Growth of the Axum Kingdom
The ancient kingdom of Ethiopia was named after its capital city, Axum. There is little known about the early history of Axum, however, from Greek and Roman sources, we know that the Axum Kingdom was a rapid growing kingdom in the first century CE. The main city, Adulis, at the time was a very important port. The dominance of the Kingdom of Axum can be credited to the control of the Kushite trade routes. This control was influential over the entire region of northeast Africa. Once the kingdom of Kushite fell, Adulis, the capital city, was able to take control of these trade routes. By approximately 300CE, most of the goods coming into and out of northern Africa were coming out of the Kingdom of Axum. There is archaeological and historical evidence that the kingdom of Axum had very extensive international trade with many empires including the Roman Empire, South Arabia, Nubia, Somalia and India. Some imports included iron, precious metals, glass, fabrics, sugar cane vegetable oil and spices. The exports included live slaves, African raw materials, live animals and rhinoceros horn.
The Axum Empire was able to mine its own money which included fine gold coins. Axum was also a beautiful city, with large stone buildings and beautiful stone towers built as tall as 31m. The purpose of these large stone towers remains a mystery. In the middle of the fourth century, King Ezana converted to Christianity and declared Ethiopia a Christian state, the first Christian state in the world. This conversion influenced Ethiopian history into the twentieth century. Axum remained a very strong and prosperous kingdom until the seventh century with the rise of Islam. The people of Axum continued to have a friendly relationship with the Muslim people until approximately the eight century. The Muslims destroyed the main port city Adulis; which closed off the Mediterranean Sea trade routes and was starting to cripple the North African trade routes. Once Axum lost its prosperous trade routes, the kingdom started to decline slowly until the Amhara Ethiopians, who believed that they were descendants of King Soloman and the old Axumite line of kings, took over the land in approximately the twelfth century.
The Axum Empire was able to mine its own money which included fine gold coins. Axum was also a beautiful city, with large stone buildings and beautiful stone towers built as tall as 31m. The purpose of these large stone towers remains a mystery. In the middle of the fourth century, King Ezana converted to Christianity and declared Ethiopia a Christian state, the first Christian state in the world. This conversion influenced Ethiopian history into the twentieth century. Axum remained a very strong and prosperous kingdom until the seventh century with the rise of Islam. The people of Axum continued to have a friendly relationship with the Muslim people until approximately the eight century. The Muslims destroyed the main port city Adulis; which closed off the Mediterranean Sea trade routes and was starting to cripple the North African trade routes. Once Axum lost its prosperous trade routes, the kingdom started to decline slowly until the Amhara Ethiopians, who believed that they were descendants of King Soloman and the old Axumite line of kings, took over the land in approximately the twelfth century.