Pragmatic Empire: Ethiopian Administration of the Ogaden Region Under Emperor Menelik II

Amidst the Scramble for Africa, Ethiopia was the one African state to avoid direct Colonialism until 1935. Ethiopia was successful, in part, because it developed its own colonial system to buffer European expansion. While much scholarship has explored how Ethiopia administered its lush lowland territories through commercializing natural resources, this thesis attempts instead to analyze the governance of the arid Ogaden region. Given the nomadic region’s ungovernable nature, this thesis amends existing historiographical approaches to Imperial Ethiopia to argue that the three primary actors in the region — Ethiopia, the United Kingdom, and the indigenous Somali clans — cooperated to regulate the Ogaden. The three parties’ pragmatic approach to trading, raiding, and diplomacy led them to establish administrative structures specific to the political situation of the nomadic territory. First-hand accounts from diplomats and soldiers on the ground show how the actors were able to create a favorable environment for commerce. This exceptional scenario in African colonial history challenges prevailing interpretations of Ethiopian Colonialism and provides insights into how Emperor Menelik II managed nomadic populations in the periphery.