WRU

4y

maybe a general overview and Ethiopia's place in the continent's history. whatever they had going with socialist movements over there is interesting too. not familiar with anything else other than Selassie's bio

space0cadet

4y

Spoiler

Scratchin Mamba

4y

· edited

Really a vast topic tbh, but from my pov the most important things are. Didn't intend the post to be so long but I started typing and oh well

• The first Italo-Ethiopian war, the first time an African country defeated a European colonizing power. It's because of this victory that the colors of Ethiopia's flag became the first pan-African colors. Some argue that this was a significant part of Ethiopia's nation-building process, I'm not completely decided on that, but I can confirm it's definitely a huge part of Ethiopian identity. However, Menelik II did decide not to take back Eritrea from the It*lians, as the British threatened to militarily intervene alongside Italy against Ethiopia if they crossed the border. Whether this was the difficult but correct decision is up for debate taking into context the position Ethiopia was in, but it did make Eritreans feel betrayed, and is the beginning of the eventual splitting into two of what had been one country before.

• Oromo expansion starting the 16th century. The Oromo is nowadays talked about as one united ethnic group, but really it's a supraethnicity that had a very dynamic system that incorporated several tribes and kingdoms through assimilation both through conquest and voluntarily. This is not just an important event in understanding the current situation, but also really interesting in itself since it was a migration of a people that was unprecedented.

• Ethiopian-Adal war, long story short this is where most of the historic tensions between Somalia and Ethiopia comes from and also part of why the Oromo expanded so much, with the two dominant kingdoms in the region being weakened because of war.

• Menelik's southern campaigns when he was the king of Shewa (not yet the king of kings) and expanded his kingdom to the south. Most of it was done by conquest, some of it in retaliation to kingdoms collaborating with Italians, some of it voluntary, some of it very brutal and have had historical consequences to today as the conquest of the Arsi Oromo kingdom. So Menelik has a mixed legacy, conquerer and anti-imperialist legend. It's interesting to note that the problem for the Oromo was that Menelik took over their land, while for Eritrea it's that he didn't do that.

• Second Italo-Ethiopian war, this time by Mussolini. Important moment in history is Haile Selassie deliverint a speech to the league of nations asking for help, saying that now it's Ethiopia, but tomorrow it will be them Italy didn't have control over the entire country as there was an ongoing guerilla resistance (my great grandfather was part of it actually), but Ethiopia did need British intervention, and the British didn't leave without doing their fair share of colonial looting

• Reunification of Ethiopia and Eritrea as a federation after the war. This was doomed to fail, Ethiopia was still mostly feudal, while Eritrea became capitalist under Italy. You had a relatively politically active working class in Eritrea, and while cultural affinity remained (to this day), it was never gonna work and when Haile Selassie abolished the federation and cracked down on unions, newspapers, suppress their culture etc in the 60s that started the Eritrean war of independence that was eventually won in '91.

• The overthrow of the monarchy in 1974 by the Derg, a military junta that would eventually be led by Mengistu. There were popular elements that helped it come to power, but little to know popular participation after it and it became a s***show of leftist infighting and terror against mostly other communists

• The Ogaden war. Somalia invaded Ethiopia, made the USSR support Ethiopia over Somalia after first supporting both and made the US switch sides to Somalia.

• The overthrow of the Derg by TPLF led by Meles. The TPLF has to be understood as an ethnonationalist party with dreams of a greater Tigray (now it has just devolves into a terrorist organization). It had no committment to Ethiopia as a unified country or anything else, so they were willing to take advantage of historical grievances of certain ethnicities and use tactics of divide and rule to maintain its power. It also has to be understood as a puppet regime of the US, Meles did everything the US asked him to in the region without question. Invade Somalia? War with Eritrea? No problem, neither had unity of the country let alone the region as their interest.

And well for the current situation I would watch that video. I'll give you some resources some other time but you can do some googles with this already, some s*** is really not well known and you can only read about it in academic papers tho, so maybe use google scholar for those topics.

WRU

4y

ill read it later though im sorry, I super appreciate the effort

Scratchin Mamba

4y

@Cudderwalks

Cudderwalks

4y

I’m a white westerner

Scratchin Mamba

4y

Really a vast topic tbh, but from my pov the most important things are. Didn't intend the post to be so long but I started typing and oh well

• The first Italo-Ethiopian war, the first time an African country defeated a European colonizing power. It's because of this victory that the colors of Ethiopia's flag became the first pan-African colors. Some argue that this was a significant part of Ethiopia's nation-building process, I'm not completely decided on that, but I can confirm it's definitely a huge part of Ethiopian identity. However, Menelik II did decide not to take back Eritrea from the It*lians, as the British threatened to militarily intervene alongside Italy against Ethiopia if they crossed the border. Whether this was the difficult but correct decision is up for debate taking into context the position Ethiopia was in, but it did make Eritreans feel betrayed, and is the beginning of the eventual splitting into two of what had been one country before.

• Oromo expansion starting the 16th century. The Oromo is nowadays talked about as one united ethnic group, but really it's a supraethnicity that had a very dynamic system that incorporated several tribes and kingdoms through assimilation both through conquest and voluntarily. This is not just an important event in understanding the current situation, but also really interesting in itself since it was a migration of a people that was unprecedented.

• Ethiopian-Adal war, long story short this is where most of the historic tensions between Somalia and Ethiopia comes from and also part of why the Oromo expanded so much, with the two dominant kingdoms in the region being weakened because of war.

• Menelik's southern campaigns when he was the king of Shewa (not yet the king of kings) and expanded his kingdom to the south. Most of it was done by conquest, some of it in retaliation to kingdoms collaborating with Italians, some of it voluntary, some of it very brutal and have had historical consequences to today as the conquest of the Arsi Oromo kingdom. So Menelik has a mixed legacy, conquerer and anti-imperialist legend. It's interesting to note that the problem for the Oromo was that Menelik took over their land, while for Eritrea it's that he didn't do that.

• Second Italo-Ethiopian war, this time by Mussolini. Important moment in history is Haile Selassie deliverint a speech to the league of nations asking for help, saying that now it's Ethiopia, but tomorrow it will be them Italy didn't have control over the entire country as there was an ongoing guerilla resistance (my great grandfather was part of it actually), but Ethiopia did need British intervention, and the British didn't leave without doing their fair share of colonial looting

• Reunification of Ethiopia and Eritrea as a federation after the war. This was doomed to fail, Ethiopia was still mostly feudal, while Eritrea became capitalist under Italy. You had a relatively politically active working class in Eritrea, and while cultural affinity remained (to this day), it was never gonna work and when Haile Selassie abolished the federation and cracked down on unions, newspapers, suppress their culture etc in the 60s that started the Eritrean war of independence that was eventually won in '91.

• The overthrow of the monarchy in 1974 by the Derg, a military junta that would eventually be led by Mengistu. There were popular elements that helped it come to power, but little to know popular participation after it and it became a s***show of leftist infighting and terror against mostly other communists

• The Ogaden war. Somalia invaded Ethiopia, made the USSR support Ethiopia over Somalia after first supporting both and made the US switch sides to Somalia.

• The overthrow of the Derg by TPLF led by Meles. The TPLF has to be understood as an ethnonationalist party with dreams of a greater Tigray (now it has just devolves into a terrorist organization). It had no committment to Ethiopia as a unified country or anything else, so they were willing to take advantage of historical grievances of certain ethnicities and use tactics of divide and rule to maintain its power. It also has to be understood as a puppet regime of the US, Meles did everything the US asked him to in the region without question. Invade Somalia? War with Eritrea? No problem, neither had unity of the country let alone the region as their interest.

And well for the current situation I would watch that video. I'll give you some resources some other time but you can do some googles with this already, some s*** is really not well known and you can only read about it in academic papers tho, so maybe use google scholar for those topics.

Womanpuncher69

4y

CP of Canada and Fightback (trots trying to infiltrate the NDP) are both blowing up cause of s***scandals

WRU

4y

great rundown, thank you. heard more than once about your granddad being a g ill see what I can find far as further reading goes

fun guy

4y

CPC has always been sus to me

MyBallsAndMyWord

4y

any org that makes it a primary point to promote Québécois “self determination” is weird asf

MyBallsAndMyWord

4y

any org that makes it a primary point to promote Québécois “self determination” is weird asf

americana

4y

The French “people” don’t need self determination

MyBallsAndMyWord

4y

I’ve seen CPC members type paragraphs about how Québécois are an Oppressed Nation

They’re insane

SEGA GOON

4y

Free Hawaii, Alaska, Cascadia, California, Texas, Florida, New England from the BosWash imperialism