Historically,

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

was divided into

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

s, further subdivided into ''

awrajja Awrajja ( am, አውራጃ) were the third-level country subdivisions which subdivided the Provinces of Ethiopia prior to 1996. Awrajja roughly translates to "county" or "sub-province", and contained a number of "woreda" or districts, the fourth l ...

''s or districts, until they were replaced by ethnically-based regions (''kililoch'') and chartered cities in 1995.

History

Pre-1936

Older provinces (existing prior to the 1936-41 Fascist Italian occupation), are still frequently used to indicate locations within Ethiopia. These include:

1942-1974

Ethiopia was divided into 12 provinces or governates-general (''taklai ghizat'') by Imperial Ethiopian Government Decree No. 1 of 1942 and later amendments. The 12 provinces were: Bale was created as a 13th province when it was split off from Harrarghe in 1960.

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopi ...

was reunited with Ethiopia and made a 14th province in 1962.

1974-1991

When the

Derg The Derg (also spelled Dergue; , ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, then including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when the military leadership formally " ...

took power in 1974 they relabelled the provinces as regions (''kifle hager''). By 1981

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

had become a separate administrative division from Shewa, and

Aseb Assab or Aseb (, ) is a port city in the Southern Red Sea Region of Eritrea. It is situated on the west coast of the Red Sea. Languages spoken in Assab are predominantly Afar, Tigrinya, and Arabic. Assab is known for its large market, beaches a ...

was split off from Eritrea in 1981, making 16 administrative divisions in total. With the exception of Arsi (whose name derives from the eponymous Oromo subgroup, and which initially included majority-

Gurage The Gurage (, Gurage: ጉራጌ) are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia.G. W. E. Huntingford, "William A. Shack: The Gurage: a people of the ensete culture" They inhabit the Gurage Zone, a fertile, semi-mountainous region in c ...

area later transferred to

Shewa Shewa ( am, ሸዋ; , om, Shawaa), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa (''Scioà'' in Italian), is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital A ...

province (becoming Southern Shewa), all of the provinces were deliberately drawn to include multiple "tribes" (or ethnicities) so as to better facilitate national cohesion. Under the

1987 Constitution of Ethiopia The Constitution of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (), also known as the 1987 Constitution of Ethiopia, was the third constitution of Ethiopia, and went into effect on 22 February 1987 after a referendum on 1 February of that year. ...

, the military rule of the Derg evolved into the civilian government of the

People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia The People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) () was a socialist state that existed in Ethiopia and present day Eritrea from 1987 to 1991. The PDRE was established in February 1987 as a Marxist-Leninist one-party state upon the adoption ...

, and chapter 8 of the Constitution determined that the state would be subdivided into "autonomous regions" and "administrative regions". Chapter 9 gave to the

National Shengo The National Shengo (, ) was the legislature of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) from 1987 to 1991. Overview The Shengo was established on 22 February 1987, three weeks after a national referendum approved a new constituti ...

(the legislature) the power to establish the regions. The Shengo established the regions in Proclamation No. 14 of 1987, on 18 September. There were thirty regions, consisting of five autonomous regions, and twenty-five administrative regions. The five autonomous regions were: The twenty-five administrative regions were:

References

Subdivisions of Ethiopia {{Ethiopia-geo-stub

History

Pre-1936

1942-1974

1974-1991

See also

References