The Ethiopian Revolution and the Derg
The Ethiopian Revolution of 1974 ended a monarchy that claimed descent from Solomon and replaced it with a Marxist military regime. Haile Selassie had ruled since 1930 and was internationally revered as the man who had defied Mussolini and helped found the Organisation of African Unity. At home the country remained a feudal order of landlord tenancy, with famine in the north, no land reform, and an army whose pay had not kept pace with the oil shock. A famine in Wollo in 1972–73 killed perhaps 200,000 people and was concealed. A British television documentary intercut starving children with footage of the emperor feeding meat to his dogs, and it was shown in Addis Ababa. Mutinies over pay began in January 1974 and spread through the army; strikes, student protests and a taxi drivers' stoppage over fuel prices followed. A committee of junior officers, the Derg, formed in June and began arresting ministers, nobles and generals under the slogan that it acted in the emperor's name. It deposed him on 12 September 1974 and drove him from the palace in a Volkswagen. He was killed the following year, probably smothered. Sixty senior officials were shot without trial in November. Mengistu Haile Mariam emerged as leader by 1977, nationalised land, and conducted the Red Terror against rival leftists, killing tens of thousands. War with Somalia, the Eritrean insurgency and a second famine in 1984 followed. The regime fell in 1991. Eritrea became independent in 1993, leaving Ethiopia landlocked. Mengistu fled to Zimbabwe, where he was convicted of genocide in absentia and still lives. The monarchy has not been restored, and the emperor's remains were reburied in a cathedral in 2000 without state honours.
- Year: 1974 CE
- Category: Revolution
