to facilitate the movement of troops, and helped boost trade by imposing peace and law and order. His military reforms (see below) were to prove critical to Ethiopia surviving European ambitions but, before that, these reforms enabled him to unify Ethiopia in the first place. Emperor Yohannes IV (1872-89) built on Tewodros' achievements. After crushing an Egyptian invasion, he allied himself with the British who were hard pressed to deal with the Mahdists in Sudan under Muhammad Ahmad, and defeated them at the Battle of Kufit in 1885. Thus, the British, far from being able to colonize Ethiopia, were in fact reliant on her support for a while as a 'fellow' Christian state. However, this did not prevent the Italians from making initial incursions (on which more below).
Tedowas'successors Yohannes IV and especially Menelik II (1889 to 1913) intensified the modernization of Ethiopia. From the mid 1880s to the first decade of the 20th century, bridges and railways were built, a national currency was introduced, postal and telegraph services set up, and roads and education expanded. These developments were mostly achieved with European assistance. Thus, Ethiopia avoided colonization but provided these foreigners with some of the profits they sought from Africa without having to fight what they realised would have been a costly war.

Diplomacy and Rivalry
As a Christian state, Ethiopia had long had diplomatic contacts with Europeans. The Vatican sent an embassy in 1439, and prior to that there were Catholic missionaries there. In Europe,

A popular geographical document of 1457 known as the Fra Mauro’s map
