Army of the Ethiopian Empire

The army of the Ethiopian Empire was the principal land warfare force of the Ethiopian Empire, and in the twentieth century it also had naval and air force branches. It existed in several forms from the empire's foundation in 1270 by Emperor Yekuno Amlak until the monarchy and Emperor Haile Selassie were overthrown in 1974. Ethiopia's position on several trade routes and its defence of independence against Islamic and colonial invaders brought conflicts with the Ottomans, Egyptians, British and Italians. Firearms first arrived in the 1500s, and a centralized permanent field army was established in the nineteenth century. Unlike most non-European armies it modernized successfully in the late nineteenth century, which helped spare the country from colonial rule until another Italian invasion in the 1930s. After 1941 it was modernized again with British and American help.