ntil recent decades the main emphasis of historical studies in Ethiopia was on the state and its activities, institutions and political elites. The social, economic, cultural and political condition of grassroots level has yet to come. This is particularly true in the case of ancient and medieval periods or the period before 1855 of Ethiopian History. Hence, our source materials concerning past time socio economic conditions and interrelationships of the various groups of peoples of Gojjam are meager, fragmented and often side view of general works. Among others, the historical evolution of the Amhara, Agäw, Šenaša, Gumuz, Oromo and other social groups of pre-1991 Gojjam, their past time interaction, socio- economic and cultural conditions have not been adequately studied. In the first half of the 20 th century, a number of foreign (including travelers) and Ethiopian scholars have produced considerable amount of materials on the period under investigation. They mainly wrote on the rise and fall of states, wars, expansion of religions (both Christianity and Islam) and Ethiopia`s relations with the outside world. However, since the late 1970s, historical work on pre-1855 period has been declined by both foreign and Ethiopian scholars. Rather, studies show that more focus has been given to the 20 th century history of Ethiopia on the main, because of the greater availability of written and oral sources on the more recent period and the contemporary relevance of relatively recent historical issues. This dissertation mainly focuses on the ethno-political history of Gojjam by the Abbay River with particular emphasis on Oromo settlement and integration in the region between ca. 1586 and 1855. The major themes in the study are settlement, interaction and integration of different Oromo groups with the already existing inhabitants of Gojjam through the passage of time. Oromo incursions into Gojjam had its beginnings in the late 16 th century when the Christian state shifted its center from the Šäwan plateau to the Lake Ṭana basin. Ethiopian emperors, particularly since the early 17 th century, developed a twin policy of checking Oromo advance into the Christian kingdom and settling large number of them as military contingents in different parts of the kingdom as gult governors. This has had tremendous impacts upon the socio-cultural, economic, military and political development of Gojjam as was true in the case of other parts of the country. Damot, Gafat, parts of the Šenaša and Agäw, the Oromo and other smaller and isolated groups of people who settled in Gojjam, encompassed by the Abbay, during the period under study, eventually lost their original linguistic and ethnic identity and became Christian and Amharic speakers except some elements of the Oromo who settled along the river.