New Video: Ethiopia! (Patreon)

We've touched a little bit on Egyptian history and Africa in general, but this time, we're following the Nile south and zooming into the history of Ethiopia!

I'll say, this video was loaded with surprises. Any diligent Bill Wurtz viewer knows that "they didnt get ethiopia" — but beyond that, my knowledge was fairly limited. Imagine my surprise to find that Ethiopia is home to Sub-Saharan Africa's only indigenous Christian tradition, and that it got started while Rome was still mostly Pagan!

I am disappointed that I didn't get to go all that deep into any one part of Ethiopian history, but when so much of Ethiopia's historical coverage zeroes in on the Italian campaigns (and sometimes Aksum) I really wanted to give the full picture and especially cover the intermediary bits between the Zagwe dynasty and the Age of Princes, as well as Ethiopia's history after WWII.

If you liked this video, let me know what other slices of African history you'd like me to cover! Also, I'm curious to hear whether you'd rather I take more of these big zoomed out looks at the full histories of multiple civilizations, or whether I should narrow in on a couple cultures with multi-part series as I've been doing most recently with India and the Byzantine Empire.

Next up on History Summarized, we're heading a ways north, to (almost) round out our tour of the British Isles with a History of England! But before then, we're kicking off that shiny new series you've been voting to name. Head to the poll if you haven't already!

-B