populous nation.[2][3] It has yielded some of the oldest traces of humanity,[4] making it an important area in the process of human evolution.
Ethiopia was not colonized during the Scramble for Africa after defeating Italy at the Battle of Adwa; however, it was occupied by Mussolini's Italy from 1935 to 1941. Having converted during the fourth century AD, it is also the second-oldest country to become officially Christian, after Armenia,[5] although it has been secular since 1974 and has harbored a considerable Muslim community as well since the earliest days of Islam [6]
Historically a relatively isolated mountain empire, Ethiopia has more recently become a crossroads of global international cooperation. It became a member of the League of Nations in 1923, signed the Declaration by United Nations in 1942, was one of the fifty-one original members of the United Nations (UN), and founded the UN headquarters in Africa. Ethiopia also currently hosts the headquarters of the African Union (formerly the Organisation of African Unity), of which it was the principal founder. There are more than 60 Ethiopian embassies around the world.
