East African Empires

The Kingdom of Aksum was a trading nation in the area of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea that existed from approximately 100 to 940 CE.

From the Middle Ages until when Europeans colonized the territory of today's Somalia, the region was never dominated by a centralized empire, and instead witnessed the development and decline of several powerful trading sultanates whose cultures were deeply rooted in Islam.

Following the ancient kingdom of D'mt and the medieval empire of Aksum, some of current Ethiopia's territory was dominated by the Christian Ethiopian Empire established by the Zagwe dynasty in the 12th century, and later ruled by the Solomonic dynasty until the 20th century.