Ethiopia officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country situated in the Horn of Africa. It is the third-most populous nation in Africa, bordered by Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the southeast, Kenya to the south, and Sudan to the west. Ethiopia is the only country in Africa with an unbroken sovereignty and is one of the oldest continuous nations in the world. Recently being regarded as "the cradle of civilization", Ethiopia is also the second-oldest official Christian nation in the world after Armenia. It has long been an intersection between the civilizations of North Africa, the Middle East and the rest of Africa. Unique among native-founded (unlike Liberia) African countries, Ethiopia was never colonised, maintaining its sovereignty throughout the Scramble for Africa. In addition, Ethiopia has long been a member of international organisations: it became a member of the League of Nations, signed the Declaration by United Nations in 1942, founded the UN headquarters in Africa, was one of the fifty-one original members of the United Nations, and is the headquarters for and the main founder of the former Organisation of African Unity and current African Union.-----------------------Ethiopia was also historically called Abyssinia, derived from the Arabic form of the Ethiosemitic name "?BST," modern Habesha. In some countries, Ethiopia is still called by names cognate with "Abyssinia," e.g. Turkish Habesistan and Arabic Al Habesh, meaning land of the Habesha people. The English name "Ethiopia" is thought to be derived from the Greek word ?????p?a Aithiopia, from ?????? Aithiops ‘an Ethiopian’, derived from Greek terms meaning "of burnt (a??-) visage (??)". However, this etymology is disputed, since the Book of Aksum, a Ge'ez chronicle first composed in the 15th century, states that the name is derived from "'Ityopp'is", a son (unmentioned in the Bible) of Cush, son of Ham who according to legend founded the city of Axum.---------------------------------The 1880s were marked by the Scramble for Africa and modernization in Ethiopia, when the Italians began to vie with the British for influence in bordering regions. Assab, a port near the southern entrance of the Red Sea, was bought from the local Afar sultan, vassal to the Ethiopian Emperor, in March 1870 by an Italian company, which by 1890 led to the Italian colony of Eritrea. Conflicts between the two countries resulted in the Battle of Adowa in 1896, whereby the Ethiopians surprised the world by defeating the colonial power and remaining independent, under the rule of Menelik II. Italy and Ethiopia signed a provisional treaty of peace on October 26, 1896.---------------------The early twentieth century was marked by the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I, who undertook the rapid modernization of Ethiopia — interrupted only by the brief Italian occupation (1936–1941). British and patriot Ethiopian troops liberated the Ethiopian homeland in 1941, which was followed by sovereignty on January 31, 1941 and British recognition of full sovereignty (i.e. without any special British privileges) with the signing of the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement in December 1944.-------------------------------------In 1962, Haile Selassie's government annexed Eritrea, a state that had already been federated with the Ethiopian Crown; this act led to the Eritrean War of Independence. Furthermore, Ethiopia suffered from various economic issues that led to the 1972-74 drought in Wallo killing 200,000 Ethiopians. Although Haile Selassie was seen as a national and African hero, opinion turned against him as nobility filled their pockets while millions of landless peasants went hungry. In 1974 students, workers, peasants and the army rose against him. [23] Haile Selassie's reign came to an end in 1974, mostly due to economic hardship, when a pro-Soviet Marxist-Leninist military junta, the "Derg" led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, deposed him and established a one-party communist state. Haile Selassie was imprisoned and probably tortured to death by the junta, who were demanding that he would turn over the Ethiopia's 25-million-dollar deposits in Switzerland to the junta. The ensuing regime suffered several coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and a massive refugee problem. In 1977 Somalia attacked Ethiopia, sparking the Ogaden War, but Ethiopia quickly defeated them with a massive influx of Soviet military hardware and a Cuban military presence coupled with East Germany and South Yemen the following year. Mengistu Haile Mariam was responsible for the 7th worst democide in world history. Around 1,500,000 Ethiopians were the victims of the Derg genocide. Mengistu resides in Zimbabwe, despite attempts by Ethiopia to extradite him to face trial by the current Ethiopian authorities. 106 officials were accused, but only 36 of them were present in the court. Several former members of the Derg have been sentenced to death in absentia. The trial began in 1994 and ended in 2006. Mengistu Haile Mariam was tried in absentia and convicted for crimes (genocide) committed by his Marxist government from 1974 to 1991, the period called “Red Terror", when many thousands were cruelly killed. Mugabe refused to extradite Mengistu.-------------------------From 1975-1978, Mengistu Haile Mariam's Red Terror and massive relocation project led to the democide of 1,500,000 Ethiopians. In spite of accruing one of the largest armies in Africa due to military assistance from Communist Bloc countries, an unending insurgency in the then provinces of Eritrea and Tigray, a major drought in 1985 and regime changes in the former Communist Bloc culminated in the Derg regime being defeated in 1991 by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) in the far north, and elsewhere by the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a loose coalition of rebel forces mainly dominated by the Tigrean People's Liberation Front.-------------------------In 1993, following a referendum, the annexed province of Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia, ending more than thirty years of armed conflict, one of the longest in Africa. In 1994, a constitution was adopted that led to Ethiopia's first multiparty elections in the following year. In May 1998, a dispute over the undemarcated border with Eritrea led to the Eritrean-Ethiopian War that lasted until June 2000. This has hurt the nation's economy, but strengthened the ruling coalition. On May 15, 2005, Ethiopia held another multiparty election, and resulted in the EPRDF's disputed return to power.