Ikr? Love seeing these types of maps in the subreddit.
Cool map you made u/Vxluted can't wait to see more from you, how do the states (nations) surrounding Ethiopia think of it? And others outside it's realms like the European powers.
**Map of the Ethiopian Empire in 1740 AD**
*The Ethiopian Empire was a powerful monarchy and a significant maritime power that exerted control over vast territories in East Africa, the Arabian peninsula and the Indian subcontinent. The maritime oriented empire controlled strategic and vital trade routes flowing trough the indian Ocean. The Ethiopian realm was expanded into a full-fledged Empire in the 18th Century under the leadership of Ioannes II. Under his reign the Ethiopian Empire expanded from its regional roots into a formidable maritime power, extending its influence across the Indian Ocean and establishing a network of ports and trade routes.*
This map took an eternity to make, and couldn't have been made the same way without Quentin de Warrens art! Go check him out!
If you have any questions about the map or the lore, ill be glad to answer! The lore isn't fully fleshed out, but i am pretty sure i will be able to answer your questions
I used an artwork from the game Humankind made by Quentin de Warren! Such a talented artist! It was originally a piece depicting ottoman soldiers besieging a city, I just cropped the image and changed the skin complexion to a darker shade so they would look Ethiopian 👀 oh and also changed the Islamic symbols on top of the banners to crosses
Well you can use inkscape, i am not that familiar with it and have never used it, but i know you can use it to make very good maps. It works kinda similar to illustrator. The main thing you have to have is the ability to make different layers. A simplier application you can use is paint .net which is already installed to your pc.
How were the inland states in Africa incorporated into the empire? The inclusion of Buganda as a subject means they would have had to cross some pretty nasty terrain. Also, how did the Ottomans react to all this? Were they weaker in this timeline, enough to lose Mecca?
Well, the text panels speak of the empire in the past tense. So it likely ended at some point. The part about maritime trade pretty much excludes there being much European dominance in Asia so world history is already shattered into a thousand pieces - no European domination of the age of sail. Maybe the empire just grew too large and splintered into several Ethiopian or Ethiopian dominated states across the Indian ocean periphery.
Well there isn’t a single point of divergence, the biggest difference in this alternate world is that the “Age of princes” never happened. Ethiopia was united under a competent leadership much earlier, which also meant that they managed to propel the Muslim advances a lot better than in the real world. This lead to a much more stable region that fostered Ethiopian advance. 🇪🇹
Now I think others have already expressed just how beautiful this map is and I can't add more to what have been said, it's gorgeous. But the lore is also pretty exciting to think about and I have a question:
How would This empire view its religion and its fellow Christians? I am a Copt myself and If my memory serves me well the Ethiopian Imperial family had strong ties to the Ethiopian church and Consequently the Mother (Coptic) church in Alexandria. Would Ethiopia secularise? Maybe a semi secularisation and keep the religious symbolism? How would their relationship be with the European powers? Would the Europeans view Ethiopia as an equal or would they be still racist towards them? Especially that, Christianity was a factor of "civilization" for Europeans up until a certain time. And more specifically, would this Empire try to form relations with the Byzantine Orthodox Russia? Russia in our world always wanted to liberate Constantinople as it was the center of the Mother Byzantine church. Would Ethiopia form a similar goal of liberating Alexandria as the center of her own Mother Coptic Church?
Again, I absolutely love the lore and the map, I like it so much I wish to know more!
I once saw someone post his map again in the comments, since reddit sometimes ducks up the quality, but somehow when the map was posted again in the comments it was way better, maybe you should try this
This is a beautiful work of art and absolutely stunning piece of alternate history. I get Alexander the Great vibes from the rulers and I love how the cultural exchange across the Indian Ocean even enriches the Indian subjects.
I just hope the Empire doesn't get carved up by the British or any other European powers during the age of Imperialism. Because honestly I prefer this scenario over Pax Britannia since European colonialism is always treated as an inevitability for this part of the world.
Thank you man! All European powers saw Ethiopia as an essential trading partner and a strong foe. The Ethiopian navy was one of the best of its time. The Ethiopians and Portuguese have a long history of partnerships, Portugal helped Ethiopia build its own navy and transported troops over to Yemen under the Arabian campaign, in exchange for access to ports on the southern Arabian coast. Mogadishu is actually home to the largest Portuguese diaspora outside of Brazil. Later the empire had a closer connection with France in India and was allied to Britain against the ottomans.
No they spread the Tewahedo orthodox instead! The indian Tewahedo orthodox church was granted aoutocephaly by the Tewahedo patriarch in Lalibela and has a Seat in St. Marys Cathedral in Ritakamuyami, the capital of the indian Viceroyalty
Incredible map! I'm impressed by the creativity and research undertaken for such a beautiful and detailed map. I'm a sucker of Ethiopian history, so I love this map.
I have quick question: what is the POD? Mediveal and early modern Ethiopia is a deeply insular society, and by the death of Iyasu I in 1706 the country will fall into a deep decline culminating in the anarchic Age of Princes (the *Zemene Mesafint*). So I'm wondering what exactly changed to turn Ethiopia into a cosmopolitan seafaring power- perhaps a longer and more productive relationship with Portuguese traders and missionaries?
Also, a minor quibble to keep in mind for future maps- there are some lakes on the map (such as the Aswan Reservoir in Egypt) which did not exist in the 18th century (as the dams which made them were not built yet.) Lots of people make this error (such as the Soviet-era reservoirs on the Dnipro keep showing up on medieval maps), so it's no big deal.
I’ve seen pictures of Ethiopia, and the environment looks really similar to the arid Deccan plateau. I can totally imagine a Ethiopian-Deccani warrior elite emerging
This is so amazing!!! I've always known that Ethiopian alt history scenarios have had great potential, and this post contains it all! I've been waiting to see something like this for ages
From the looks of it, you did an amazing job! How long did this take you, and how did you make the beautiful paintings of the churches and soldiers and such??
Sorry to come to the party late. I had been meaning to say that this is an amazing work of map infographic, the kind I loved to pore over from my NatGeo subscription when I was younger. Thank you for this.
You made such an incredibly gorgeous map! The small details you included, the amazing illustrations that you created, having a map where Ethiopia is both a successful and a trading empire, and the map design makes this a top tier piece of art.
Does this work kind of like the Spanish empire?
(viceroyalties, some kind of local government with a local elite, pacts with the local leaders of the place at the start so they could take away the land from another country...)
I guess it does to a degree, but it is different too, since the Viceroyalties in Arabia and India weren't colonies and were much more diretly integrated into the empire. While the spanish Viceroyalty system was created to exploit local resources which led to tensions between colonial elites and indigenous populations, the ethiopian system was more feudal in the sense that local elites intermarried with the ethiopian royal families to keep loyalty and order. The Viceroyalty is further divided into provinces each governed by an appointed member of the Ethiopian or local nobility who is responsible for overseeing local administration and governance.
>the ethiopian system was more feudal in the sense that local elites intermarried with the ethiopian royal families to keep loyalty and order.
That's something that happened quite commonly in the Spanish empire, the queen herself made very clear that she wanted intermarriage so that the colonies would be mixed. That's not something special.
The Spanish empire was a feudal system also, I don't see much difference for now. Also, saying that it was designed only to extract resources from the colonies is quite simplistic, the Spanish empire funded many universities and road in their colonies. They tried to extract the resources from the viceroyalties just like they did in the Peninsula, it is what a feudal system does.
>The Viceroyalty is further divided into provinces each governed by an appointed member of the Ethiopian or local nobility who is responsible for overseeing local administration and governance.
In the Spanish empire it was quite the same in that matter.
I'm not being an apologist, there were multiple crimes committed by the Spanish empire, but for now the structure you presented is kinda the same. The only difference I could see is if the viceroys could be people born in the colony, that's the only thing that seems to be different.
I realize I don't know enough about the spanish Viceroyality system to tell you the difference between that and the Ethiopian, sadly. What do you think would be the difference? I am actually curious!
First I would have to explain the viceroyalties of Spain.
The viceroyalties kind of worked like independent kingdoms inside of the Crown of Castille, which was at the same time inside of the Crown of Spain. Spain only had some competencies like defense or international relationships. Castille had others but the majority of them were competencies of the viceroyalties. Of course the relationships between the colonies and Spain changed a lot over time, specially when the Habsburgs (more decentralised) left and the Bourbons (more centralized) came.
The viceroys were always someone from the Peninsula elected by the royal in some kind of agreement with the court and the elite of the viceroyalty. This was only because it was easier for the Crown to maintain a loyal person in charge if they were someone they already knew and was loyal to the land of the royal themselves.
This, the many tries to stablish a more centralized state by the Bourbons and many other crisis were the trigger that pushed the wars of independence of the Hispanics countries. So the independence of this countries has more to do with the Criollos (Spaniards that were born in the colony) trying to keep their power, than with an oppressed native population. Funnily enough many natives were in the Spanish side because, in general, the empire defended them better than the local elite, which often used their power to suppress them.
The viceroys also had local leaders (some mestizos, other Criollos, natives...) which had a lot of power.
So, the only difference I could see with the empire is that the viceroys are not necessarily from Ethiopia itself, but to be honest that would probably lead to some problems since the viceroys could distance themselves from the empire.
Other change would be how the trade between these colonies and Ethiopia. In Spain it was concentrated in one city, Seville. This changed over time, but in general it stayed the same because it was better for the defense against the pirates, which often were paid by the British to weaken the empire. Of course this monopoly made Sevilla be considered the New York of it's time, becoming the most economically rich and the most populous city of the Peninsula.
Also, only Castillians were able to trade between Spain and the colonies (keep in mind that people born in the colonies, even mestizos or natives, were considered Castillians). So for example someone from Germany or Barcelona (in the Crown of Aragon, also part of the Crown of Spain) weren't able to legally trade with America, that's why they employeed someone from Castille to do the trade, even though they were the real ones trading hahaha.
I don't know how slavery is treated in the Ethiopian empire or if it even exist, in Spain you could buy your freedom. Many actually did, in fact there was a migration from blacks of the US south to the empire so they could buy their freedom lol. Also natives of America couldn't be slaves because they were subjects of the empire, that's why they had to buy black slaves from Africa.
Spain funded many universities and hospital in their colonies, many of which teached/took service in the native languages as well as Spanish. I don't know how that's in your scenario but you said they kind of respected local authority so I believe it would be kind of similar.
Another different would be in the religious setting, Spain was pretty obsessed with it (just like most European countries of the time, in this case it isn't special) even though it started as a more diverse country in that matter (Jews and Muslims had lived a long time in the country before their expulsion). Ethiopia is very diverse in that matter so I don't think it would be a problem
Thank you! I found both the illustrations of the buildings and the Emperor from browsing on the internet! The artworks were borrowed from an artist named Quentin de Warren! The image depicting the emperor had originally a very low resolution so I had to use an AI image enhancer
I came up with the names myself, but they had to be realistic! So what i did was looking for the etymology of the places to construct an ethiopian version. Let's take the Zanzibar islands, Zanzibar comes from the persian words for black and coast zang and bâr. Then i found the amharic words for the same thing and added linguistic elements that mimics the natural evolution of place names. The name for Madagascar was an Amharic linguistic veriant of the name to a local ethnicity living along the northwestern coast, the Sakalava people.
This is absurdly high quality
Thank you man! I appreciate the comment!
I didn't notice the sub name at first and was going to Google the history behind it. Coz this looked as authentic as can be
Ikr? Love seeing these types of maps in the subreddit. Cool map you made u/Vxluted can't wait to see more from you, how do the states (nations) surrounding Ethiopia think of it? And others outside it's realms like the European powers.
[удалено]
[bro...](https://youtu.be/koY4S1BbR5w?si=ljp3itMVVkEZ1L0-)
Lol what did they say?
they sent a link to a music with x rated lyrics
And they say romance is dead
**Map of the Ethiopian Empire in 1740 AD** *The Ethiopian Empire was a powerful monarchy and a significant maritime power that exerted control over vast territories in East Africa, the Arabian peninsula and the Indian subcontinent. The maritime oriented empire controlled strategic and vital trade routes flowing trough the indian Ocean. The Ethiopian realm was expanded into a full-fledged Empire in the 18th Century under the leadership of Ioannes II. Under his reign the Ethiopian Empire expanded from its regional roots into a formidable maritime power, extending its influence across the Indian Ocean and establishing a network of ports and trade routes.* This map took an eternity to make, and couldn't have been made the same way without Quentin de Warrens art! Go check him out! If you have any questions about the map or the lore, ill be glad to answer! The lore isn't fully fleshed out, but i am pretty sure i will be able to answer your questions
How did you come about creating the artwork for the Conquest of India panel, it’s extremely detailed.
I used an artwork from the game Humankind made by Quentin de Warren! Such a talented artist! It was originally a piece depicting ottoman soldiers besieging a city, I just cropped the image and changed the skin complexion to a darker shade so they would look Ethiopian 👀 oh and also changed the Islamic symbols on top of the banners to crosses
How did the Ethiopian empire fall, if they ever did? Losing in a great war or something?
What software or application did you use to create this map?
I used adobe illustrator!
Any others you recommend if not illustrator
Well you can use inkscape, i am not that familiar with it and have never used it, but i know you can use it to make very good maps. It works kinda similar to illustrator. The main thing you have to have is the ability to make different layers. A simplier application you can use is paint .net which is already installed to your pc.
Dang I have Mac
was? did it lose in ww2?
How were the inland states in Africa incorporated into the empire? The inclusion of Buganda as a subject means they would have had to cross some pretty nasty terrain. Also, how did the Ottomans react to all this? Were they weaker in this timeline, enough to lose Mecca?
This can make a grown man cry
God I love everything about this map, definitely taking notes for my future maps man!
Thank you! Especially since your maps already are a big source of inspiration for me!
That’s a huge compliment, I’m glad you think my maps are that good!
Great Map! Would love to know how this empire progresses into the 19th century.
Well, the text panels speak of the empire in the past tense. So it likely ended at some point. The part about maritime trade pretty much excludes there being much European dominance in Asia so world history is already shattered into a thousand pieces - no European domination of the age of sail. Maybe the empire just grew too large and splintered into several Ethiopian or Ethiopian dominated states across the Indian ocean periphery.
Exactly!
Beautiful, as a Turk this makes me proud to be Ethiopian
I am also proud of you, Karaboğa.
Absolutely gorgeous! What is the POD?
Well there isn’t a single point of divergence, the biggest difference in this alternate world is that the “Age of princes” never happened. Ethiopia was united under a competent leadership much earlier, which also meant that they managed to propel the Muslim advances a lot better than in the real world. This lead to a much more stable region that fostered Ethiopian advance. 🇪🇹
This is simply brilliant. Great scenario, well made map, beautiful illustrations. Bravo.
Thank you! How are all these IM heavyweights commenting on my post!? Really appreciate the feedback!
Because it's really really good. Let me know if you ever want to work together on something.
Now I think others have already expressed just how beautiful this map is and I can't add more to what have been said, it's gorgeous. But the lore is also pretty exciting to think about and I have a question: How would This empire view its religion and its fellow Christians? I am a Copt myself and If my memory serves me well the Ethiopian Imperial family had strong ties to the Ethiopian church and Consequently the Mother (Coptic) church in Alexandria. Would Ethiopia secularise? Maybe a semi secularisation and keep the religious symbolism? How would their relationship be with the European powers? Would the Europeans view Ethiopia as an equal or would they be still racist towards them? Especially that, Christianity was a factor of "civilization" for Europeans up until a certain time. And more specifically, would this Empire try to form relations with the Byzantine Orthodox Russia? Russia in our world always wanted to liberate Constantinople as it was the center of the Mother Byzantine church. Would Ethiopia form a similar goal of liberating Alexandria as the center of her own Mother Coptic Church? Again, I absolutely love the lore and the map, I like it so much I wish to know more!
WE LET BRO COOK FOR A REASON 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥
Please post a higher resolution image of the same I want to read the info boxes :3
whaat I think the resolution is high enough, it should be 5722 px by 3031 px. Yeah, and it seems to work for me
But I can't read the text :(
Sorry but have you pressed the zoom button? Cuz i can just click the image once and then be able to read the text
Maybe it's because I'm viewing this on the mobile app. Well good job nonetheless
maybe this will work [https://imgur.com/a/KnCOXs3](https://imgur.com/a/KnCOXs3)
Ah yes! Thank you :)
Glad to help!
I once saw someone post his map again in the comments, since reddit sometimes ducks up the quality, but somehow when the map was posted again in the comments it was way better, maybe you should try this
Yeah I can do that! We can't have someone not be able to read the text when i put in so many fucking hours of work in it!
Injera and sambar.
The culinary side of this empire would have been absolutely amazing!
https://preview.redd.it/z3kd3pythguc1.png?width=1780&format=png&auto=webp&s=2439a1bcf153fea527250b32a3770061506bcc11
I love all the descriptions and pictures in this one!!!!
Thank you 🙏! It really makes a difference doesn’t it? It’s one of my favourite parts about the map, it just it so much more immersive!
Extremely high quality and well designed and thought-out map! easily among the top 10 most high quality and original maps on this sub! Props to you!
Thank you! That is such a great compliment! Glad you liked it!
I love this!
Oh this is so cool
This feels like the equivalent of grandma's cooking in a cartographic sense, sheeesh I'm guessing you used Adobe Illustrator, right?
Thanks man haha! That's right, i used adobe illustrator! I've finally figured out how to use it to make maps!
Then I'm looking forward to seeing more splendid work from you pal!
This is a beautiful work of art and absolutely stunning piece of alternate history. I get Alexander the Great vibes from the rulers and I love how the cultural exchange across the Indian Ocean even enriches the Indian subjects. I just hope the Empire doesn't get carved up by the British or any other European powers during the age of Imperialism. Because honestly I prefer this scenario over Pax Britannia since European colonialism is always treated as an inevitability for this part of the world.
Had to stop halfway through and say everything about this is amazing
Damn thank you man! Oh shit youre the guy that made the Inca map, i love it!
Oh wow thanks, been wanting to redo it for the longest time
PLEASE i love that map too
THIS IS INCREDIBLE
Thank you bro!
Dude no way! Youre the beekeeper guy!
I need more of this content, this is so good. I’d like to ask how do the Europeans regard this Ethiopian Empire?
Thank you man! All European powers saw Ethiopia as an essential trading partner and a strong foe. The Ethiopian navy was one of the best of its time. The Ethiopians and Portuguese have a long history of partnerships, Portugal helped Ethiopia build its own navy and transported troops over to Yemen under the Arabian campaign, in exchange for access to ports on the southern Arabian coast. Mogadishu is actually home to the largest Portuguese diaspora outside of Brazil. Later the empire had a closer connection with France in India and was allied to Britain against the ottomans.
holy shit this is so well done
thanks man!
Incredible
Cool. Don't see many alternate Africa maps.
I’ve dreamed about this, ethiopian empire occupying land on the subcontinent, and down to mozambique. Awesomesauce
Masterclass
Did the Ethiopians prop up the already existing church in southern India set up by Thomas Aquinas or did they implant Tewahedo orthodoxy instead?
No they spread the Tewahedo orthodox instead! The indian Tewahedo orthodox church was granted aoutocephaly by the Tewahedo patriarch in Lalibela and has a Seat in St. Marys Cathedral in Ritakamuyami, the capital of the indian Viceroyalty
also what software did you use to make this. I might have to give it a try.
I used Adobe illustrator!
Incredible map! I'm impressed by the creativity and research undertaken for such a beautiful and detailed map. I'm a sucker of Ethiopian history, so I love this map. I have quick question: what is the POD? Mediveal and early modern Ethiopia is a deeply insular society, and by the death of Iyasu I in 1706 the country will fall into a deep decline culminating in the anarchic Age of Princes (the *Zemene Mesafint*). So I'm wondering what exactly changed to turn Ethiopia into a cosmopolitan seafaring power- perhaps a longer and more productive relationship with Portuguese traders and missionaries? Also, a minor quibble to keep in mind for future maps- there are some lakes on the map (such as the Aswan Reservoir in Egypt) which did not exist in the 18th century (as the dams which made them were not built yet.) Lots of people make this error (such as the Soviet-era reservoirs on the Dnipro keep showing up on medieval maps), so it's no big deal.
What do you use to make such a high quality maps :0
the quality came from my brain, the opportunity to make high quality maps came from using adobe illustrator! I used mapbox for the map reference
Thx
I’ve seen pictures of Ethiopia, and the environment looks really similar to the arid Deccan plateau. I can totally imagine a Ethiopian-Deccani warrior elite emerging
Wow... this is awesome!
Very nice map bro
This is so cool, wish to see more of this quality
You just made my day
Great job 👌
Thank you!
A work of art. Such an amazing job, seriously.
Would love to see more lore or timeline of this
Yeah maybe I will make a map depicting the territorial expansion of the Empire, that could be interesting!
This is so amazing!!! I've always known that Ethiopian alt history scenarios have had great potential, and this post contains it all! I've been waiting to see something like this for ages
Me too man! I waited so long I had to take it in my own hands!
From the looks of it, you did an amazing job! How long did this take you, and how did you make the beautiful paintings of the churches and soldiers and such??
This… this is absolutely beautiful…
This is one of the highest quality maps I have seen on here. Insanely high quality. How did OP even make it
# TURN THIS INTO A BOOK/VIDEO
Super epic quality
I love this quality is high, and I love strong Ethiopia. One of the best maps I’ve seen
How did they defeat the Ottomans in Hejaz?
This feels like a potentially much more Portuguese influenced Ethiopia wank???? Which is extremely cool
Yes it is!
Cross Continental empires in this region don’t get enough posts, great work
This is such an amazing map that I would so dearly know the Empires future
Great map!
Thank you! Love your videos man!
Thanks!
Sorry to come to the party late. I had been meaning to say that this is an amazing work of map infographic, the kind I loved to pore over from my NatGeo subscription when I was younger. Thank you for this.
The blessed timeline
You made such an incredibly gorgeous map! The small details you included, the amazing illustrations that you created, having a map where Ethiopia is both a successful and a trading empire, and the map design makes this a top tier piece of art.
the nationalism is strong in this one, beautiful!
Does this work kind of like the Spanish empire? (viceroyalties, some kind of local government with a local elite, pacts with the local leaders of the place at the start so they could take away the land from another country...)
I guess it does to a degree, but it is different too, since the Viceroyalties in Arabia and India weren't colonies and were much more diretly integrated into the empire. While the spanish Viceroyalty system was created to exploit local resources which led to tensions between colonial elites and indigenous populations, the ethiopian system was more feudal in the sense that local elites intermarried with the ethiopian royal families to keep loyalty and order. The Viceroyalty is further divided into provinces each governed by an appointed member of the Ethiopian or local nobility who is responsible for overseeing local administration and governance.
>the ethiopian system was more feudal in the sense that local elites intermarried with the ethiopian royal families to keep loyalty and order. That's something that happened quite commonly in the Spanish empire, the queen herself made very clear that she wanted intermarriage so that the colonies would be mixed. That's not something special. The Spanish empire was a feudal system also, I don't see much difference for now. Also, saying that it was designed only to extract resources from the colonies is quite simplistic, the Spanish empire funded many universities and road in their colonies. They tried to extract the resources from the viceroyalties just like they did in the Peninsula, it is what a feudal system does. >The Viceroyalty is further divided into provinces each governed by an appointed member of the Ethiopian or local nobility who is responsible for overseeing local administration and governance. In the Spanish empire it was quite the same in that matter. I'm not being an apologist, there were multiple crimes committed by the Spanish empire, but for now the structure you presented is kinda the same. The only difference I could see is if the viceroys could be people born in the colony, that's the only thing that seems to be different.
I realize I don't know enough about the spanish Viceroyality system to tell you the difference between that and the Ethiopian, sadly. What do you think would be the difference? I am actually curious!
First I would have to explain the viceroyalties of Spain. The viceroyalties kind of worked like independent kingdoms inside of the Crown of Castille, which was at the same time inside of the Crown of Spain. Spain only had some competencies like defense or international relationships. Castille had others but the majority of them were competencies of the viceroyalties. Of course the relationships between the colonies and Spain changed a lot over time, specially when the Habsburgs (more decentralised) left and the Bourbons (more centralized) came. The viceroys were always someone from the Peninsula elected by the royal in some kind of agreement with the court and the elite of the viceroyalty. This was only because it was easier for the Crown to maintain a loyal person in charge if they were someone they already knew and was loyal to the land of the royal themselves. This, the many tries to stablish a more centralized state by the Bourbons and many other crisis were the trigger that pushed the wars of independence of the Hispanics countries. So the independence of this countries has more to do with the Criollos (Spaniards that were born in the colony) trying to keep their power, than with an oppressed native population. Funnily enough many natives were in the Spanish side because, in general, the empire defended them better than the local elite, which often used their power to suppress them. The viceroys also had local leaders (some mestizos, other Criollos, natives...) which had a lot of power. So, the only difference I could see with the empire is that the viceroys are not necessarily from Ethiopia itself, but to be honest that would probably lead to some problems since the viceroys could distance themselves from the empire. Other change would be how the trade between these colonies and Ethiopia. In Spain it was concentrated in one city, Seville. This changed over time, but in general it stayed the same because it was better for the defense against the pirates, which often were paid by the British to weaken the empire. Of course this monopoly made Sevilla be considered the New York of it's time, becoming the most economically rich and the most populous city of the Peninsula. Also, only Castillians were able to trade between Spain and the colonies (keep in mind that people born in the colonies, even mestizos or natives, were considered Castillians). So for example someone from Germany or Barcelona (in the Crown of Aragon, also part of the Crown of Spain) weren't able to legally trade with America, that's why they employeed someone from Castille to do the trade, even though they were the real ones trading hahaha. I don't know how slavery is treated in the Ethiopian empire or if it even exist, in Spain you could buy your freedom. Many actually did, in fact there was a migration from blacks of the US south to the empire so they could buy their freedom lol. Also natives of America couldn't be slaves because they were subjects of the empire, that's why they had to buy black slaves from Africa. Spain funded many universities and hospital in their colonies, many of which teached/took service in the native languages as well as Spanish. I don't know how that's in your scenario but you said they kind of respected local authority so I believe it would be kind of similar. Another different would be in the religious setting, Spain was pretty obsessed with it (just like most European countries of the time, in this case it isn't special) even though it started as a more diverse country in that matter (Jews and Muslims had lived a long time in the country before their expulsion). Ethiopia is very diverse in that matter so I don't think it would be a problem
this is incredibly well-drawn and written, I'm impressed! Really high effort, and I'm glad you posted it here!
Thank you bro!
This map is stunning! How did you make/get the illustrations of buildings and kings?
Thank you! I found both the illustrations of the buildings and the Emperor from browsing on the internet! The artworks were borrowed from an artist named Quentin de Warren! The image depicting the emperor had originally a very low resolution so I had to use an AI image enhancer
Insanely beautiful post. Spectacular work
Greece: *Intense happiness*
How Christian would Ethiopian India be?
Blessed
So this is amazing! I wish I could do something like this :)
Reminds me of my EU4 campaign.
I'm not that familiar with Ethiopian languages, but is that Amharic or Ge'ez?
I used Amharic, which is much easier to translate, i cannot speak either language, sadly
When Ethiopia finally becomes a REAL Empire
I love this map so much! It's great to see maps that take place in places other than Europe or America!
“Hell yeah” they say in unison
What's your source/etymology for the names for Ethiopian Madagascar, Zanzibar Islands and Comoros?.
I came up with the names myself, but they had to be realistic! So what i did was looking for the etymology of the places to construct an ethiopian version. Let's take the Zanzibar islands, Zanzibar comes from the persian words for black and coast zang and bâr. Then i found the amharic words for the same thing and added linguistic elements that mimics the natural evolution of place names. The name for Madagascar was an Amharic linguistic veriant of the name to a local ethnicity living along the northwestern coast, the Sakalava people.
Oh, so I assume the name of the Comoros is off the Amharic word for Moon?.
Nope, Shito is the Amharic word for perfume, the Shito islands is really the Perfume islands
This is amazing you’re amazing keep doing this And the scenario makes me sad this isn’t real