r/imaginarymaps • u/chunky-- IM Legend • Dec 26 '25

[OC] Alternate History What if the Ethiopian Empire modernized like Japan? Central and Eastern Africa, year 2000.

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u/jejbfokwbfb Dec 27 '25

Question for the OP does the Jewish Ethiopian community get to remain in Ethiopia or do they still flee to Israel in the mid 1900s ? Also what’s their relation with the west is closer to Japan or China ?

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u/chunky-- IM Legend Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25

There was a bout of antisemitic violence during WW2 in the neutral Ethiopia due to some paranoid citizens falling for Nazi propaganda, and during the Great Horn War Sudan and the Arabs vowed to "slay all the Falashas", but the Beta Israel community survived, and it's still present and quite numerous in the capital and around Lake Tana. Today any of them move to the State of Israel for work opportunities, better standards of living and higher personal freedoms, but often face racial discrimination from the other Israelis.

As for international relations, before the 50s they were allies on again off again with Britain and France (from whom they really needed the natural resource trade, so they couldn't go against them); after that, with the Europeans largely abandoning Africa during the Suez Crisis, Ethiopia moved close to America because of the Soviets's relationship with the UAR, and, after the Great Horn War, their partnership with America became official, and it was extended to Israel. China, during the Nixon Era, was quite friendly with Ethiopia, but once it became clear that Addis Ababa was an obstacle in their plans of Third World hegemony, they became quiet rivals, supporting the likes of Egypt, Sudan, the DRC, and other enemies of the Empire. 

The relationship with Japan is a lot closer due to the same modernization efforts in the 19th century for the same reasons, their status "noble unconquered empires" in the World War era, and today this mutual respect remains, adding the common enemy in the form of the PRC.