When one thinks about countries that have been around the longest , Egypt often comes to mind, but there is one country that is even older. Despite its rich heritage and history , Egypt only became an independent nation in 1922 under King Fuad I's rule, with Britain maintaining influence until the 1950s. On the other hand, Ethiopia is regarded as Africa 's oldest independent country and one of the world's most ancient, reports Daily Express UK.
Today, it ranks as the continent's second-most populous nation. It has remained uncolonized, save for a five-year occupation by Italy. During the First Italo-Ethiopian War, Ethiopian forces successfully repelled Italian troops at the Battle of Adwa.
The Africans once again expelled the Europeans in 1935–36 when Benito Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, then known as Abyssinia, in the lead-up to World War II. This invasion was one of the international crises that the precursor to the United Nations, the League of Nations, failed to address effectively. The first documented kingdom in Africa is Aksum, believed to have arisen in the second century.
In bygone eras, Ethiopia's heart was in Aksum, with its imperial capital situated in the northern region of the country, approximately 100 miles from the Red Sea. As a founding member of the UN, modern-day Ethiopia is made up of territories amalgamated during the 19th and 20th centuries as European imperial powers partitioned Africa . As a result, the area stands as a beacon of African autonomy.
.
