The arrival in Ethiopia of the Portuguese diplomatic mission, in 1520, and the publication, in 1540, of Alvares’s report on it, represented an important development. It vastly expanded European knowledge of the country, and led to its steady demystification. European interest in the diversion of the Nile accordingly began to wane. Speculation tended thereafter to focus more on Ethiopia’s military might, which Alvarez had witnessed, than on the country’s reputed control over the river. European belief in Ethiopia’s supposed ability…

Ethiopia and Egypt, linked, but also divided, by the Nile, were in contact since the dawn of history. They were mutually inter-dependent. Egypt’s prosperity depended on Nile water – and silt – from Ethiopia. This occurred, most conveniently for agriculture, in the summer. Christian Ethiopia depended on the Coptic Church of Egypt, whence the Ethiopian Abun, or Patriarch, was selected. Egypt was thus dependent on Ethiopia for its material existence; Ethiopia, on Egypt, for its spiritual. This mutual dependency was,…