Dr. John H. Spencer (1907 – August 25, 2005) was an American historian. He attended

Grinnell College Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College. Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-stu ...

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and

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. In 1935 in

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he was offered a job to represent and advise the

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 ...

n government in the international legal matters, and during the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

occupation of Ethiopia and the Second Italo-Abyssinian War he served as a legal advisor to Emperor

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...

and accompanied him to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

on June 30, 1936 to ask for assistance. In October 1937, Spencer travelled to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and discussed the legal aspect of the Italy-Ethiopian conflict from 1934 to 1937, which appeared in the ''American Journal of International Law'' (Volume 31, 1937). In 1936 he left his position in the Ethiopian government and joined the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, then the Department of State and the Department of Justice. After the defeat of the Italians in Africa, Spencer rejoined the Ethiopian government and was a principal advisor until 1943. On December 19, 1944 he successfully negotiated Ethiopia from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

. Other negotiations and international conference in which Spencer took an active role include: the Paris Peace Conference, where Ethiopia had territorial claims about The Ogaden (the eastern part of Ethiopia which had a proximate with Somalia) and the present-day nation of Eritrea; the San Francisco Conference assembled to establish a United Nations, a prominent forum that deliberated for months and successfully created the new organization to succeed the old League of Nations; and later the negotiations that took place in Washington for the establishment of the Ethiopian Airlines. Spencer continued to work as Ethiopia's legal advisor until the late 1950s and published his work ''Ethiopia at Bay: A Personal Account of the Haile Selassie Years''. He married in 1949 and had a daughter who survived him.

References

''Dr. John H. Spencer''
at EthioMedia retrieved March 4, 2008 1907 births 2005 deaths Grinnell College alumni 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Harvard College alumni Charles H. Stockton Professors of International Law 20th-century American male writers {{US-historian-stub

See also

References