History:
Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world. Herodotus, the Greek historian of the fifth century B.C., describes ancient Ethiopia in his writings. The Old Testament of the Bible records the Queen of Sheba's visit to Jerusalem. According to legend, Menelik I, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, founded the Ethiopian empire. Missionaries from Egypt and Syria introduced Christianity in the fourth century A.D. Following the rise of Islam in the seventh century, Ethiopia was gradually cut off from European Christendom. The Portuguese established contact with Ethiopia in 1493, primarily to strengthen their hegemony over the Indian Ocean and to convert Ethiopia to Roman Catholicism. There followed a century of conflict between pro- and anti-Catholic factions, resulting in the expulsion of all foreign missionaries in the 1630s. This period of bitter religious conflict contributed to hostility toward foreign Christians and Europeans, which persisted into the 20th century and was a factor in Ethiopia's isolation until the mid-19th century.
Under Theodore II (1855-68) and Emperor Menelik II (1889-1913), the
kingdom began to emerge from its medieval isolation. When Menelik II
died, his grandson, Lij Iyassu, succeeded to the throne but soon lost
support because of his Muslim ties. He was deposed in 1916 by the Christian
nobility, and Menelik's daughter, Zewditu, was made empress. Her cousin,
Ras Tafari Makonnen, was made regent and successor to the throne. In
1930, the empress died, and the regent, adopting the throne name Haile
Selassie, was crowned emperor. His reign was interrupted in 1936 when
Italian fascist forces invaded and occupied Ethiopia. The emperor was
eventually forced into exile in England despite his plea to the League
of Nations for intervention. Five years later, the Italians were defeated
by British (primarily colonial) and Ethiopian forces, and the emperor
returned to the throne. After a period of civil unrest, which began
in February 1974, the aging Haile Selassie I was deposed on September
13, 1974.
In 1974, a provisional administrative council of soldiers, known as the Derg ("committee") seized power from Emperor Haile Selassie and installed a government which was Socialist in name and military in style. Its leader, Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam, assumed power as head of state and Derg chairman. Mengistu's years in office were marked by a totalitarian-style government and the country's massive militarization, financed by the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc, and assisted by Cuba. From 1977 through early 1978 thousands of suspected enemies of the Derg were tortured and/or killed in a purge called the "red terror." Communism was officially adopted during the late 1970s and early 1980s with the promulgation of a Soviet-style constitution, Politburo, and the creation of the Workers' Party of Ethiopia (WPE).
In December 1976, an Ethiopian delegation in Moscow signed a military assistance agreement with the Soviet Union. The following April, Ethiopia abrogated its military assistance agreement with the United States and expelled the American military missions. In July 1977, sensing the disarray in Ethiopia, Somalia attacked across the Ogaden Desert in pursuit of its irredentist claims to the ethnic Somali areas of Ethiopia. Ethiopian forces were driven back far inside their own frontiers, but, with the assistance of a massive Soviet airlift of arms and Cuban combat forces, they stemmed the attack. Although the major Somali regular units were forced out of the Ogaden in March 1978, insurgency and occasional border clashes in the area continue.
The Derg's collapse was hastened by droughts and famine, as well as by insurrections, particularly in the northern regions of Tigray and Eritrea. In the late 1980s, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) merged with other ethnically-based opposition movements to form the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). In May 1991, EPRDF forces advanced on Addis Ababa. Mengistu fled the country and was granted political asylum in Zimbabwe, where he still resides.
In July 1991, the EPRDF, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), and others established the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE), which was comprised of an 87-member Council of Representatives and guided by a national charter that functioned as a transitional constitution. In June 1992, the OLF withdrew from the government; in March 1993, members of the Southern Ethiopia Peoples' Democratic Coalition left the government. In May 1993, Eritreans voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ethiopia, and Eritrea is now an independent country.
In Ethiopia, President Meles
Zenawi and members of the TGE pledged to oversee the formation of a
multiparty democracy. The election for a 547-member constituent assembly
was held in June 1994, and this assembly adopted the constitution of
the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in December 1994. The elections
for Ethiopia's first popularly chosen national parliament and regional
legislatures were held in May and June 1995. Although most opposition
parties chose to boycott these elections, international and non-governmental
observers concluded that the elections were generally free and fair.
The government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia was installed
in August 1995. Ethiopia today has ten semi-autonomous administrative
regions which are organized along major ethnic lines.