Empress Taytu Betul

Taytu Betul was born around 1851 into an aristocratic family of Semien and Begemder. Married to King Menelik of Shewa in 1883, she was crowned Empress of Ethiopia upon his accession in 1889, exercising immense diplomatic and strategic authority.

In 1886, attracted by the thermal springs of Finfinne, Taytu founded the new settlement and gave it the Amharic name Addis Ababa ('New Flower'). A fierce opponent of European colonialism, she unmasked Italian deception in the Treaty of Wuchale, famously declaring: 'I am a woman. I do not like war. But I would rather die than accept your treaty.' At the Siege of Mekelle, she devised the strategy of cutting off the Italian garrison's water supply, forcing their surrender, and led her own wing of 5,000 troops at Adwa.