Thailand and Ethiopia holding off European colonialism

In the late 19th century all of both South East Asia and Africa were conquered or set up and influenced by european powers except Thailand and Ethiopia. In SE Asia Thailand was completely surrounded by British, French, and Dutch colonies while in Africa, Ethiopia was surrounded by British, French, and Italian colonies. With the exception of Liberia (set up by an outside power) the Thai and Ethiopians were the only ones to stave off European colonialism in their respective regions until WW2. Which hold out was more impressive?

(whispers) They never got Ethiopia...

(whispers) They never got Thailand...

I'll go for Ethiopia because the colonies let Thailand exist as a buffer state between French and British colonies

I will vote for the Reches AKA mapuches, they fought almost 300 hundred years against the Spanish conquistadors and won... kind of, at least the Spaniards didn't get the Araucania and Patagonia.

I'm going to say Ethiopia, because they were a badass Empire in their own right (at least until the communist), and they've been in the game since the days of the Aksum Empire in 100 CE.

Show me a history of a country that resisted colonialism by European powers better than that. Don't worry, I'll wait

Tibet was never conquered.

Technically, China and Japan were never colonized (at least not completely) either

If including them, I would say Japan did the best at avoiding European colonialism, because they ended up becoming a colonizing power as well

I would say Ethiopia. Siam itself had 1/3 of it's territory taken away and was controlled by the French, British and later Japanese though I think both should be disqualified for getting rid of their respective cool animals off their flags. The lion was especially cool =/

Ethiopia, because their growth as an empire was happening at the same time as the Scramble for Africa. The fact they defeated Italy and made deals of borders and peace with Britain and France to secure their independence is very impressive. Thailand ultimately had to cede several territories to the British and French and overall got lucky.

Malotun wrote:I will vote for the Reches AKA mapuches, they fought almost 300 hundred years against the Spanish conquistadors and won... kind of, at least the Spaniards didn't get the Araucania and Patagonia.

But they lost, and they are still getting colonized.

They lost against Chile and Argentina... with Spain we can call it a draw haha


PS: Considering that... Ethiopia really deserve the vote, since they still exist as a sovereign nation

Malotun wrote:They lost against Chile and Argentina... with Spain we can call it a draw haha


PS: Considering that... Ethiopia really deserve the vote, since they still exist as a sovereign nation

True, i also voted for Ethiopia since they managed to beat Italy. But i would have voted for Afghanistan, since they managed to beat both Russia and the UK.