Tewodros II Debates Haile Selassie | One Wrote to Europe, One Went in Person

In 1862 Emperor Tewodros II wrote to Queen Victoria asking for her friendship and for men who knew how to build. The letter reached London and was filed. No one wrote back. Seventy-four years later another Ethiopian emperor decided not to write. Haile Selassie travelled to Geneva, stood in front of the assembled nations of the world, and said it to their faces. They applauded him. Then they did nothing. One wrote. One went in person. The silence was the same. This is a reconstructed dialogue between two emperors who never met, a century apart, who each tried to carry Ethiopia into a world that would not answer them, and who were each undone by it. They argue about force and patience, about what a ruler owes the men who serve him, about betrayal, and about the moment each of them got it wrong. Their words here are written from what they left behind: Tewodros's letters, Haile Selassie's speeches and his own memoir. It is not a transcript of a meeting that happened. Neither man is placed below the other, and no verdict is given. CHAPTERS 0:00 When the world will not answer 4:50 The hardest part 6:06 Can an emperor have a true friend? 7:18 Responding to betrayal 8:53 When you were wrong (Tewodros) 9:53 When you were wrong (Haile Selassie) 10:37 Tewodros as Haile Selassie's adviser 11:27 Haile Selassie learning from Tewodros SOURCES & APPROACH Drawn from the standard histories of nineteenth and twentieth century Ethiopia. Every date and figure in this episode was checked before release, and anything that could not be stood up was cut rather than asserted. Highland Chronicles tells the story of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa as what it is: a great, ancient and enduring civilization. New episodes weekly, plus Shorts. Subscribe for more Ethiopian history: https://www.youtube.com/@highlandchro... #EthiopianHistory #Tewodros #HaileSelassie