Ethiopian Empire - Aksumite Ethiopia

Aksumite Ethiopia

By the 400s BC, the Kingdom of Axum was established on the Red Sea coast and made itself known as a seafaring people active in the spice trade to India. They became known to the Romans no later than the 30s BC when Augustus conquered Egypt, and it is believed by then the square-rigged Axumite galleys were disdaining the long slow coastal trade route and riding the monsoon winds to and from India, moreover, having established trading with Rome for goods from inland Africa, the Ethiopians passed the trick on to Roman traders, and probably carried some of their cargoes for hire. The sea route also connected with the Silk Road through northern India, so the Axumites also aided Rome in obtaining Chinese silk, and by the third century Rome had established trade entrepots in India and the sea route carried virtually all the eastern trade to the consternation of Roman statesmen who decried the flow of bullion out of Rome. Around 300 AD Axum both became Christian, and conquered the neighboring ancient kingdom of Kush. References to that time thereafter began referring to them as an Empire, and they themselves were by then using "Ethiopia" in correspondence. The kingdom spread south and westwards into Africa as well as onto the Arabian peninsula over the next few centuries, and generally flourished trading with both the Western Roman Empire or the barbarians who supplanted it and the Byzantine Empire until the Muslim conquest of Egypt ca 640 AD cut the Empire off from European markets. Indications are the Empire turned inland, locating its capital for example further west and expanding its territory in the uplands both to the south and west. References to "Ethiopia" and "Ethopian Christians" are sprinkled through European and Byzantine documents throughout the Early and High Middle Ages, but gradually dwindle, indicating there was some contact over the ensuing centuries after the Muslim conquest, but in general, the Empire went into a slow declining spiral but endured until the last Axumite king was killed by the mysterious Queen Gudit around 960.