Ethiopia benefited from being in a junction between colonial powers that led to competing powers preventing eachother from gaining hegemony in the region, lest the others lose out on the ability to meet their goals.

The Horn of Africa had European interests encroaching in the latter half of the 19th Century (see the British expedition to overthrow Emperor Tewodros II), but it became strategically important with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, drawing more serious involvement. The French made treaties with Afar tribes in what is now modern Djibouti, the British established a similar colony to the east in British Somaliland, and the newly created Kingdom of Italy would establish a colony in Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.

As the Scramble for Africa took shape, each of these colonial powers ended up with mutually exclusive aims across the Horn of Africa. For France, they wanted a colonial domain spanning coast to coast across the Sahel, and Ethiopia stood in the way of connecting French Somaliland to their possessions in central Africa. Britain's aims, on the other hand, were on the north-south Axis and could be exemplified through the Cape to Cairo railway project - a project that hoped to provide a continuous railway connection from Cape Town to Cairo, ostensibly through British colonies. Italy, on the other hand had comparatively modest aims - they wanted to unite their possessions in Eritrea and Italian Somaliland into a single contiguous colony.

At first, Italy appeared to be the most successful at meeting their aims. They had been supporting a king in northern Ethiopia for some time with modern weapons, and when he rose to become Emperor Menelik, they had signed the Treaty of Wuchale with him. The 1889 treaty was ostensibly to clearly delineate the borders between Menelik's empire and Italy's Eritrea, but in reality it was intended to turn Ethiopia into a colony. The treaty's language differed in the Amharic (Ethiopian) and Italian versions, with the Italian version including a clause that declared that Italy was to handle all of Ethiopia's foreign relations. This ruse only lasted until Menelik was informed by the British of the clause when he attempted to initiate formal diplomatic relations, and this was quickly followed by Menelik asserting his independence. Thus began the Italo-Ethiopian War.

At this point, several things were going on behind the scenes in Ethiopia's favor. Italy was a member of the Triple Alliance, which put them very much at odds with the French and Russians. The French, already dealing with competing colonial claims, were looking for every opportunity to undermine the Triple Alliance. The Russians, on the other hand, lacked the colonial claims, but had been using their claim to being "protector of Orthodox Christians" to exert their influence abroad for some time, particularly in the Balkans in opposition to the Turks and Habsburgs. Ethiopia, being an Orthodox Christian state, offered yet another unique opportunity to uphold the title of protector of the faith and undermine a member of the opposing alliance. Oddly enough, Britain would pull in on the side of the Italians. Their colonial aims had largely been met by the 1890s, and Italian irredentist claims in South Tirol and the Adriatic coast that conflicted with Austria-Hungary offered the potential of undermining the Triple Alliance. To keep these options open and avoid alienating the Italians, they quietly supported Italy's claims to Ethiopia.

Unfortunately for Italy, Menelik's army was in far better shape than they had expected. Already bolstered by years of Italian support, Menelik would receive a huge amount of support from Russia in the form of military advisors and tens of thousands of modern rifles - not just black-powder Berdans, but even modern (for the time) Mosin-Nagants. France, while not providing the same materiel support, could provide unobstructed sea access through their colony in French Somaliland. With much of the Italian contingent still using black-powder Vetterlis, that meant the Italians weren't just outnumbered, but they had a serious danger of being outgunned. Ultimately, the war was ended in the decisive battle at Adwa, where the Italian army was crushed by Menelik. A new treaty was made, this time clearly asserting Ethiopia's independence and demarcating borders - not just with Eritrea, but in the sparsely populated east as well, giving Menelik control over the Somali-dominated Ogaden region. Britain and Italy would attempt to continue asserting their influence on Ethiopia by cutting off access to the sea, but a friendly France would build a railway from Djibouti to Addis Ababa, undermining the Italo-British attempt to isolate Ethiopia and cementing Ethiopia's independence.