Ethiopia, Revolution of 1974

Abstract

Ethiopia is an ancient polity. The modern Ethiopian state, unlike most African states, is an indigenous institution that goes back centuries. This institution, after emerging in the highlands of Axum, disintegrated into a dark‐age period (1769–1855) known as Zemene Mesafint , or the era of the Princes. In the late nineteenth century, efforts to reconstruct the state were made by a series of emperors, Tewodros I, Yohannes IV, and Menelik II, culminating in the modern state and consolidation of power under Emperor Haile Selassie (1930–74), who was overthrown during the Ethiopian Revolution (1974–7). However, state power was usurped by the military, which allied itself with the Soviet Union and ruled Ethiopia with an iron fist (1977–91). This regime did not solve Ethiopia's multifaceted economic, national, and regional problems but exacerbated them. In 1991, the Ethiopian People's Democratic Revolutionary Front (EPDRF), an umbrella group composed of many nationalities, and its ally, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), defeated the regime. Eritrea subsequently declared its independence in 1993, and in 1995 the EPDRF established in Ethiopia a federal form of governance based on ethnicity.