On 12 September 1974,

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I (born Tafari Makonnen or ''Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles#Lij, Lij'' Tafari; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles, Rege ...

was deposed by the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

-backed

military junta A military junta () is a system of government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''Junta (governing body), junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the Junta (Peninsular War), national and local junta organized by t ...

that consequently ruled

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

as the

Derg The Derg or Dergue (, ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when they formally "Civil government, civilianized" the ...

until 28 May 1991. In February 1974, the Ethiopian Revolution was accompanied by mutinies of units of the Imperial Army, which were ignited over resentment of low payment. The Derg established the Coordinating Council of the Armed Forces in June 1974, and grew rapidly to topple the ministers of Haile Selassie under

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Endelkachew Makonnen. Upon deposing the emperor, many of his personages and

Imperial family A royal family is the immediate family of monarch, monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or emperor, empress, and the term papal family describes the family of ...

members fled to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

like Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen. On 27 March 1975, the Derg officially abolished the monarchy and the

Ethiopian Empire The Ethiopian Empire, historically known as Abyssinia or simply Ethiopia, was a sovereign state that encompassed the present-day territories of Ethiopia and Eritrea. It existed from the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty by Yekuno Amlak a ...

as a whole, and began implementing a Marxist-Leninist system, along with nationalizing all properties. Haile Selassie died on 27 August, with different sources attributing his death to

strangulation Strangling or strangulation is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain by restricting the flow of oxygen through the trachea. Fatal strangulation typically occurs ...

by the order of the military government or natural causes during a prostate operation.

Background

A semi-

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

mode of production was a major characteristic of the

economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

for a number of centuries. The land – which was the most essential mode of production – had been amassed by the church (over 25%),

and his family (20%), the feudal lords (30%) and the state (18%), leaving a mere 7% to the roughly 23 million Ethiopian peasants. The landless peasants lost as much as 75% of their produce to their landlords. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the supply of slave labor for agriculture was commonplace and the landless tenants suffered from miserable lives; any tenants who would not voluntarily provide the nominal service was considered a rebel and was subsequently jailed, flogged, or otherwise punished. During the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie, he promised the country to follow democracy and bring modernization, such as by introducing the 1931 and 1955 Constitutions. Haile Selassie faced severe backlash and a negative public reputation, largely because of overtaxing in Gojjam starting in 1930, the

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...

of Wollo and

Tigray The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...

in 1958, and autocratic land seizure. On 13 December 1960, a military coup d'état attempt occurred in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

's Guenete Leul Palace by opposition groups, including Germame Neway and Mengistu Neway, after Haile Selassie went on a state visit to Brazil. Although it failed, this coup was considered as the initial point of student movements against the Haile Selassie government. In February 1965, students from

Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa University (; AAU) is a national university located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is the oldest university in Ethiopia. AAU has thirteen campuses. Twelve of these are situated in Addis Ababa, and one is located in Bishoftu, about away. ...

marched in the streets under slogan "Land for the Tiller", demanding

land reform Land reform (also known as agrarian reform) involves the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership, land use, and land transfers. The reforms may be initiated by governments, by interested groups, or by revolution. Lan ...

and distribution. Along with combinations of armed resistance movements in

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

in the early 1960s and some Ethiopian provinces in

Bale Bale may refer to: Apps Bale Messenger, an Iranian instant messaging (IM) app owned by the National Bank of Iran Packaging * Cotton bale * Hay or straw bale in farming, bound by a baler * Paper bale, a unit of paper measurement equal t ...

, Gojjam and Tigray, Haile Selassie's government was overwhelmed by the early 1970s. In 1973, severe drought killed 100,000 people in Wollo and Tigray, which notably degraded his public image. In February 1974, mutinies broke out in the military over low payment and secessionist conflicts in Eritrea.

Event

In June 1974, the

, as it would later be known, was established as the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police and Territorial Army. In less than three months, it rapidly grew enough to topple the Endelkachew Mekonnen cabinet. On 12 September 1974, Haile Selassie was imprisoned by a group of police officers under the Coordinating Committee. The 58-year-old former crown prince Asfaw Wossen, along with many patronages of the emperor, were exiled to London. On 23 November, the Massacre of the Sixty took place, in which 60 officials of Haile Selassie government, including two former prime ministers, were executed by firing squad in Kerchele Prison. The execution was heard over Ethiopian Radio in the next day; the council also included General Aman Andom, one of the leaders of the coup, and Haile Selassie's grandson, Admiral Iskinder Desta. Further executed people at this time included roughly 200 former cabinet ministers, government officials, provincial governors, and judges who were held in the cellars of the National Palace awaiting trial on charges of corruption and maladministration. Inspired by Marxist-Leninist policy, the Coordinating Committee abolished the semi-feudal system and implemented a nationalized system. On 21 March 1975, the Derg formally abolished the

, along with all imperial titles. On 27 August 1975, Haile Selassie died in a small apartment inside his palace at the age of 83. Official sources attributed his death to natural causes caused by a prostate operation, but later evidence emerged that suggested he was killed by

in his bed by the order of the military government.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1974 Ethiopian coup detat 1974 in Ethiopia Ethiopian Civil War Ethiopian Empire Ethiopian Revolution Haile Selassie September 1974 in Africa 1974 1970s coups d'état and coup attempts