Timeline of the Ethiopian Revolution

Last updated September 03, 2024

This is chronology of the Ethiopian Revolution that took place from 12 January to 12 September 1974 in the Ethiopian Empire.

January

12 January - Rank-and-file soldiers of the Negele Borana garrison mutiny over bad food and lack of drinking water. They seize the Emperor's personal envoy sent to negotiate and pacify, Lt. Gen. Deresse Dubale, and force him to eat and drink as they did.^[1]

February

10 February - Technicians and NCOs at the main Air Force base in Debre Zeyit (Bishoftu) mutiny, holding their officers hostage for three days in a mess tent.^[1]
14 February - Students at Haile Selassie University in the capital go on strike against a proposed reform in the educational system. High school teachers and college professors support the student strike.^[1]
18 February - School teachers strike for better pay. On the same day, taxi drivers in Addis Ababa strike over a proposed 50% increase in gas prices.^[1]
23 February - Emperor Haile Selassie concedes to some of the strikers' demands.^[1]
25 February - Junior Officers/NCOs and enlisted men of the Second Division, headquartered in Asmara, mutiny,^[1] capturing a radio station and broadcasting their demands to the public.
28 February - Prime minister Aklilu Habte-Wold resigns. His resignation was not demanded by any of the rebellious groups, and is seen as a sign of panic and weakness by the palace which is later exploited by civilians and soldiers. He is replaced by Endelkachew Makonnen.^[1]

March

5 March - Emperor Haile Selassie announces that the 1955 Constitution would be revised to make the Prime Minister responsible to parliament.^[1]
7–9 March - The Confederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions calls a general labor strike.^[1]^[2]
31 March - General Abiye Abebe, the new chief of staff and Minister of Defense, announces a plot against the government by Air Force officers had been uncovered and foiled.^[1]

April

20 April - Muslims stage a demonstration in Addis Ababa demanding religious equality and separation of church and state.^[3]
26 April - After weeks of agitation and intermittent strikes, the government shuts down Haile Selassie University.^[4]
27 April - The Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces (under the command of Colonel Alem Zewde Tessema of the Airborne Corps) issues their first statement, announcing that 19 ministers and former officials of the imperial regime have been arrested.^[5]
30 April - Prime Minister Endelkachew Makonnen announces the creation of a joint military-civilian National Security Commission under General Abiye Abebe to deal with growing lawlessness and the numerous wildcat strikes crippling the country. (This National Security Commission replaces the first Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces.^[6]

June

25 June - The wives and relations of the arrested officials of the imperial regime (now 25 in number) petition that the prisoners be released pending an investigation. It is rejected by parliament, who see this as an attempt to restore the status quo.^[7]
28 June - In response to the unsuccessful petition, a new Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces (which becomes the Derg) seizes the radio station in Addis Ababa, and begin to arrest other aristocrats, high officials, and generals suspected of being behind the reactionary movement,^[7] while at the same time still professing to be non-ideological and loyal to the monarchy as system of government.

July

9 July - The Derg issues its first political statement, in an announcement in 13 points.^[7]
22 July - Prime Minister Endelkachew Makonnen resigns. He is replaced by Mikael Imru, a progressive aristocrat.^[7]

August

1 August - Endelkachew Makonnen is arrested by the Derg.^[7]

September

12 September - Emperor Haile Selassie is deposed and removed from the palace.^[7] The military committee declared Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen (who was abroad for medical treatment) "King" instead of "Emperor". The prince would refuse to acknowledge this.
15 September - The Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces renames itself as the Provisional Military Administrative Council, and announces General Aman Mikael Andom as the new chairman, who de facto becomes the acting Ethiopian head of state.

November

20 November (approximate date) - General Aman resigns in protest.^[7]
23 November - General Aman dies in a shootout with troops sent to arrest him. That same night 57 important political prisoners held by the Derg are executed.^[7]

December

20 December - The Derg proclaims the establishment of "Ethiopian Socialism", based on the declaration of Etiopia Tikdem.^[8]

Related Research Articles

Haile Selassie I was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia under Empress Zewditu between 1916 and 1930. Widely considered to be a defining figure in modern Ethiopian history, he is accorded divine importance in Rastafari, a relatively new Abrahamic religion that emerged in the Colony of Jamaica in the 1930s. A few years before he began his reign over the Ethiopian Empire, Selassie defeated Ethiopian army commander Ras Gugsa Welle Bitul, who was the nephew of Empress Taytu Betul, during the Battle of Anchem. He belonged to the Solomonic dynasty, which was founded by Emperor Yekuno Amlak in 1270; Amlak's successors claimed that he was a lineal descendant of Menelik I, the legendary Emperor of Ethiopia who was supposedly born to King Solomon and Queen Makeda of the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Sheba, respectively.

Menen Asfaw was Empress of Ethiopia as the wife of Emperor Haile Selassie.

The Derg, officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the Marxist–Leninist military dictatorship that ruled Ethiopia, then including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when the military leadership or junta formally "civilianized" the administration but stayed in power until 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince Makonnen</span> Second child of Emperor Haile Selassie (1924–1957)

Prince Makonnen Haile Selassie, Duke of Harar was the second son, and second-youngest child, of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and Empress Menen Asfaw. He was made Mesfin of Harar upon the coronation of his parents in 1930.

Princess Tenagnework Haile Selassie, GBE was the eldest child of Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Menen Asfaw.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aklilu Habte-Wold</span> Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 1961 to 1974

Tsehafi TaezazAklilu Habte-Wold was an Ethiopian politician under Emperor Haile Selassie. He was foreign minister of Ethiopia from 1947 to 1958 and Prime Minister from 1961 until his death by the Derg execution in 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makonnen Endelkachew</span> Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 1943 to 1957

Ras BetwodedMekonnen Endelkachew was an Ethiopian aristocrat and Prime Minister under Emperor Haile Selassie. Mekonnen was born in Addisge, the nephew of the noted Shewan general and politician Ras Betwoded Tessema Nadew, who introduced him to Emperor Menelik II. He was a member of the alpha class of the Menelik II School in Addis Ababa when it opened in 1908.

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The prime minister of Ethiopia is the head of government and chief executive of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a parliamentary republic with a prime minister as head of the government and the commander-in-chief of the Ethiopian Armed Forces. The prime minister is the most powerful political figure in Ethiopian politics. The official residence of the prime minister is the Menelik Palace in Addis Ababa. The prime minister is elected from the members of the House of Peoples' Representatives and presents a government platform. The prime minister must receive a vote of confidence in the House of Peoples' Representatives to exercise executive power as chief executive. Abiy Ahmed is the third prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, serving since April 2018.

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Princess Tsehai Haile Selassie was the third daughter and fourth child of Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Menen Asfaw of Ethiopia.

Princess Yeshashework Yilma was the daughter of Dejazmatch Yilma Makonnen, governor of Harar and niece of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Her mother Woizero Aselefech Wolde Hanna was the niece of Empress Taitu Bitul, consort of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia. Through her paternal great-grandmother, she was a member of the Imperial Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia. Her father died while she was still very young.

The Confederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions (CELU) was an umbrella organization that represented a number of labor unions and employee self-help associations in Ethiopia. The Derg, the military junta which ruled Ethiopia at the time, banned the organization and replaced it with the All-Ethiopian Trade Union 8 January 1977.

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LijMikael Imru was an Ethiopian politician who was Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 3 August to 12 September 1974.

The following lists events that happened during 1974 in Ethiopia.

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LijAbiye Abebe was an Ethiopian politician and son-in-law of Emperor Haile Selassie.

The Massacre of the Sixty, or Black Saturday, was an execution that took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia commissioned by the Derg government against 60 imprisoned former government officials at Kerchele Prison on the morning of 23 November 1974. The prison was commonly called Alem Bekagn – "I've had enough of this world".

This list details about chronological aspect of the Derg, the military junta that ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987 by decade.

On 12 September 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a Soviet-backed military junta that consequently ruled Ethiopia as the Derg until 28 May 1991.

The Ethiopian Revolution was a period of civil, police and military upheaval in Ethiopia to protest against the weakened Haile Selassie government. It is generally thought to have begun on 12 January 1974 when Ethiopian soldiers began a rebellion in Negele Borana, with the protests continuing into February 1974. People from different occupations, starting from junior army officers, students and teachers, and taxi drivers, joined a strike to demand human rights, social change, agrarian reforms, price controls, free schooling, and releasing political prisoners, and labor unions demanded a fixation of wages in accordance with price indexes, as well as pensions for workers, etc.

This is a chronology of the lifetime of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "EVIL DAYS - Human Rights Watch" (PDF). 19 September 2022.
↑ "1974: Ethiopian General Strike | libcom.org". libcom.org. Retrieved 2022-09-19.
↑ Ahmed, Hussein (2006). "Coexistence and/or Confrontation?: Towards a Reappraisal of Christian-Muslim Encounter in Contemporary Ethiopia". Journal of Religion in Africa. 36 (1): 4–22. doi:10.1163/157006606775569622. ISSN 0022-4200. JSTOR 27594361.
↑ "ETHIOPIA Violent Suppression of Student Protest" (PDF). 19 September 2022.
↑ "International Journal of African Development, Vol. 1, Issue 1". 19 September 2022.
↑ "The Lost Opportunity for Ethiopia: The Failure to Move". 19 September 2022.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "THE ETHIOPIAN REVOLUTION" (PDF). 19 September 2022.
↑ Gupta, Vijay (1978). "The Ethiopian Revolution: Causes and Results". India Quarterly. 34 (2): 158–174. doi:10.1177/097492847803400203. ISSN 0974-9284. JSTOR 45071379.

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[:0-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "EVIL DAYS - Human Rights Watch" (PDF). 19 September 2022.

[2] "1974: Ethiopian General Strike | libcom.org". libcom.org. Retrieved 2022-09-19.

[3] Ahmed, Hussein (2006). "Coexistence and/or Confrontation?: Towards a Reappraisal of Christian-Muslim Encounter in Contemporary Ethiopia". Journal of Religion in Africa. 36 (1): 4–22. doi:10.1163/157006606775569622. ISSN 0022-4200. JSTOR 27594361.

[4] "ETHIOPIA Violent Suppression of Student Protest" (PDF). 19 September 2022.

[5] "International Journal of African Development, Vol. 1, Issue 1". 19 September 2022.

[6] "The Lost Opportunity for Ethiopia: The Failure to Move". 19 September 2022.

[:1-7] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "THE ETHIOPIAN REVOLUTION" (PDF). 19 September 2022.

[8] Gupta, Vijay (1978). "The Ethiopian Revolution: Causes and Results". India Quarterly. 34 (2): 158–174. doi:10.1177/097492847803400203. ISSN 0974-9284. JSTOR 45071379.

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