UNIT SEVEN

INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS,

1941–1995
7.1. Post-1941 Imperial Period
7.1.1. Restoration and Consolidation of Imperial Power and
External Relations

A. Ethiopia and Britain

The 1942 Anglo Ethiiopian agreement
The first Anglo Ethiopian agreement
•Gave Britain a final authority over Ethiopia’s foreign affairs, territorial integrity,
administration, finances, the military, and the police.

The 1944 Anglo Ethiopian Agreement

The second Anglo-Ethiopian agreement, signed in 1944, shows some of the concessions
the emperor won from Britain.
According to this agreement, the priority accorded to the British minster over all other foreign
diplomats in Ethiopia was lifted.
•The Ethiopian government could now employ non-British foreign personnel and
•It regained control over a section of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway, a vital line of external
communication.
•Control over this route assured Ethiopia free access to foreign goods and services including
arms and ammunitions.

• British also agreed to evacuate their army from the region once they equip Ethiopia’s
military force- a task mandated to the British Military Mission to Ethiopia (BMME).
•Britain did not, however, yield to Ethiopia’s territorial demands during the negotiation
for the 1944 Agreement.
• The Ethiopian government requested union of Eritrea with Ethiopia claiming that it was
historically, culturally, and economically inseparable from Ethiopia. Both Eritrea and
Ogaden were part of the Ethiopian empire before they fell into Italian hands in 1890 and
1936 respectively. But Ethiopia’s claims to the two territories were met with little
sympathy from the British.
•Britain insisted that Ogaden should be merged with the former Italian Somaliland and
British Somaliland to form what they called “Greater Somalia”.
•Similarly, the western and northern lowlands of Eritrea were intended by the British to be
part of Sudan. Further, they wanted to integrate the Tigrigna speaking highlands of Eritrea
with Tigray to form a separate state. Therefore, in September 1945 at the London
conference of Allied powers Ethiopia’s claims to Eritrea and Ogaden were rejected.
The territorial issues were resolved only after a decade.
•In 1948, the British left parts of Ogaden, and in 1954, they withdrew from the region.
•In Eritrea, people were divided; those who wanted a union with Ethiopia rallied behind the
Unionists.
•The Liberal Progressive Party and later the Muslim League rallied people who sought for
separation and independence.

•In 1948, the question of Eritrea was referred to the UNSC by Britain, France, USA and
USSR. The UN appointed a commission of five men from Burma, Guatemala, Norway,
Pakistan and South Africa to find out the actual wishes of Eritreans.
•After a period of investigation, Guatemala and Pakistan recommended granting
independence to Eritrea.
•While Norway recommended union with Ethiopia,
•South Africa and Burma recommended Federation.
•On December 2,1950, UN Resolution 390V granted the Federation of Eritrea with
Ethiopia, which came into effect in 1952.

B. Ethiopia and the USA

•Following the Second World War, two super-powers, the Soviet Union and the United
States emerged.
•In Ethiopia and the Horn, British pre-dominance in 1940s was replaced by the dominance
of the United States in the 1950s.
•In his efforts to ensure his sovereign political authority from British domination, to
modernize his country and consolidate his power, Haile-Selassie I turned towards the United
States as a powerful ally than Britain.
The renewed contact between the two countries was concretized with the signing of two
agreements in the 1950s.
• 1952 treaty
First, the Point Four Agreement that enabled subsequent American assistance in education
and public health was signed in 1952.
• 1953 treaty
The Ethio-US Treaty that granted a continued American use of the Qagnew base in return
for military assistance was signed in 1953.
These two agreements in general but the latter in particular defined the Ethio-American
relationship in the following decades.
7.1.2. Socio-Economic Developments
• Agriculture remained the leading economic sector in providing employment for about
ninety percent of the population, generating about seventy percent of the national GDP
and supplying almost hundred percent of the country’s income from export trade.
Therefore, the landholding that was a primary means of production was vital.

the extreme taxation to which smallholding peasants were subjected to was too high
discouraging peasants from maximizing production beyond subsistence levels.
• Manufacturing sector contributed less than five percent of the national income.
This sector only produced light consumer goods.
• Industrialization was spatially limited in the capital and its vicinity in addition only to
Asmara and Dire Dawa.
Consolidation of Autocracy
After he was restored to the throne in May 1941, Emperor Haile-Selassie embarked on
consolidating his power.
In order to fill-in the expanding bureaucracy, education was promoted at both school
and college levels.

The various colleges were brought together to form the Haile-Selassie I University in 1961
which again was re-named Addis Ababa University after the outbreak of the Revolution in
1974.

In 1955, Haile-Selassie promulgated a new constitution, revising the first constitution

issued in 1931.
• In the final analysis, however, neither the constitution nor the Parliament that it
created put a limit to the autocratic power of the emperor. He was the head of the
three branches of government: the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. The idea
of a constitutional monarchy was never materialized. Human rights and civic liberties
were restricted and violated. Regional identities, needs and feelings were ignored in the
interest of centralization.
• As the years progressed, the emperor started to dedicate his attention to foreign affairs.
He played a significant role in the Non-Aligned Movement and the drive for African
unity and this increased his international stature that finally resulted in the birth of the
OAU Organization of African Unity at the summit of heads of African states held in
Addis Ababa in 1963. But his preoccupation with international affairs detached the
emperor from the domestic affairs that he failed to see the signs of trouble at home.
7.1.3. Oppositions and the Downfall of the Monarchical Regime
A. Plots and Conspiracies
The plotters were disappointed by their position did not accept the restoration of
Emperor Haillessilasse they wanted to establish republican government .

Various sectors of the society opposed the imperial rule before the 1974 Revolution broke
out. Before the 1960s, opposition to the regime took in the form of plots and conspiracies.
• Dejazmach Belay Zeleke.
• Bitweded Negash Bezabih
• Blatta Takele Wolde-Hawaryat
• Mengstu Neway and Girmame Neway
The most serious challenge to the emperor’s authority came in 1960 in the form of a coup
attempt. The abortive coup d'etat of 1960 was led by the Neway brothers, Brigadier General
Mengistu and Germame.
However, the army and the air force refused to side with the rebels and with the support
of the Americans and the blessing of the patriarch, the loyalists led by General Merid
Mengesha, Ras Asrate Kassa etc attacked the plotters. The rebels asked for a cease-fire,
which the loyalists rejected. Finally, they had to run for their lives but only after killing the
ministers and other dignitaries they had detained at Geneta L'uel palace. In the meantime,
the emperor entered the capital.

Finally, Garmame died fighting in the outskirts of the capital and Mengistu was
captured and hanged after trial. The regime made some concessions after the failed coup
attempt, but failed to address the root causes that triggered the coup itself. Thus, opposition
to the imperial regime was only to grow stronger leading to the outbreak of the 1974
Revolution.
B. Peasant Rebellions
The main cause for the following opposition towards H/silase regime were
Peasant suffered from high taxation, mal-administration and also in
some of the, religious and ethnic antagonism .
• The Woyane Rebellion
• The Yejju Rebellion
• The Gojjam Peasant Rebellion
• Elkere uprising
• The bale peasant uprising
C. Movements of Nations and Nationalities
The following movement protested against theregim
Mecha-Tulama Welfare Association (MTWA) ransformed into a pan-
Oromo movement
Ethiopian National Liberation Front (ENLF)
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)
Eritrean Liberation Movement (ELM)
D.The Ethiopian Student Movement (ESM) students formed
• the University College Union (UCU)
• the National Union of Ethiopian University Students (NUEUS)
• The Main Campus Student Union (MCSU) and the University Student Union of Addis
Ababa (USUAA) with its paper Tagel (Struggle) were established in 1965 and 1968
respectively.
• Ethiopian Students Union in North America (ESUNA)
• Europe (ESUE) with its paper Tateq (Gird yourself)

• The mass uprising including Teachers taxi drivers those who demanding religious
equalityat finally put an end to the old regime came in February 1974.
7.2. The Derg Regime (1974-1991)
• The Derg was officially formed on June 28, 1974
• The Derg then proclaimed itself the Provisional Military Administrative Council
(PMAC) and assumed full powers.
• Although the motto of “Ethiopia First, without any bloodshed” thus failed as early as
then. On November 23, an even more violent phase commenced. Lieutenant General
Aman Mikael Andom, chairman of the PMAC was shot dead after a disagreement
within the Derg over the Issue of Eritrea.
• the Derg changed its slogan of “Ethiopia First” to “Ethiopian Socialism.” It also
adopted slogans like Ethiopian Unity or Death, Revolutionary Motherland or Death,
and later Every Thing to the War Front, Produce while Fighting or Fight While
Producing, etc.
7.2.2. Attempts at Socio-Economic Reform
• In December 1974, what was called the Edget Behibiret Zemecha (Development
Through Co-operation Campaign) was inaugurated. literacy campaigns and the
implementation of the awaited land reform proclamation.

• Nationalization of urban and rular land. In 1975, banks and insurance companies were
nationalized following a series of proclamations.
Land controlled by land lords were distributed to the peasanr
Took urban land and manufactories’from private sector

• The cooperatives only led to monopolistic government enterprises such as Ersha Sebil
Gebeya Dirijit (Agricultural Marketing Corporation), resettlements and villagization.
• The Derg used peasant associations to control the countryside and the urban dwellers’
associations (kebele) to control the towns.
Foreign relation
In early 1977, the Derg had severed relations with the USA as the American cultural and
military institutions ended their operation in the country. This was preceded by the
termination of the Ethio-USA 1953 mutual defense agreement. After a month, Mengistu
concluded agreements with Moscow for economic, cultural and military co-operation.
The relations between Ethiopia and the Soviet Union remained strong until the end of the
military regime.
It was only Mengistu’s Seded that remained as the authentic Marxist-Leninist
organization in the country.
In the summer of 1977, the government of Somalia led by Siad Barre waged a large-scale
war against Ethiopia. the Somalia National Army was defeated at Kara-Mara near
Jigjiga on March 4, 1978.
Party
In September 1984, WPE the Workers’ Party of Ethiopia was inaugurated during the
celebration of the tenth anniversary of the coming of the Derg to power. It was a given that
Mengistu became the new party’s secretary-general.
Association
• Established in 1980, the Revolutionary Ethiopian Women’s Association (REWA) and
Revolutionary Ethiopian Youth Association (REYA) played similar role, rallying women
and the youth behind the state.
It was when the Shengo (PMAC National Assembly) proclaimed the People’s Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) in 1987 that such elaborate organizational set-up designed to
ensure total control of society reached its peak.
Challenges
opposition from EPLF/Ertrea libration front , TPLF, Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a
Islamic Front for Liberation of Oromia, the ALHAfar Liberation Front, SLFthe Sidama
Liberation Front, BLFthe Beni-Shangul Liberation Front and GLF the Gambella Liberation
Front. Some of these fronts appeared only in the last days of the Derg. The two significant
liberation fronts which could be considered to have jointly brought about the downfall of the
Derg were the EPLF and the TPLF.

• In May 1989, commanders of almost all military units, coordinated and led a coup against
Mengistu when he left the country on a state visit to the German Democratic Republic, East
Germany. However, the coup was so poorly organized that loyal palace troops encircled the
leaders before they could even announce their intentions to the public. Mengistu returned
triumphantly to take his revenge. The coup leaders were all imprisoned or executed.

• TPLF, after liberating Tigray, continued to move forward and made the necessary
organizational adjustments forming a bigger front known as the Ethiopian Peoples’
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
• In 1990, Oromo forces dismantled the Derg army of the 131st Brigade in battle
that liberated Asosa and Bambasi in the then Wollega province.
• In the meantime, negotiations for a peaceful end to the conflict were underway
between the government, the EPLF, and the TPLF in Atlanta, Nairobi, and
Rome.
• In May 1991, while the last of these negotiations were going on in London, a
series of events put an end to the regime.
• On May 21, Mengistu fled the country first to Nairobi and then to Harare
(Zimbabwe). EPLF forces entered Asmara and Assab and announced the de
facto independence of Eritrea. The PDRE Vice President, Lt. General Tesfaye
Gebre-Kidan appealed for an end to the civil war on May 23, 1991.

• Prime Minister Tesfaye Dinqa left for the London peace conference mediated by
the U.S.A’s Foreign Affair African Service head Mr. Herman Cohen on May 27,
1991. In the early hours of May 28, EPRDF, forces triumphantly entered Addis
Ababa.
•
7.3. Transitional Government
• On 1 July 1991, a handful of organizations of which many were organized along ethnic
lines assembled to review the draft Charter prepared by the EPRDF and the OLF. The
gathering was called the Peace and Democracy Transitional Conference of Ethiopia.

• The USA was at the forefront in providing the necessary diplomatic backing for the Peace
and Democracy Conference. The Conference was attended by delegates from the UN, the
OAU, the G7, the US, the USSR, Sudan, Kenya, Djibouti and Eritrea. Eritrea was
represented by its future president, Isayas Afeworki.
• Transitional parliament had 87 seats of which 32 were taken by the EPRDF and the
remaining 55 seats were divided among the 23 non-EPRDF organizations. At the same
time, a Council of Ministers was formed as an executive branch, with Meles Zenawi as the
President of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE). Meles Zenawi then appointed
a Prime Minister (Tamirat Layne) and a seventeen-member Council of Ministers. Key
posts were given to members of the EPRDF and OLF.
• In December 1994, the constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic
of Ethiopia (FDRE) was ratified, taking effect following federal elections
in mid-1995.

EPLF set up a Provisional Government of Eritrea in 1991. This was

followed by a referendum to decide the fate of Eritrea in which the majority of
the population voted for independence from Ethiopia. In May 1993, the
Government of Eritrea was formed with Isayas Afwerki becoming the first
president of the country after independence