Rise of the Solomonids - Ethiopian AAR

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Zara Yakob made preparations to conquer the smaller kingdoms to the south.
He claimed the entire Horn of Africa as rightful Ethiopian land.

But he worried about his successor. His son was not bright at all. He saw him as a disgrace and therefore decided to disinherit him, so that his empire could continue long after his death.

He took a new wife, who had converted to the Coptic faith before the marriage.

Not much later a more capable heir was born

The church provided the education for the upper class and spread the true faith to the common folk. But to continue to do so, they demanded more autonomy.

When the succession was secured, Zara Yakob assembled his armies and marched south.
The small kingdoms were no match for the overwhelming forces of Ethiopia and one by one they fell.

Ethiopia would receive a blessing from God after the success of the southern campaign.
This was a clear sign that this was the righteous way.

Most of the neighbouring countries did not really care about the Ethiopian expansion

Zara Yakob had sent out his diplomats to strengthen the relationships with the northern Coptic nations, because he had no interest in fighting them.

The true enemy is in the west. The Muslim kingdom of Adal has been a rival of Ethiopia for some time now. Tension is growing and a clash between them is inevitable.

 

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A conflict had started in the north between Beja and Dongola. This conflict created an opportunity for Zara Yakob to attack Beja as well, which was allied to its rival Adal.

With its armies still in full force he declared war against Beja and marched on its capital.

The Bejan army was very weak after fighting Dongola for some time. After this resounding victory, Zara Yakob started to siege the Bejan capital.

Ethiopia's subjects started to invade Adal from the north and laid siege to Zeila, an important stronghold in the area.

The capital of Beja had soon fallen. And Zara Yakob lead his troops towards the capital of Adal in order to break its enemy.

The siege of Harer didn't last long with Zara Yakob himself at the lead. And soon after the fall a Harer, Zeila also fell.

Troops of Adal were trying to lift the occupation of its ally. But Zara Yakob was able to stop this quick enough.

With its army completely destroyed Adal wasn't able to continue the fight. They accepted a harsh peacedeal, which caused them to cede large parts of land to Ethiopia. Beja would cede all its occupied lands to Ethiopia.

After gaining so much land with a muslim majority, Zara Yakob started a campaign to convert all its subjects to the righteous Coptic faith.

Ethiopia's reputation as a strong Coptic nation attracted pilgrims from its surrounding lands, which caused some positive growth in the region.

The Solomonids had never established a permanent place for their court. This way they could keep all their different subject minorities in check.

Dongola had annexed the last province of Beja and they held core territory of Alodia and Makuria (Ethiopia's allies). So Zara Yakob had reasons enough to fight them.

The overwhelming forces of the armies of Ethiopia and its allies won the war within a couple of months.

Dongola had to give back the core provinces of Makuria and Alodia. Ethiopia annexed the remaining provinces.

This strengthened the bonds between Ethiopia and its allies.
Ethiopia now bordered the strong Mamluk Sultanate, which held varies Coptic religious sites and the Holy City itself.

Now that his empire had expanded its borders, Zara Yakob started to integrate its vassals into his empire.

The Ethiopian economy relied heavily on the gold from the mines, which caused quite some inflation.

Our government received interesting news from the Mamluks

This was a nice surprise. The Mamluks may be trustworthy after all.

 

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Some years had past in which Ethiopia had become more stable after the recent conquests.
Many people have been converted to the Coptic faith and Zara Yakob wanted to destroy the remaining lands of Adal.

Adal wasn't a real threat anymore.

But soon after the war had started, the beloved Negusa Nagast Zara Yakob Solomonid had past away at the age of 54.

His son Iyasu hadn't much time to grieve, because he had to lead in the war.

Iyasu started his reign with a sounding victory, which he soon followed up with more conquest down the Horn of Africa.

The vassal Hadiya was also integrated into the realm.

Iyasu had decided to establish a permanent capital, now that the greatest part of the empire had become much more united than it had been during the reign of his father.

Iyasu fought two small wars with Warsangali and Marehan (with Ajuuraan as ally) to extend his power into the Horn of Africa.

Large parts of the Empire now followed the true faith

The newly conquered provinces would be converted soon.

Mahra (down in the Arabian peninsula) had converted to Coptic as well.
As soon as Iyasu heard of this, he sent out his diplomats to offer an alliance.

But this great development wouldn't be celebrated.
Some troubling news had reached the emperor.

The Mamluks have to be punished for this.
All the Copts should be freed from this horrible oppression.

Ethiopian Empire in the year 1477

 

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The relation between Ethiopia and the Mamluks had become a bitter rivalry, because of the recent news of oppression of the Copts in the Mamluk Sultanate.

And just now the Mamluks declared that they would aid the remaining rebels of Adal, who still held a last stronghold in Hargeisa.
The Ethiopian armies were ready to strike this muslim menace, so war was declared!

Hargeisa fell quickly to the Ethiopian armies and the Adalian navies tried to flee.

The recently built galleys of Ethiopa had no problem in destroying the small fleet.

The armies of the Mamluks came down south in vast numbers. They quickly ravaged the lands of Makuria (our ally). And they had to surrender.

The armies of the Mamluks outnumbered our armies (even combined with our allies). So we had to be careful and pick the right battles. Because a small mistake could be fatal.

Our allies got completely overrun by our enemies, and their wasn't much we could do to help them...

The situation looked dire

 

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Even though the war wasn't going in their favour, the Ethiopians didn't want to surrender to the Muslim oppressors. They wanted to fight till the end.

They destroyed a smaller army in Kaffa.

The stronghold of Adal had been reconquered by the Mamluks. They marched on Harer and started to siege it.

Harer lied on favourable terrain for Ethiopia. But the sheer numbers of the Mamluks couldn't be beaten back.

The Mamluks continued to conquer Ethiopian land.

Another smaller army was beaten in Lasta.

A major victory followed soon after, when the combined forces of Adal and the Mamluks were beaten in Lasta.

With the bulk of the armies on the retreat, the remainder of the Mumlukian forces could be destroyed one by one.

Now that all of the Mamlukian armies were retreating, the Ehtiopians persued them. All the way back to their capital and there they started sieging.

After Cahira fell the Ethiopians sacked the city.

With their capital fallen, they decided to seek peace. The Ethiopians wanted to destroy the Mamluks, but they could fight on. There weren't enough men left to fight, because all of them died in this bloody war.

The Mamluks ceded two poor desert provinces on the Red Sea coast to Ethiopia. They hadn't any men left to fight as well and they had some problems with rebels which they had to resolve.

Some visitors had come to us during this war. Some strangers from Europe, but they were Christian. He was very interested in our struggle against the Muslims and praised our persistance to fight.

These Portuguese might be a good ally for the wars to come.

 

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It took some time to reduce the unrest on the Somalian coastlands, after that harsh war against the Mamluks.
The manpower of Ethiopia was completely drained and so the armies couldn't be expanded.

However, a new group of visitors from Portugal came. And with good news.

This was a huge boost to our military power. Especially the technical innovations that the Portuguese brought would be of great help for us.

The moment to strike against the Mamluks was now, even though our manpower reserves were very low. Our lands were stable again, while the Mamluks still had problems with rebels.

The first battle was fought near Qasr Ibrim and it was a decisive one.

Heavily outnumbered, but with an advantage of quality, we sent the infidels back north.

This show of strength impressed the world.

More and more people got convinced that we were fighting for a good cause

We were able to quickly conquer all of Egypt.

With this war we were able to conquer some strategically important provinces.

With this conquest we divided the Mamlukian lands in two. And we now had a connection to the Mediterranean sea, which brings us closer to the other Christians in the world.

We liberated the monastary of Saint Catherine;

Meanwile a new state was formed next to our borders

We might want to fight them later on. They are a new Muslim threat close to us.

Emir Zayid I Nabhani had come to us seeking aid against our common foe; Yemen. Yemen held most of the Rassid land. They were oppressed and could only hold on to a minor stronghold in the desert.
The Emir was desperate and he was prepared to offer full allegiance to Ethiopia, if we would help him to free his people.
We didn't wan't to help an infidel, so we demanded that the Emir had to convert. Zayid accepted, although begrudgingly.

This opened an opportunity to strike across the Red Sea in the future.

In Makuria the Muslims had taken over power. Our alliance came to an end.
They are now yet another Muslim neighbour that we have to face.

 

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The Muslims had taken over power from the Copts in Makuria. So we had to step in and remove them from power.
Sadly our ally Alodia kept their bonds with Makuria.

When we declared our holy war, the Alodians proclaimed that they would defend their allies in Makuria.

The armies of Makuria and Alodia were easily wiped out.

We didn't want this fight with Alodia, so we peaced them out as soon as they saw that they were defeated.

We annexed Makuria. So we now held the site of Qasr Ibrim, a holy city for the Copts since Roman times.

Now that we had dealt with Makuria, it was time to spread the faith to the South, the West and the North.

We still had a superior army, thanks to the help of the Portuguese.

The Muslim armies were quickly obliterated.

We forced Yemen to give the Rassids their rightful land back, as we had promised.
We also took the strait crossing of Mukha and the city of Taiz to connect our lands to the lands of the Rassids.

This war was a decisive one against the Mamluks. We were able to conquer the holiest of cities from them; Jerusalem! This was celebrated greatly throughout the empire. This victory showed the world that Ethiopia was on of the greatest empires at the time.

The rapid expansion of Ethiopia made many countries feel threatened, especially the Muslim nations.
So it seemed wise not to take more than one province from Ajuuraan.

Ethiopia now had some minor interior problems to face, since now a lot of their provinces followed the Sunni faith.

But soon the armies of Ethiopia would be back for the Mamluks. They still held one very important city. The city of Alexandria, the seat of our holy father. We have to free this city from the claws of the infidels!

 

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The Ethiopians made themselves ready for a next war against the Mamluks after the victorious conquest of Jerusalem. The Mamluks were beaten up, but not defeated. They still had an army of the same size of Ethiopia and allies in Yemen and Ajuuraan.

But the quality of the Ethiopian army was far better. The invasion of Ajuuraan in the South was swift and decisive and concluded in a full annexation.
Yemen wasn't as strong as they used to be, after the Rassids had taken over control of most of their land. They were also at war with Mahra, which already occupied some provinces of Yemen. So they decided to accept peace and cede two provinces to the Rassids.

This only left the Mamluks. After some small battles and quick sieges we occupied all their lands. We forced them to cede Alexandria, their capital city Cairo and their surrounding lands.

This meant that the seat of the Patriarchy was in our own control. The Mamluks were severely beaten and wouldn't be a threat anymore.

With our access to the Mediterranean we learned about the state of Europe. The Ottomans are a big threat to Christians. They had conquered most of the Balkans where nobody was able to stop them. They also took advantage of our wars with the Mamluks to conquer most of the Levant.

So after our victory over the Mamluks, a new rival took its place.
We had to make strong alliances to be able to fight them. Our diplomats headed out to Europe, to find new allies amongst our fellow Christians.

Our diplomats visited the Portuguese, who had helped us before. We had a mutual friendship, but we couldn't convince them to a stronger bond.
Then our diplomats went to Rome, to visit the Pope. They had celebrated our conquest of Jerusalem, but they saw our Patriarch in Alexandria as a threat to their power of Rome over all Christians, so they weren't going to help us out.
Luckily the Ottomans had more enemies in Europe. The Castilians, who also held the crown of Aragon and Naples, were willing to sign an alliance with us.
The king of Poland, who also held the crown of Austria, also signed an alliance with us. As he was very threatened by the advance of the Ottomans.

The Ottomans also has some strong allies. Morocco held most of North Africa, up till Tunis. They have a strong army and a sizeble navy in the Mediterranean. Anizah is the strongest power on the Arabian peninsula and our direct neighbour. Aq Qoyunly held quite some land, but its country is very unstable.

With our new alliances we stand secure against the threatening Ottoman Empire. We could now look for an opportunity to weaken the allies of the Ottomans and later maybe attack them directly.

But our first task now would be to stabilize our newly conquered lands and bring the Copts back to Alexandria.


PS. I had some problems with my screenshots, that's why I didn't had any pics of the war against the Mamluks.

 

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After the long wars against the Mamluks, there was a lot of restoration to be done.
The Ethiopians accepted the Egyptian culture as part of their empire, now that a lot of their people were Egyptian.

But the unrest in Egypt didn't go away.

Many Egyptians rose up, but they were quickly destroyed by our powerful army.

There was much friction between the Copts and the Muslims.

Many parts of the empire had converted already, but there was still a lot to be done.

The times of war were also very costly for us. Furthermore our reliance on gold caused a lot of inflation.

A quick war with Kilwa and her allies was fought to pay for these loans. The lands to our south were quite rich and less powerful than us. So we won without many losses.

We also fought a quick war against Mahra, which was very weak. They held some land that belonged to our vassal the Rassids. We forced them to give these back.

Our rapid expansion over the past decades didn't go unnoticed. Only our direct neighbours in Anizah, Yemen and the Mamluks were upset about this. So this wouldn't be a problem.

For the coming years Ethiopia had to take care of its economical problems, go after the last parts of the Mamluk empire and build up an army which could compete with the Ottomans.

 

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1548 - 1557

Venice went to war against the Mamluks for Cyprus, the Ottomans went to war against the Mamluks for the lands in the Levante.
So it was a perfect opportunity to grab more land from the Mamluks for ourselves.

Their armies were beaten by the other wars, so there was little resistance.

We were able to conquer their entire coastline along the Mediterranean and their provinces along the Nile. The Mamluks were pushed into the desert, with little hope of regaining their power.

On the other side of the Mediterranean our ally Castille had unified their lands with Aragon and proclaimed themselves 'Spain'.

The situation around the Mediterranean is now a true stand-off between great powers.
Ethiopia is allied to Spain in the West and Poland in the North, which has Austria in a personal union as well.
The Ottomans are allied to Morocco in the West and to Aq Qoyunly and Anizah in the East.

Both wanted the land of the other.
Both wouldn't give in without a fight.