Thread by @dbeniam

Everything you know about the Amhara people is probably wrong. So buckle up, cause this is going to be one thrilling ride!
The “Amhara” are an incredibly mysterious people with multiple layers of complex historical identities. Chances are, you know the 1991 version of Amhara

but not the historical one. To Start off, take a look at these three maps. 1935 Haile Selassie, 1981 Derg and 1992 EPRDF.

You quickly notice that there are NO regions called Amhara...nor Oromo, Afar, Somali...except those CREATED in 1991. The reason, believe it or not, is that almost each and every one of the provinces in today's “Amhara” were NOT Amhara but actually separate Kingdom.

Please study this map made in 1771 and see all the Kingdoms that make up Abyssinia. So what about Amhara? Amhara was a small Kingdom you can actually find on this map, right under Begemeder and above Shoa.

In fact the first Portuguese mission in the 16th century to establish an embassy actually wrote down the names of all the Kingdoms in Abyssinia. This is what they said about Amhara and how many provinces it had

So is Ethiopia an Evil AMHARA Empire? Well, if your history teachers were guerrilla fighters who lived in the jungle, reading communist manifestos, you might think so...But if you read any number of history books you would know there was no ethnic “AMHARA” empire.

In fact study this, how the Kings of Ethiopia presented their titles,
1. ALL of present day Ethiopia is named,
2. Amhara is ONE of the MANY Kingdoms of Abyssinia.
3. UNIQUE structure of the Ethiopian Empire, a Kingdom founded by the Sabaens there is no dominant Ethnic Group.

What we call Ethiopia today was neither born Christian nor Muslim, neither Amhara, nor Tigray, nor Oromo...It was a JEWISH ISRAELI KING and a star worshiping SABAEAN QUEEN who brought forth Ethiopia's first King: Menelik. At some point we were ALL included into the Kingdom.

So why do the Gondeners, Gojjams, Shoa etc call themselves Amhara? Two very surprising reasons.
First is Language. Because after the fall of the Axum dynasty the Kings took refugee in Amhara mixing Royal blood with Amhara.

This is how the Amharic language began to spread since it became the language of the court. But more importantly, Amhara became synonymous with Christian.
Johnston, Charles, 1810-1872 in "Travels in southern Abyssinia, through the country of Adal to the kingdom of Shoa" writes

And some mind blowing information, for a time, even some Oromo’s were called “Shoan-Amhara”.

Siegfried Pausewang writes in the "THE TWO-FACED AMHARA IDENTITY" even people in Sidamo were called Amhara

Better yet, even foreigners were called Amhara!
"British mission to Theodore, King of Abyssinia" volume II, page 270-271 by Hormuzd Rassam publication 1869

Amhara appeared on a few British maps in the 19th century, still in the book "With the mission to Menelik", 1897 Edward Gleichen, not only makes a distinction between Amhara and other Kingdoms traditionally recognized as Amhara but also recognizes King Menelik II as only SHOAN!

"Ethiopia, a country study" by Harold and Irving in 1980 came to these incredible conclusions

The ancient Amhara Kingdom is obviously no more, but its language, culture and people have been absorbed into Ethiopia. Open your eyes and see that the CURRENT "Amhara" and "Oromo" construct are not sanctioned by history but simply a tool to divide and conquer.