Ethiopia
1935-1944 		since 1974







Ethiopia
1944-1974



In the Anglo-Ethiopian treaty of 1944, Ethiopia had regained it's full independence. Ethiopia and Liberia, at that time, were the only two independent states with black governments on the entire African continent.
Emperor HAILE SELASSIE was concerned about Ethiopia lacking access to the sea and campaigned for the acquisition of ERITREA. Ethiopia joined the UNITED NATIONS and disoatched a contingent of troops to Korea, when the KOREAN WAR broke out.
With international sentiment turning more and more against colonialism, Selassie's Ethiopia was the exception standing out, an African nation perfectly able to rule itself, with a century-old tradition. In 1948/54 the British returned the OGADEN to Ethiopia, despite it's ethnically Somali, Muslim population. In 1952, the United Nations opted to establish a FEDERATION of Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Ethiopia never stuck to the autonomy granted to the Eritreans; instruments of Eritrean politics were quickly eliminated (political parties dissolved in 1955, the Eritrean parliament in 1962), Muslims eliminated from public offices. Similarily, Muslim Ogaden was given a christian Amharic administration.
Resistance organizations both in Eritrea and the Ogaden emerged in the 1960es; Somalia openly interfered in the Ogaden region. With most African colonies released into independence, Ethiopia invited the new governments to a conference in Addis Ababa, where the ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY (OAU) was founded. Among it's principles was the inviolability of state borders, a principle which favoured the Ethiopian control of both Eritrea and Ogaden.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia's relations with Britain, it's wartime major ally, were strained, and Ethiopia turned to the United States (which looked for military bases in Eritrea) as well as to other countries for financial aid. Ostensibly pro west, it accepted help from Yugoslavia and China as well.
Haile Selassie reformed the church, severing it's ties to the Patriarch of Alexandria. From 1956 on, he himself claimed the right to appoint the ABUN, the Metropolit of the Ethiopian Church. In 1955 he signed a new constitution (not debated in the country's parliament) which effected centralization and a strengthening of royal powers. A coup in 1960 failed.
By the late 1960es, now socialist Somalia received considerable financial and military assistance from the Soviet Block, as did, to a lesser extent, the Eritrean EPLF; the Ethiopians lost control of wide sections of the disputed areas. Haile Selassie turned to the United States; the conflict over the Ogaden was integrated into the Cold War.
In 1974 a military coup forced Haile Selassie into exile. At that time, there was widespread dissatisfaction with his rule. Democratic institutions - parliament, the constitution - had been ineffective, hardly having any influence on Ethiopia's political and economic reality. So something new had to emerge.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Library of Congress, Country Studies Ethiopia
Imperial Ethiopia Home Page, Dynasty in Exile website
The Solomonic Kings of Ethiopia, from Iyassu's Homepage
Developments of the 1950es and 60es, by Richard Pankhurst; Haile Selassie's Post-War Foreign Policy, by Richard Pankhurst; Ethio-American Post-War Relations, by
Haile Selassie, from Time Trail, a number of historical Time Magazine articles on H.S.
CASCON Case SEK : Somalia - Ethiopia - Kenya 1960-1964, by L.P. Bloomfield, L. Moulton
Richard Pankhurst
DOCUMENTS Lion Flag, from FOTW
Charter of the Organization of African Unity, from Modern History Sourcebook
REFERENCE Chapter 15 : Haile elassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, pp.247-273, 16 : More about Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Somalis, pp.274-284, in : John Gunther, Inside Africa, NY : Harper & Bros. (1953) 1955 [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1944 p.267, 1945 p.268, 1946 pp.293-294, 1947 p.304, 1948 p.287, 1949 pp.247-248, 1950 p.261, 1951 pp.261-262, 1952 p.259, 1953 p.259, 1954 pp.255-256, 1955 pp.305-306, 1956 p.243, 1957 pp.305-306, 1958 p.240, 1959 pp.237-238, 1960 pp.236-237, 1961 p.249, 1962 p.238, 1963 pp.352-353, 1964 pp.349-350, 1965 pp.342-343, 1966 p.289, 1967 pp.331-332, 1968 pp.333-334, 1969 pp.332-333, 1970 p.335, 1971 p.318, 1972 pp.291-292, 1973 p.288, 1974 pp.307-308 [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1945 pp.263-264 (on events of 1944) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1946 pp.266-267 (on events of 1945) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1947 p.238 (on events of 1946) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1957 pp.260-261 (on events of 1956) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1961 p.244 (on events of 1960) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1962 pp.245-246 (on events of 1961) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1963 p.227 (on events of 1962) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1964 pp.224-225 (on events of 1963) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1965 p.262 (on events of 1964) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1967 p.263 (on events of 1966) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1968 p.252 (on events of 1967) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1969 p.280 (on events of 1968) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1970 pp.281-282 (on events of 1969) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1971 p.284 (on events of 1970) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1972 p.275 (on events of 1971) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1973 p.281 (on events of 1972) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Americana Annual 1974 pp.79, 234 (on events of 1973) [G]
Article : Ethiopia, in : Statesman's Yearbook 1970-1971 pp.884-889 (data of 1969-1970) [G]
History of Ethiopia, p.17; Ethiopia p.58, in : Year Book and Guide to East Africa 1963 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on May 1st 2008

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