What if the true origins of World War I lay not in Sarajevo—but in Ethiopia?

In this revelatory edition of Ethiopia: The Railway, the Powers, and the Start of the First World War, Thomas Lennox Gilmour chronicles how Ethiopia’s railway project, launched by Emperor Menelik II, became a flashpoint for European imperial rivalry. This pivotal work, originally published in 1906, is reintroduced with new scholarship by Elias Wondimu, situating Ethiopia not as a passive observer of history, but as a sovereign power navigating the storm of colonial ambitions.

The Ethiopia–Djibouti railway, far more than a transportation route, was a bold act of sovereignty that threatened the imperial calculus of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. From the 1896 Battle of Adwa—where Ethiopia defeated Italy—to the diplomatic maneuvers surrounding the Entente Cordiale and the 1906 Tripartite Treaty, this book exposes how Ethiopia became the “first arena” of the geopolitical realignments that set the stage for global war.

Through newly annotated treaties, maps, and archival documents, Gilmour’s narrative comes to life in this definitive edition. Elias Wondimu’s detailed introduction explores how Emperor Menelik II, Lij Iyasu, and Ras Teferi (later Haile Selassie) navigated a world of shifting alliances, with Ethiopia serving as both a beacon of resistance and a battleground of foreign agendas.

This edition restores a critical historical perspective—one that places Africa at the heart of twentieth-century history and challenges Eurocentric accounts of the First World War.

Contents:

• Acknowledgments
   

• Preface by Elias Wondimu
   

• Introductionby Elias Wondimu

• – Ethiopia: The Railway, the Powers, and the Start of the First World War
   

• Afterword by Gregory Copley
   

• Original 1906 Edition by Thomas Lennox Gilmour:
   

  • Preface
     

  • Chapters I–VII
     

Appendices I–X: Including Menelik II's railway concession, key treaties, and diplomatic letters

This amazing book by Thomas Lennox Gilmour on Ethiopia during the eve of the First World War has been aptly introduced and annotated by Elias Wondimu, who is now a household name in publishing books on Ethiopian History and Culture. 

Here we find a highly thorough yet refreshingly concise examination of the follies and failures of the Triple Entente in the years leading to the Great War. The true beauty of this book is its many characters, competing storylines and the complexity of the stories told. If Ethiopian history is an interest, this book is not only a recommended read, but a required one.

Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate, PhD., Biographer of H.I.M. Haile-Selassie I.

"Incidents shaping global history often suffer from selective application of narratives, with the mighty unilaterally enjoying the privilege to dictate proceedings. Root causes or actual reasons often are relegated to secondary considerations. Historical accounts are amongst those suffering from such beauty contest of sorts.   

Locating Ethiopia at the center of geopolitical contestation ultimately leading to the First World War might give the impression of stretching the imagination. But the dramatic contestations between the colonial powers to dominate the strategic Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway line, as is aptly outlined in this book, urges us to seek for concrete explanations outside the existing historical accounts. Territorial Europe could be the battle ground. But objective reasons leading to the devastating wars need be found elsewhere. Gilmour’s  account of global rivalry in late 19th Ethiopia ultimately precipitating WWI lends a unique perspective to the way we perceive and understand past developments. Given recent altercations involving regional and global powers in the Horn in general and Ethiopia in particular, one cannot help but surmise history repeating itself."

Belete Belachew Yihun, Ph.D., Author of Black Ethiopia

Thomas Lennox Gilmour (1859–1936) was a British journalist, historian, and political observer who served as Private Secretary to Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery—a former British Prime Minister (1894–1895), Foreign Secretary, and leading figure in Liberal imperialist politics. Gilmour’s proximity to high-level diplomatic affairs and imperial policy gave him unique insight into the geopolitical rivalries of his time.

As an astute analyst of African-European relations, Gilmour traveled extensively and closely followed Ethiopia’s emergence as a sovereign African power during the colonial scramble. His firsthand documentation of Ethiopia’s political and diplomatic landscape, particularly its railway ambitions under Emperor Menelik II, culminated in Abyssinia: The Ethiopian Railway and the Powers, first published in 1906. This rare and revealing account—now republished as Ethiopia: The Railway, the Powers, and the Start of the First World War—a critical historical source for understanding the imperial entanglements that reshaped Africa and helped precipitate the First World War.