Opposition to Haile Selassie
While Emperor Haile Selassie made attempts to modernize the country and increase its global power after Italian occupation in 1936–1941, the later administration met with negative public attitude, especially among educated people in universities and peasants.
Armed resistance to Selassie was initially centered on the two poles of the Ethiopian Empire, Eritrea province in the north and the Ogaden region to the south.
After returning to the throne following Italy's occupation of Ethiopia from 1936 to 1941, Haile Selassie externally contributed for African decolonization in the Cold War made him internationally popular.
He played a significant role for placing Ethiopia into advantage strategic position in Suez Canal, supported by the United States, the Soviet bloc and non-aligned Yugoslavia against each other.
In addition, Addis Ababa was chosen as the seat for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) headquarters in 1958, and of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, culminating in historical milestone in the mid-1960s.
These teachers, who also participated in "numerous extracurricular activities" brought to the outlying schools first-hand information of the Ethiopian Student Movement, which was virtually restricted in Addis Ababa campuses during its early existence.
[5] The Haile Selassie government responded by suppression that led quartering soldiers with local people, coupled with the interruption of salt trade, high lootings and confiscation of cattle.
[10] With the alliance of Oromo semi-pastoralists of Raya Azebo, disgruntled peasants, and some feudal lords, headed by famous shifta, Haile Mariam Reda, they were able controlling the whole province.
[9] While some aristocratic members such as Ras Seyoum Mengesha willingly administered the province in treated manner, there were reprisals against ordinary people, most notably the Raya and Azebo Oromo were subjected to wholesale land alienation, and much of their territories transferred to Wollo.
In 1951/52, there was armed resistance, including plot to assassinate Haile Selassie, but reappeared broadly in 1968 as part of systematic attempt to levy an agricultural income tax to date.
[12] Addis Ababa University Professor Mesfin Woldemariam documented that the 1958 and 1966 famines in Tigray and Wollo treated as official indifference, affected the peasants, and was considered one of Haile Selassie notorious reputation for these chained events.
It took 302 days to reach the Emperor, who then respond to the Ministry to act, a required request to Wollo authority to send list of names of people who died from famine.
[1] On 16 June 1963, the Ethiopian government began its first attempts to collect taxes in the Ogaden region, greatly incensing the already discontent Somali population, as they had lived without taxation for centuries.
At Hodayo, a watering place north of Werder, 300 men of Nasrallah picked Mukhtal Dahir to lead an insurgency against the Ethiopians under the banner of the al-Jaysh ( الجيش in Arabic) or Jabhada (the front).
[28] Fierce ground assaults and airstrikes by government forces in high and lowland Bale during the opening months of 1967 resulted in significant casualties amongst the civilian population.
This awareness grew as the army was increasingly utilized to put down student protests, peasant uprisings and regional revolts in Ogaden, Bale and Eritrea.
The military mutiny that precipitated the 1974 revolution started as demands for better working conditions and wages for troops in remote regions, particularly the Ogaden, Negele and the desert of western Eritrea.
