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Events leading to opposition against Emperor Haile Selassie regime From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Opposition to Haile Selassie relied largely on internal administration of the Ethiopian Empire. While Emperor Haile Selassie made attempts to modernize the country and increase its global power after Italian occupation in 1936–1941, the later administration met with negative public attitude, especially among educated people in universities and peasants.
Armed resistance to Selassie was initially centered on the two poles of the Ethiopian Empire, Eritrea province in the north and the Ogaden region to the south.[1] There were several coup attempts to overthrow Selassie's government, notably in 1960, and several high profile events degraded Selassie's reputation, including over taxation in Gojjam since 1930, famines in Tigray and Wollo provinces since 1958, and autocratic land seizure.
The first student movements were held in 1965 at Addis Ababa University seeking land redistribution and abolition of feudalism. Other aspect includes the Eritrean War of Independence in 1962, seeking Eritrean autonomy from the Ethiopian imperial government.
In 1974, Selassie was finally overthrown during the Ethiopian Revolution.
After returning to the throne following Italy's occupation of Ethiopia from 1936 to 1941, Haile Selassie externally contributed for African decolonization in the Cold War made him internationally popular. He played a significant role for placing Ethiopia into advantage strategic position in Suez Canal, supported by the United States, the Soviet bloc and non-aligned Yugoslavia against each other. In addition, Addis Ababa was chosen as the seat for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) headquarters in 1958, and of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, culminating in historical milestone in the mid-1960s.[2]
On 13 December 1960, a military coup d'état took place in Addis Ababa at Guenete Leul Palace while Haile Selassie return from state visit to Brazil, the coup was deadly coordinated in the capital city until the 1974 Revolution.[2] This coup considered the initial point of student movements.[3]
However, there are given factors for student movements development. For example, in 1958, the Accra Conference of Independent African States were held as the Ethiopian Imperial government anxiously managed to securing the newly independent African countries, announcing 200 scholarships to students from other parts of Africa to study in institutions of the higher learning in the country.[3]
By 1962–63, the program has benefited 120 students from Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rhodesia, Somalia, and Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Most countries successfully decolonized by dramatic political struggle, both internal and colonialism, and because of Ethiopian students learned this achievement of African countries, they determined to emancipated from feudal status of their country.[3] Ethiopian students also contributed to fall of Haile Selassie regime and precursor to 1974 revolution by organizing nationwide protests. Student movements generally began in December 1960, when students from Addis Ababa University College gathered to support the 1960 coup d'état.[3]
The second movement was stemmed from the Ethiopian University Service (EUS) Program which was introduced in 1964. This program was mandatory for Ethiopian students to work one year in Provinces, numbered 132 in that year, increasing to 262 in 1966–67 and 590 in 1971–72, mainly served as teachers. For example, in 1966–67, 189, or 72.1% of the participants, taught in schools. These teachers, who also participated in "numerous extracurricular activities" brought to the outlying schools first-hand information of the Ethiopian Student Movement, which was virtually restricted in Addis Ababa campuses during its early existence.[3]
The small students sectors were inactive for few years after the 1960 coup d'état. By 1965, students from Addis Ababa University marched in the streets of the city under slogan of "Land to the Tiller". Staged in February 1965, sought parliamentary discussion about a bill that regulate tenancy, meant demanding more drastic land reform, land distribution instead.[3][4]
The northern provinces of Gondar, Gojjam, Wollo and Tigray are enriched with plow-based agriculture. Between 1928 and 1930, rebellions of Wollo against Shewan domination caused by Ras Gugsa Wale, a northern Amhara lord, claiming the throne against Shewan Ras Teferi (who crowned himself Haile Selassie after defeating the revolt).[5] The Haile Selassie government responded by suppression that led quartering soldiers with local people, coupled with the interruption of salt trade, high lootings and confiscation of cattle. Combined with locusts and droughts, this resulted a famine.[6][7]
Haile Selassie ordered importation of grain from India to supply Addis Ababa without relief for north Wollo.[8][9] Political measures were taken immediately such as replacing much of the administration, which formerly had grassroots, with appointees from Shewa, and joining the rebellion provinces in southern Wollo.[9]
Following defeating the Italians in 1941, there were revolt in Tigray Province, also known as the Woyane Rebellion, the most internal threat that Haile Selassie faced.[10] With the alliance of Oromo semi-pastoralists of Raya Azebo, disgruntled peasants, and some feudal lords, headed by famous shifta, Haile Mariam Reda, they were able controlling the whole province. The British aircraft called from Aden to suppress the rebels via bombardment.[9]
While some aristocratic members such as Ras Seyoum Mengesha willingly administered the province in treated manner, there were reprisals against ordinary people, most notably the Raya and Azebo Oromo were subjected to wholesale land alienation, and much of their territories transferred to Wollo. The area was hit by a deadly famine in consequence.[9]
Gojjam had history of independence for centuries and detachment to Shewan rule. The Gojjam revolt was as a result of imposition of tax by the central government and confiscation of land. The taxation was not only for imposition, but feared that it would undermine traditional land tenure and the farmers independence destroyed.
There were attempts of measure in Gojjam in the 1940s and 1950s; as peasant resistance came to light, all attempted of violence failed.[11] In early 1960s, Gojjam paid 0.1% of land, meanwhile being one of the richest and most populous provinces, By contrast to smaller provinces such as Bale, Gojjam paid less land tax. In 1951/52, there was armed resistance, including plot to assassinate Haile Selassie, but reappeared broadly in 1968 as part of systematic attempt to levy an agricultural income tax to date.[9]
In February 1968, in response of arrival of political parties of government officials accompanied by armed police, the peasants of Mota and Bichena districts resorted to armed resistance. After months of stalemate and antigovernmental resistance, Haile Selassie sent troops to Gojjam in July and August. Several hundreds death from the incident. In 1969, Haile Selassie cancelled all tax and made no series attempt to collected the new taxes.[9]
In 1974, Haile Selassie was criticized for concealing the famine existence in Wollo 1972–73.[12] Addis Ababa University Professor Mesfin Woldemariam documented that the 1958 and 1966 famines in Tigray and Wollo treated as official indifference, affected the peasants, and was considered one of Haile Selassie notorious reputation for these chained events.[13]
The 1958 famine in Tigray went without government relief. In 1965/6, famines from Were Ilu province arrived to Ministry of the Interior in November 1965, one month after the situation became clear to the local police, without measure taken. It took 302 days to reach the Emperor, who then respond to the Ministry to act, a required request to Wollo authority to send list of names of people who died from famine. Small relief distribution was set up.[9]
After being a colony of Italy since 1882, Eritrea was placed under British military administration in 1941, in the course of East African Campaign. In 1947, Italy renounced all rights and titles and possession of locality Eritrea under a peace treaty. The UN General Assembly held meeting about the fate of Eritrea, in which the majority of the delegates voted for the federation with Ethiopia, which Eritrea became constituent state of the federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea in 1952. This was met with discontent among the Eritrean separatist movement and eventually led to the formation of the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) in 1961. Hamid Idris Awate officially began armed resistance against the government of Ethiopia on 1 September 1961, resulting in the Eritrean War of Independence in 1962.[14] In 1962, Emperor Haile Selassie unilaterally dissolved the federation and the Eritrean parliament and annexed the country.[15][16]
On 14 November 1962, the Ethiopian government breached the terms of the UN Resolution 390 (A) and its own volition annexed Eritrea determining it a province.[17] By the late 1960s, a substantial portion of the imperial army was being tied down by the Eritrean Liberation Front.[1]
On 16 June 1963, the Ethiopian government began its first attempts to collect taxes in the Ogaden region, greatly incensing the already discontent Somali population, as they had lived without taxation for centuries. At Hodayo, a watering place north of Werder, 300 men of Nasrallah picked Mukhtal Dahir to lead an insurgency against the Ethiopians under the banner of the al-Jaysh ( الجيش in Arabic) or Jabhada (the front). The group was most commonly referred to as Nasrallah, though often referred to by foreigners as the Ogaden Liberation Front. The organization would form the foundation of the future Western Somali Liberation Front.[18][19] At its peak, the combined forces of the insurgents controlled nearly 70 percent of the Ogaden region. Primarily, their operations were conducted in the lowland Hararghe and Bale provinces of Ethiopia.[20] In a bid to control the largely nomadic population of the region during 1963, an Ethiopian Imperial Army division based out of Harar torched Somali villages and carried out mass killings of livestock. Watering holes were machine gunned by aircraft in order to control the Somalis by denying them access to water. Thousands of residents were driven from the Ogaden into Somalia as refugees.[21]
The use of northern settlers to secure southern regions of the empire was a tactic that was used extensively in the 10th to 16th centuries of the Abyssinian Empire and during the reign of Menelik.[22] In Bale region this was frequent, and Oromo/Somali aimed to wipe out the domination of the Amhara settlers known as the Neftenya.[23] This resettlement policy consequently resulted in a shortage of arable land in Bale due to land expropriation.[24][25] The best land in the region eventually became owned by Amharas and higher officials in the province were disproportionately Christian, greatly incensing the Muslim Oromo/Somali population.[26] Serious revolt broke in Bale region out during a fairly minor incident in the Wabe district of Bale in 1964, after the governor of the region had unsuccessfully attempted to collect taxes with a large police force. This act of defiance to the central government inspired rebellions to pop up elsewhere in the district culminating in the seizure of the town of Belitu by rebel Oromo/Somali forces. Resistance then spread over to neighboring Delo district and by the end of 1965 central Bale was in total revolt and under rebel control.[27] Fighting gradually increased in intensity until 1966, at which point the Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency and deployed the army.[28]
Fierce ground assaults and airstrikes by government forces in high and lowland Bale during the opening months of 1967 resulted in significant casualties amongst the civilian population.[28] Many of the peasants and pastoralists who had homes and crops devastated in the air attacks were terror stricken as they had never seen bombs before. Thousands of Oromos fled to Somalia in the face of intensive aerial bombardments, where they remained for decades.[29]
As the regime of Emperor Haile Selassie declined, the army became increasingly politicized as Selassie increasingly relied on more oppressive measures of governance. As recruitment from educated Ethiopians grew over the 60s and early 70s, the political consciousness of the armed forces grew as well. This awareness grew as the army was increasingly utilized to put down student protests, peasant uprisings and regional revolts in Ogaden, Bale and Eritrea. The multiplication of regional revolts and economic downturn in the country during the early 70s made many army units rebellious as their living conditions deteriorated. The military mutiny that precipitated the 1974 revolution started as demands for better working conditions and wages for troops in remote regions, particularly the Ogaden, Negele and the desert of western Eritrea.[30]
By 1973, it was clear to many observers that the army was the true power behind the throne and it was widely expected that the military would take over in the event of the Emperor's death. Since the failed Ethiopian coup attempt during 1960, no further coup were attempted largely due to the deep divisions within the armed forces, particularly the officer corps.[30]
In April of 1974 the Ethiopian Muslim Protests occurred which was considered a massive rally at the time as over 100,000 citizens were witnessed participating.[31]
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