He is known for coordinating his Shewa Oromo army with the central army of Menelik II, who later became Ethiopian Emperor, to incorporate more lands into the Ethiopian Empire in the late 19th century.
As ambassador to Ethiopian emperor Menelik II, Lagarde built-up French presence in the Horn of Africa to protect the colony from British domination, which was slowly expanding from Egypt.
Menelik II | Menelik I |
After his release from Maqdala, Ras Welle Betul, who was the brother of Menelik's wife Empress Taytu Betul, went to Shewa to visit Menelik II whom he knew while in prison in Maqdala under Emperor Tewodros II.
According to Oscar Rudolph Neumann, who visited the town in 1902, Gidole was the seat of the queen of the Dirashe until the Ethiopians under Menelik II conquered them; the woman was still alive at the time of Neumann's visit.
Woizero Zenebework was the wife of Wossen Seged, Meridazmach of Shewa; the mother of Negus Sahle Selassie, the first Negus of Shewa; the grandmother of Negus Haile Melekot of Shewa; and the great-grandmother of Emperor Menelik II.
That same year, Emperor Menelik II established a primary school in Harar.