This chapter argues that the gradual politicisation of Ethiopia’s multilingualism in the early twentieth century should be understood in relation to Ethiopia’s subordinate position within the international system of nation-states. Preoccupied with buttressing Ethiopia’s claim to sovereignty against colonial encroachment, Emperor Mǝnilǝk attempted to strengthen the powers of the central government against the Orthodox Church, peripheral leaders, and the expanding presence of foreign missionaries. I argue that language was central to these power struggles. The management of Ethiopia’s multilingualism was initially driven by pragmatic considerations. The deliberate association of Amharic with the functions of the state reflected an intentional effort by Ethiopian elites to demarcate the domain of state sovereignty through distinct language identifiers. The choice, on the part of both the government and intellectuals, to communicate in Amharic did not entail an aversion in principle to the public presence of other languages, if they served the interests of the imperial court. By contrast, Mǝnilǝk strategically contained the languages through which his power contenders attempted to assert themselves institutionally. The chapter ends by tracing the shift, later in the century, towards a more ideological approach to Ethiopia’s multilingualism, one in which Amharic became a central component of Ethiopian nationalism.