Despite historical internal problems, Ethiopia used to be great country. Regardless of expansion or contraction, regardless of ups and downs, Abyssinia/Ethiopia used to be inspiration for oppressed black people around the world. Even Europeans had a little bit of respect for Ethiopians compared with other black people around the world, to the extent they thought that Ethiopians were not black, in their eyes Ethiopians used to be equivalent to Indians or Asians in terms of civilization.
Even animal breeds named after our country, for example Abyssinian cats breed are the most expensive, Abyssinian guinea pigs, Abyssinian horse, etc. African people used to claim that they originated from Ethiopia, for example Fulani people spread around west Africa, Tutsi people in east Africa, Jamaicans, etc. used to feel proud of Ethiopia. I just watched a program called daily politics on BBC, the discussion was about the history of flags, out of hundreds of flags they chose few flags to talk about, our [green yellow red] flag was the topic of conversation that inspired African countries as the symbol of freedom and many countries duplicated our flag, Eg, Cameroon, Mali, Ghana, Senegal, Guinea, etc