994
edits
Ethiopia: Deforestation: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Ethiopia: Deforestation (view source)
Revision as of 14:47, 23 February 2015
, 14:47, 23 February 2015→Recent History
| Line 45: | Line 45: | ||
Selassie’s advancing age, his increasing distance from the daily life of his subjects, and the sense among a growing number of Marxist-oriented Ethiopians during the climate of the Cold War that the conflict with Eritrea was imperialist in nature all helped to undermine Selassie’s regime. Inflation, corruption and famine added to the growing unrest in the country and eventually a military coup was staged by Marxist officers in the army under [[wikipedia:en:Mengistu_Haile_Mariam|Mengistu Haile Mariam]] in 1974. The last emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, was murdered in 1975. | Selassie’s advancing age, his increasing distance from the daily life of his subjects, and the sense among a growing number of Marxist-oriented Ethiopians during the climate of the Cold War that the conflict with Eritrea was imperialist in nature all helped to undermine Selassie’s regime. Inflation, corruption and famine added to the growing unrest in the country and eventually a military coup was staged by Marxist officers in the army under [[wikipedia:en:Mengistu_Haile_Mariam|Mengistu Haile Mariam]] in 1974. The last emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, was murdered in 1975. | ||
Power was assumed in 1974 by a provisional administrative council of soldiers known as the [wikipedia:en:Derg|Derg], with Mengistu as head of the newly Marxist state and Derg chairman. This triggered the [[wikipedia:en:Ethiopian_Civil_War|Ethiopian Civil War]] that was to last until 1991, with the Derg imprisoning or exterminating many thousands of its political opponents, and continuing to prosecute the Emperor’s war against the rebel province of Eritrea, as | Power was assumed in 1974 by a provisional administrative council of soldiers known as the [wikipedia:en:Derg|Derg], with Mengistu as head of the newly Marxist state and Derg chairman. This triggered the [[wikipedia:en:Ethiopian_Civil_War|Ethiopian Civil War]] that was to last until 1991, with the Derg imprisoning or exterminating many thousands of its political opponents, and continuing to prosecute the Emperor’s war against the rebel province of Eritrea, as well as the province of Tigray. Under the Derg, Ethiopia became a client state of the Soviet Union, and as a result also became the most militarised state in the region. It was thanks to military aid from the Soviet Union, Libya, GDR and North Korea, and 17,000 professional soldiers from Cuba that Ethiopia was able to fight off an [[wikipedia:en:Ogaden_War|invasion by Somali forces]] in 1977. | ||
At the same time, the Derg attempted to follow through on its Marxist philosophy by redistributing land to the peasants. However, mismanagement, corruption, and wholesale hostility to the Derg's violent rule combined with the debilitating effects of constant warfare resulted in a precipitous fall in agricultural production, and it is during this period that deforestation in Ethiopia began to rapidly escalate. Although Ethiopia has generally long been prone to drought, few were prepared for the scale of drought and [[wikipedia:en:1983%E2%80%931985_famine_in_Ethiopia|famine]] that hit the country in the mid-1980s, in which up to eight million were affected and one million may have died. [[File:T-55 Ethiopian Civil War 1991.JPEG|thumb|A T-62 main battle tank guards an intersection following seizure of government control by rebel factions, 1991.]] | At the same time, the Derg attempted to follow through on its Marxist philosophy by redistributing land to the peasants. However, mismanagement, corruption, and wholesale hostility to the Derg's violent rule combined with the debilitating effects of constant warfare resulted in a precipitous fall in agricultural production, and it is during this period that deforestation in Ethiopia began to rapidly escalate. Although Ethiopia has generally long been prone to drought, few were prepared for the scale of drought and [[wikipedia:en:1983%E2%80%931985_famine_in_Ethiopia|famine]] that hit the country in the mid-1980s, in which up to eight million were affected and one million may have died. [[File:T-55 Ethiopian Civil War 1991.JPEG|thumb|A T-62 main battle tank guards an intersection following seizure of government control by rebel factions, 1991.]] | ||