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Thursday, January 28, 2010

History of Chile

The first European to visit what is now Chile was the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who landed at Chiloé Island following his voyage, in 1520, through the strait that now bears his name. The region was then known to its native population as Tchili, a Native American word meaning "snow." At the same time of Magellan's visit, most of Chile south of the Rapel River was dominated by the Araucanians, a Native American tribe remarkable for its fighting ability. The tribes occupying the northern portions of Chile had been subjugated during the 15th century by the Incas of Peru. In 1535, after the Spanish under Francisco Pizarro had completed their conquest of Peru, Diego de Almagro, one of Pizarro's aides, led a gold-hunting expedition from that country overland into Chile. The expedition spent nearly three fruitless years in the country and then withdrew to Peru.

Spanish Settlement

Pedro de Valdivia, another of Pizarro's officers, led a second expedition into southern Chile in 1540. Despite fierce resistance from the Araucanians, Valdivia succeeded in establishing several settlements, including Santiago in 1541, Concepción in 1550, and Valdivia in 1552. In 1553, however, the Araucanians organized a successful uprising, killing Valdivia and many of his followers and devastating all the towns except Concepción and La Serena. The rebellion was the initial phase of warfare that lasted nearly 100 years. The Araucanians were the only important Native American people who did not quickly succumb to Spanish attack. Strife continued intermittently during and after the Spanish colonial period and did not end until late in the 19th century.

In the Spanish colonial organization Chile originally was a dependency of the viceroyalty of Peru and later had its own government. The country developed slowly, because it had neither important silver or gold deposits to attract the Spanish nor natives who were willing to labor. Moreover, it was far from the main centers of Spanish colonization in Peru and was difficult to reach. Farming in the Central Valley was the chief occupation, and Chile supplied Peru with foodstuffs, especially wheat. The townspeople lived by trade.

Independence from Spain

In 1810 Chile joined other Spanish colonies in breaking political ties with Spain. On September 18 of that year, celebrated thereafter as the Chilean independence day, the Santiago town council deposed the colonial governor of Chile, delegating his powers to a council of seven. Although this act marked the formal establishment of Chilean independence from Spain, intermittent warfare against Spanish troops, dispatched from Peru, continued for more than 15 years. A royalist army was decisively defeated at Chacabuco on February 12, 1817, ending Spanish control of northern Chile. One year later Bernardo O'Higgins, one of the revolutionary leaders, proclaimed the absolute independence of Chile. Nevertheless, royalist forces controlled nearly all of southern Chile until 1818, and were not completely expelled from the country until 1826.

Conservative Period

O'Higgins, who had been named director general of Chile in 1818, ruled the country with dictatorial powers until 1823, when popular hostility to his regime forced his resignation. A liberal constitution, establishing a republican form of government, was then adopted, but political strife among numerous organizations contending for power kept Chile in turmoil until 1830. In that year conservative elements, headed by General Joaquín Prieto, organized a successful rebellion and seized control of the government. In 1831 Prieto became president, but the leading person in the government was Diego Portales, who filled various cabinet posts during Prieto's administration. A new constitution, vesting immense powers in the executive department of the government, was adopted in 1833. Abortive armed attempts to remove the Conservatives from power were made by liberal groups in 1835, 1851, and 1859.

Despite its authoritarian character, the Conservative Party government fostered domestic policies that contributed substantially to the commercial and agricultural development of Chile. Steps were taken to exploit mineral resources, railroads were constructed, and immigration was encouraged. A school system and cultural institutions were established. The chief development in Chilean foreign relations during this period of Conservative dominance was a series of conflicts with neighboring countries—first with Bolivia and Peru in 1836, and then with Argentina, beginning in 1843. Armed hostilities were narrowly averted on several occasions in connection with this problem, which was not settled until 1881. In that year a treaty was signed, granting half of Tierra del Fuego to Chile.

Liberal Rule and Foreign Wars

Divisions resulting from disagreements with the Roman Catholic church had taken place, meanwhile, within the Conservative Party. Beginning in 1861 its liberal wing, in coalition with the Liberal Party, instituted a number of constitutional reforms, including prohibition of consecutive presidential terms. Endeavors to promote public welfare and the further development of national resources were intensified, notably by new railroad and highway projects and the creation of a postal system. In 1865 Chile became embroiled in a Spanish-Peruvian war that continued sporadically until 1869.

Chilean interests subsequently began the exploitation of the immensely valuable nitrate deposits in the Atacama Desert. Rejecting Bolivian claims to the region, the Chilean government in February 1879 ordered its military forces into the Bolivian port of Antofagasta. Two months later Peru, an ally of Bolivia, declared war on Chile, precipitating the War of the Pacific. As a result of its victory in this conflict, terminated in 1883, Chile acquired considerable territory, including the province of Antofagasta from Bolivia and the province of Tarapacá from Peru. Peru also yielded Tacna and Arica to Chile, on condition that after ten years a plebiscite be held. Although the two countries failed to agree on conditions for a plebiscite, disposition of the disputed areas was achieved in 1928 by negotiation, Tacna becoming a possession of Peru and Arica going to Chile. See Tacna-Arica Dispute.

Civil War and Natural Disaster

In 1891 political forces closely allied with the Roman Catholic clergy organized a revolt against the administration of President José Manuel Balmaceda, a Liberal Party leader. Under the leadership of naval officer Captain Jorge Montt, the rebels, who termed themselves Congressionalists, seized the Chilean fleet and the rich nitrate provinces in the north. In August they defeated a government army near Valparaíso. This city fell to the rebels, as did Santiago, virtually ending the war. More than 10,000 lives had been lost and considerable property destroyed. Balmaceda committed suicide in September. Shortly thereafter Montt became president, and Chile entered an extended period of peaceful reconstruction. As a concession to liberal sentiment in the country, Montt instituted several reforms, notably democratization of the executive department. The following years were marked by increasing participation of the Chilean people in politics and by mounting political turbulence.

In August 1906 a disastrous earthquake virtually destroyed Valparaíso and extensively damaged Santiago, killing more than 3000 people and leaving about 100,000 homeless. The damaged areas were rapidly rebuilt, however.

The World Wars

Chile was neutral in World War I (1914-1918). After the war, great strife developed in the country between liberal and conservative elements. The Liberals gained power with the election in 1920 of former minister of the interior Arturo Alessandri Palma, but he was unable to gain adoption of his proposals for reform. In 1924 a group of military figures accomplished a coup d'état, ostensibly for the purpose of forcing liberal reforms, driving Alessandri from office and establishing a military dictatorship. The dictatorship was overthrown early in 1925 in another military coup. A new constitution was written that reformed the electoral system, reduced the power of the congress, and established the separation of church and state. Alessandri was restored to the presidency, but his term lasted for less than a year. Under the next president, Emiliano Figueroa, governmental authority was actually wielded by an army officer, Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, who ruled as president from 1927 until 1931. Following additional coups and changes of administration, Alessandri was elected president again in 1932 and served until the end of his term in 1938.

In the election of 1938 a liberal government, with Radical Party member Pedro Aguirre Cerda as president, was elected by a coalition of democratic groups united in a popular front. His ambitious New Deal program was disrupted by a devastating earthquake that occurred in 1939, killing about 28,000 people. This coalition was successful again in 1942, when Radical Party member Juan Antonio Ríos was elected president, governing moderately amid the political tensions engendered by pro-U.S. and pro-Axis elements during World War II (1939-1945). Ríos led his country into a pro-Allies position, entering the war on the side of the United States in 1944. During the war the Communist Party emerged as one of the strongest political organizations in Chile. The country became a charter member of the United Nations in June 1945.

Postwar Governments (1946-1970)

The 1946 presidential election was won by Gabriel González Videla, the Radical Party leader who was supported by a left-wing coalition consisting mainly of the Radical and Communist parties. González Videla appointed three Communists to his cabinet, but the coalition endured for less than six months. The Communists, frequently at loggerheads with others of the government, were removed from the cabinet in April 1947. Later in the year diplomatic relations with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) were severed. In 1948 hundreds of Communists were incarcerated under the Law for the Defense of Democracy, which outlawed the Communist Party. A military revolt led by former President Ibáñez was suppressed. Manifestations of social and labor unrest were frequent during the following years; in 1951 strikes occurred in almost every sector of the economy.

A popular reaction against the traditional parties resulted in the election of General Ibáñez the following year. He restored some order but did not effectively cope with the economic and social problems. In 1958 Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez, a former senator and son of Arturo Alessandri Palma, heading a Conservative-Liberal coalition, was elected to the presidency on a platform favoring free enterprise and the encouragement of foreign investment. In response to strong opposition from the newly legalized Communist Party and the newly formed Christian Democratic Party, he proposed a ten-year plan that included tax reforms, building projects, and agrarian reform. He broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1964 but resumed ties with the USSR. In 1960 a series of tidal waves and earthquakes struck the country, causing widespread damage and killing thousands.

In the presidential election of 1964, former Senate member Eduardo Frei Montalva, candidate of the centrist Christian Democratic Party, defeated a leftist coalition. Frei's major reforms, such as partial government ownership of the copper industry, aroused dissatisfaction in both leftist and conservative elements that resulted in violent political opposition.

The Allende Regime

As the presidential election of 1970 approached, leftist opposition united to form a Popular Unity coalition; it nominated Salvador Allende Gossens, who waged his campaign on a platform that promised full nationalization of all basic industries, banks, and communications. He received about 37 percent of the votes, and Congress backed him overwhelmingly against his rightist opponent, former President Alessandri. Allende became the first president elected on a Marxist-Leninist program in a non-Communist country of the western hemisphere.

Once installed as president, Allende quickly began to implement his campaign promises, turning the country toward socialism. State control of the economy was instituted, mineral resources, foreign banks, and monopolistic enterprises nationalized, and land reform accelerated. In addition, Allende initiated a redistribution of income, raised wages, and controlled prices. Opposition to his program, however, was strong from the beginning, and by 1972 the result was seen in severe economic problems and a sharply polarized citizenry. The situation grew still more critical in 1973, when skyrocketing prices, food shortages (caused by the reduction of foreign credits), strikes, and political violence brought Chile to the brink of chaos. The crisis was aggravated by the United States, which worked to undermine the Allende regime. The climax came on September 11, 1973, when the military forces seized power; in the course of the coup d'état, President Allende committed suicide.

Pinochet Government

The military ruled through a junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. It immediately suspended the constitution, dissolved Congress, imposed strict censorship, and banned all political parties. In addition, it embarked on a campaign of terror against leftist elements in the country. Thousands were arrested; many were executed, tortured, or exiled, while still others languished in prison or simply disappeared.

For the next few years the junta retained its iron grip on the country, although some token relaxation could be seen toward the end of the decade. In 1976 Chilean opposition leader and former foreign minister Orlando Letelier and his U.S. secretary were killed by a car bomb while in Washington, D.C. At the time, the assassinations were widely believed to have been ordered by Chile's secret police. The state of siege was lifted in 1978 (although a state of emergency remained in effect), and more civilians were added to the cabinet. Chile, however, remained a police state. A new constitution, accepted by a referendum on the seventh anniversary of the military coup, legalized the regime until 1989, and Pinochet began another eight-year term as president in March 1981.

Economically, the Pinochet government, with its austere controls, slashed inflation and stimulated production between 1977 and 1981. Starting in 1982, however, the worldwide recession and declining copper prices led to a downturn in the Chilean economy. There were large-scale protests against the government in 1983, followed by a wave of bombings in major cities. Rising popular unrest and continued economic deterioration led Pinochet to reimpose a state of siege in November 1984. A treaty signed with Argentina later that month ratified Chile's claim to three islands in the Beagle Channel. After an unsuccessful attempt on Pinochet's life in September 1986, he launched new repressive measures.

Civilian Rule Restored

The state of emergency was finally lifted in August 1988, and in October Chileans were permitted to hold a plebiscite on whether Pinochet's term, due to expire in March 1989, should be extended to 1997. When nearly 55 percent of the electorate voted no, Pinochet's term was automatically extended to March 1990, pending free presidental and legislative elections. In December 1989, in Chile's first presidential election in 19 years, voters chose the Christian Democratic candidate, Patricio Aylwin. Also in 1990, Pinochet announced his intention to remain the commander-in-chief of the armed forces until 1997. Aylwin initiated modest economic reforms and appointed a commission to investigate human rights violations by the Pinochet regime.

In the 1993 elections Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, son of Eduardo Frei Montalva, was elected president. In order to continue the country's movement toward civilian-controlled politics, President Frei proposed eliminating the nine senatorial positions filled by army appointees and asked for the institution of proportional representation in parliamentary elections.

In November 1993 the former head of Chile's secret police during the Pinochet government and his deputy were sentenced to seven- and six-year sentences for masterminding the 1976 Letelier assassination. The case, which was widely seen as a test of Chile's fragile democracy, was appealed and upheld by the Chilean Supreme Court in May 1995. While Chilean military leaders agreed to abide by the court's decision, the former police commander vowed to resist arrest and called on Pinochet to intervene. Pinochet denounced the decision and challenged the authority of the Supreme Court to sentence the men. After a tense standoff between the military and the civilian government, the two convicted men were arrested in June 1995.

In August 1995 Frei introduced legislation that would reopen and accelerate investigations into all 542 pending cases of people who "disappeared" during military rule. In November of that year compromise agreements were reached, which stated that cases would be reopened only if plaintiffs could submit new evidence; that cases already under military jurisdiction would remain so; and that judges would be allowed to close cases even if the victims' fate remained undetermined.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

HISTORY OF KENYA

Masai and Kikuyu: to the 19th century AD

In the time before the arrival of outsiders and the beginning of recorded history, the Masai are the dominant tribe in the region now known as Kenya. They arrive as nomadic pastoralists from the north, probably in the mid-18th century. They are not Kenya's largest tribe (a distinction going to the Kikuyu, who live by agriculture), but the fierce reputation of the Masai warriors, engaging in frequent raids against their neighbours, gives them a power beyond their numbers.

During the 19th century the region is penetrated by Arab traders in seach of ivory and by a couple of intrepid German missionaries. But Kenya's colonial future develops accidentally - as a result of events unfolding in Zanzibar in 1885.

A German-British carve up: AD 1885-1886

On 7 August 1885 five German warships steam into the lagoon of Zanzibar and train their guns on the sultan's palace. They have arrived with a demand from Bismarck that Sultan Barghash cede to the German emperor his mainland territories or face the consequences.

But in the age of the telegram, gunboat diplomacy is no longer a local matter. This crisis is immediately on desks in London. Britain, eager not to offend Germany, suggests a compromise. The two nations should mutually agree spheres of interest over the territory stretching inland to the Great Lakes. This plan is accepted before August is out.

The embarrassed British consul finds himself under orders from London to persuade the sultan to sign an agreement ceding the lion's share of his mainland territory, with the details still to be decided. In September the German gunships begin their journey home. A joint Anglo-German boundary commission starts work in the interior.

By November 1886 the task is done and the result is agreed with the other main colonial power, France. The sultan is left a strip ten miles wide along the coast. Behind that a line is drawn to Mount Kilimanjaro and on to Lake Victoria at latitude 1° S. The British sphere of influence is to be to the north, the German to the south. The line remains to this day the border between Kenya and Tanzania.

British East Africa Company: AD 1888-1895

As with the areas being colonized by Rhodes at this same period in southern Africa, the British government is reluctant to take active responsibility for the region of east Africa which is now its acknowledged sphere of interest. Instead it assigns to a commercial company the right to administer and develop the territory. The Imperial British East Africa Company is set up for the purpose in 1888, a year ahead of Rhodes's British South Africa Company.

The region given into the company's care stretches all the way from the east coast to the kingdom of Buganda, on the northwest shore of Lake Victoria.

It is evident to all that the development of this region depends on the construction of a railway from the coast to Lake Victoria, but circumstances conspire to make this task far beyond the abilities of the East Africa Company. The running sore which saps their energy and their funds is Buganda.

Being in a sense beyond Lake Victoria, Germany is able to argue that this region (the most powerful kingdom within the territory of Uganda) is not covered by the territorial agreement with Britain. Moreover the irrepressible Karl Peters now forces the issue. In 1890 he arrives at Kampala and persuades the kabaka (the king of Buganda) to sign a treaty accepting a German protectorate over his kingdom.

A possibly dangerous confrontation between the imperial powers is averted when the British prime minister, Lord Salisbury, proposes a deal which Berlin, remarkably, accepts. Salisbury offers the tiny and apparently useless island of Heligoland (in British possession since 1814) in return for German recognition of British protectorates in Zanzibar, Uganda and Equatoria (the southern province of Sudan). But Germany derives her own benefit from the deal. Heligoland subsequently proves an invaluable naval base in two world wars.

Meanwhile the East Africa Company faces further problems in Buganda, where civil war breaks out between factions led by British Protestant missionaries and their French Catholic rivals.

In January 1892 there is heavy gunfire between and among the four hills which form Kampala. On the top of one hill is the palace of the kabaka. On another the French have completed a Catholic cathedral of wooden poles and reeds. On a third the Protestants are building their church. On the fourth is the fort established for the company by Frederick Lugard, who is the only combatant with the advantage of a Maxim machine gun.

Lugard prevails. But the loss of life and destruction of property in this unseemly European squabble makes it plain that the East Africa Company is incapable of fulfilling its duties.

In 1894 the British government declares a protectorate over Buganda. Two years later British control is extended to cover the western kingdoms of Ankole, Toro and Bunyoro - to form, together with Buganda, the Uganda Protectorate.

Meanwhile the much larger region of Kenya has been relatively calm, even if the East Africa Company has achieved little of value there. But in taking responsibility for Uganda, the British government needs to be sure of the new protectorate's access to the sea. So in 1895 the company's charter is revoked (with compensation of £250,000). Kenya becomes another new responsibility of the British government, as the East Africa Protectorate.

East African Protectorate: AD 1895-1920

The early years of the protectorate include several developments of significance in Kenya's subsequent history. One is the decision to encourage settlement in Kenya's temperate highlands by farmers of European origin (this prosperous region subsequently becomes known as the White Highlands). The intention is to provide revenue for the railway driven northwest from Mombasa to reach Kisumu on Lake Victoria in 1901.

Most of the settlers come not from Britain but from south Africa. Short of assistance on their new farms in the relatively unpopulated highlands, they make strenuous efforts to introduce the forced African labour common in many other European colonies. Not until the 1920s are such methods outlawed in Kenya.

The resentment of the indigenous population against the settlers is accentuated from 1904, when a policy is introduced of settling Africans on reserves. Meanwhile a third racial group complicates the protectorate's racial unease.

Indentured labour from Britain's Indian empire is brought in to construct the railway. Subsequently the existence of the railway brings Indian traders from the coast into the interior. The result is that by the 1920s there is a sizable Indian population to demand a share in the developing political life of Kenya. (By this time the name has been changed from the East Africa Protectorate to Kenya Colony, celebrating the region's highest mountain.)

Kenya Colony: AD 1920-1963

The establishment of the colony of Kenya brings in its train racial hostilities. New legislation on land tenure shamelessly favours the settlers. In many areas Africans are now formally dispossessed of their land and are confined in reservations (the Kikuyu, the largest tribe, being the main losers), while the 'white highlands' policy restricts the ownership of the best farming land to Europeans. These and other tensions are reflected in the developing political scene.

From 1919 the white settlers are allowed to elect members to the legislative council. The other two communities of the colony demand similar rights.

The Indians, enjoying a greater economic strength, are the more adamant. As early as 1920 they turn down the offer of two seats on the legislative council, since this is not representative of the size of their community. Tension remains high until 1927, when the Indians win the right to five seats on the council (compared to eleven reserved for the Europeans).

The Africans are almost as prompt in asserting their claims. As early as 1921 the Young Kikuyu Association (also known as the East Africa Association) is established to assert African rights and, more specifically, to recover appropriated Kikuyu land.

In 1925 the colonial government suppresses this first Kikuyu organization, but its members immediately regroup as the Kikuyu Central Association - of which, three years later, the young Jomo Kenyatta becomes general secretary and editor of the organization's newspaper, Muigwithania (The Unifier).

During the 1930s Kenyatta campaigns energetically on a range of linked policies, including land rights, access to education, respect for traditional African customs, and the need for African representation in the legislative council. His methods are peaceful, but he warns that lack of progress on these issues will result in 'a dangerous explosion - the one thing all sane men wish to avoid'. But there is little sign of progress until after World War II.

In 1944 the legislative council in Nairobi (the capital since 1905) becomes the first in any east African colony to include an African member - as yet just a single and lonely representative of the ethnic majority. The number doubles to two in 1946, to four in 1948 and to eight in 1951. But these are token politicians, appointed by the colonial governor from local lists.

In the early 1950s these half-hearted steps towards reform are suddenly overtaken by a much more powerful and alarming challenge to the steady pace of British colonial rule. In 1952 a militant independence movement calling itself Mau Mau makes its presence and its demands painfully clear.

Mau Mau: AD 1952-1960

In October 1952 there is a sudden outbreak of sabotage and assassination in Kenya. The perpetrators using terrorist tactics are Kikuyu, and their ritual oaths of loyalty to their secret organization reflect the customs of Jomo Kenyatta's political group, the Kikuyu Central Association. But the meaning of their name for themselves, Mau Mau, is at the time and remains today a mystery.

The colonial government reacts rapidly, declaring a state of emergency and arresting Jomo Kenyatta. Charged with planning the Mau Mau uprising, he is sentenced in March 1953 to seven years' imprisonment. But his absence in British custody does nothing to lessen the campaign of terror.

The loss of European life is relatively slight (about 100 people). The main victims of Mau Mau violence are other Kikuyu who refuse to support the cause and are killed as collaborators. These number perhaps 2000. Among the Mau Mau themselves as many as 11,000 die in encounters with British forces or in British prison camps, during a guerilla war that lasts four years and is marked by atrocities on both sides.

The worst of the violence is over by 1956, though the state of emergency is not lifted until 1960. By this time the only effective response to the Mau Mau rebellion is under way. A conference in London in 1960 gives Africans the majority of seats in the legislative council. Kenya's first African parties are formed to take part in the developing political process.

Independence: from AD 1963

Jomo Kenyatta is still in detention in 1960, but his colleagues elect him president of their newly formed political party KANU (Kenya African National Union). He is released by the British in 1961. In London in 1962 he leads Kenya's delegation in the negotiations for independence. The new nation is to include the coastal strip which until this time has been leased from the sultan of Zanzibar.

In elections in May 1963 KANU wins the majority of the seats. Independence is achieved in December 1963, with Kenyatta as prime minister. A year later, under a new constitution, Kenya becomes a republic (soon to be a one-party republic, when opposition leaders agree to end party faction and cooperate with KANU). In 1964 Kenyatta is elected president.

To many in the white community it seems a terrifying prospect that almost unfettered power is now in the hands of a politician widely held responsible for Kikuyu violence in the Mau Mau period (not to mention his having spent two years at Moscow University during the 1930s).

But Kenyatta confounds his critics. He rules even-handedly in relation to the African, Asian and European communities. He carefully involves ministers from tribes other than the Kikuyu in his administration. And he develops a successful free-market economy open to foreign investment. When he dies, in 1978, Kenya ranks high among African countries both in terms of political stability and economic growth.

Kenyatta is succeeded peacefully from within the ranks of KANU by his deputy, Daniel arap Moi (not himself a Kikuyu, but from one of the smaller Kalenjin tribes). Moi continues Kenyatta's pro-western policies and his one-party rule, with little tolerance of any form of opposition. But in the early 1990s, as in most other African countries, there is strong pressure for multiparty elections.

These are held in December 1992. Moi is elected president and KANU wins the majority of seats in the national assembly, victory in both cases being eased by the fragmented nature of the opposition (and, according to Commonwealth observers, by electoral malpractice).

The 1990s prove a difficult time. Kenya flounders economically, there are ominous outbreaks of ethnic conflict between Kalenjin and Kikuyu, and the nation's troubles are compounded by evidence of widespread corruption. In 1997, with little sign of Moi taking effective measures to curb these abuses, the IMF suspends its promised programme of loans.

At the same time the international community presses unsuccessfully for constitutional reform to give opposition parties a fair chance against KANU. Elections in December 1997 confirm Moi in the presidency and KANU as the ruling party.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

HISTORY OF BOLIVIA

Las Charcas: AD 1538-1825

In conquering the Inca empire, the conquistadors - even though few in number - move with surprising speed into the Altiplano, the high plateau in the Andes which is often called Upper Peru and which comprises much of modern Bolivia. This is a region with a rich past, as the ruins of Tiwanaku bear witness, but it has been a relatively unimportant part of the Inca realm.

Nevertheless in 1538, just five years after the murder of Atahualpa, there is a Spanish administrative centre at Charcas, later known as Chuquisaca. It is almost as if the conquistadors have forewarning of the discovery which will soon transform this inaccessible region into the wealthiest corner of the Spanish empire.

In 1545 silver deposits are found at Potosí. They turn out to be vast. In 1548 the town of La Paz is established on the trade route between the silver mines and the viceregal capital at Lima. By 1650 the population of Potosí has risen to about 160,000 (London at the time has some 400,000 inhabitants).

Las Charcas, the region administered from Chuquisaca, extends steadily east of the Andes until it eventually includes eastern Bolivia, Paraguay and much of Argentina. This shift of balance is reflected in a change of administrative policy. In 1776 the Spanish empire east of the Andes is removed from the control of Lima and is transferred to Buenos Aires, capital of the new viceroyalty of La Plata.

Astride the Andes, with strong links to both east and west, Las Charcas becomes a battleground during the wars of independence between rebels from Argentina and Spanish royalists in Peru (after a very early failed uprising in Bolivia itself, in 1809). A series of battles here in 1812-14 persuades San Martín that he can only lay a lasting basis for independence by campaigning west of the Andes, through Chile and up into Peru.

His analysis proves accurate. Ten years later the Altiplano is the only part of south America in Spanish hands after rebel forces capture the Peruvian viceroy and his army at Ayacucho in 1824.

Sucre and Bolivia: AD 1825-1827

The republican victory at Ayacucho leaves only one Spanish army at large, in the high Andean territory of Upper Peru. Sucre moves into this region early in 1825 and defeats the Spanish in April at Tumusla.

Upper Peru has been administered from Lima in the early centuries of Spanish rule, although geographically - lying mainly east of the Andes - it has more obvious links with Buenos Aires. The republican governments in both cities are eager to incorporate this region, with its famous mines at Potosí, but locally a spirit of independence prevails. When Sucre convenes a congress in July 1825 to consider the region's future, the vote is for a separate state.

In honour of their liberators the delegates propose to name the new republic after Bolivár and to rename as Sucre the historic city (Chuquisaca) in which they are meeting.

The nation is duly proclaimed on 6 August 1825 as República Bolívar, soon to be better known to the world as Bolivia. Bolívar himself drafts a constitution. When it is adopted, in 1826, Sucre is elected president for life. Prudently he accepts a term of only two years, but the violence of political life in this new and remote republic means that he does not complete even this modest term. Already in 1827 there are several uprisings, in one of which Sucre is wounded. He resigns as president and returns to his home in Ecuador.

The sudden departure of Sucre before his term is up prefigures a pattern in Bolivian political life. Even by the standards of Latin America, regimes here prove remarkably unstable. It has been calculated that between independence and 1952 (the most significant date in Bolivia's subsequent history) there are no fewer than 179 uprisings against the government of the moment.

Nevertheless in the early years, from 1828, the nation has a dicatator who is unmistakably a strong man in the continent's caudíllo tradition. But his aggressive machismo brings considerable harm to Bolivia at the hands of neighbouring Chile.

Triangular conflicts: AD 1835-1884

During the first few decades of their existence as the independent nations of Peru, Bolivia and Chile, the three Andean provinces of the old viceroyalty of Peru engage in two bouts of war.

The issue on the first occasion is a straightforward attempt at dominance by a typical Latin American caudíllo. Andrés Santa Cruz establishes himself from 1828 as dictator in Bolivia - after failing in an attempt in the previous year to be elected president of Peru. In 1835 he takes steps to correct this error of judgement by the Peruvians. He marches into Peru with an army from Bolivia.

During 1836 Santa Cruz successfully wins control in Peru and proclaims a new Peruvian-Bolivian confederation with himself as president. But the potential strength of this new neighbour alarms Chile, which goes on the offensive. Three years of warfare end in a Chilean victory. In 1839 Santa Cruz is thrown out of both Peru and Bolivia.

The next serious conflict between the three nations is by contrast entirely economic in origin. In the 1860s valuable deposits of nitrates are discovered in the Atacama desert. This region is so arid that it has previously been considered useless except as Bolivia's only access to the sea (the coast around Antofagasta is at first included in the newly independent republic of Bolivia).

A mutual distrust of Chile causes Peru and Bolivia in 1873 to make a secret alliance which later drags them both into war. In 1878 Bolivia attempts to impose increased taxes on Chilean enterprises in Bolivian territory, following this with a threat of expropriation. Chile, retaliating in February 1879, seizes the port of Antofagasta. By April all three nations are at war.

Two Chilean naval victories over Peru later in the year (off Iquique in May and Angamos in October) are followed by an invasion. In January 1880 Chilean forces take Lima. They remain in the city until a treaty is signed in 1883 at Ancón. A separate truce follows a year later between Chile and Bolivia.

The outcome of this conflict, known as the War of the Pacific, is a disaster for both Bolivia and Peru. Bolivia cedes to Chile its Pacific coastline and the nitrate-rich province of Antofagasta, while Chile in return merely agrees to build a railway from La Paz to the coast and to guarantee the unrestrained passage of Bolivian goods to certain ports. Peru loses the equally valuable minerals of the Tarapacá province, stretching up the coast north of Antofagasta.

With this increase in territory, and the prestige of its two successive victories, Chile replaces Peru as the main Pacific power in south America.

In Bolivia one effect of the loss of Antofagasta is to direct attention eastwards. If Bolivian goods can now only reach the Pacific through Chilean territory, then maybe an outlet to the Atlantic is a more promising proposition. One part of the great network of rivers draining into the Plate is not far from Bolivia's southeastern border.

The Paraguay river at this point is navigable, and Bolivian access to it would be through the virtually uninhabited region known as the Gran Chaco. But neighbouring Paraguay has designs upon the Chaco too. In the early 20th century there are thought to be strong economic reasons for annexing this inhospitable area.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Ethiopian History

Early Populations and Neighboring States

Details on the origins of all the peoples that make up the population of highland Ethiopia were still matters for research and debate in the early 1990s. Anthropologists believe that East Africa's Great Rift Valley is the site of humankind's origins. (The valley traverses Ethiopia from southwest to northeast.) In 1974 archaeologists excavating sites in the Awash River valley discovered 3.5-million-year- old fossil skeletons, which they named Australopithecus afarensis. These earliest known hominids stood upright, lived in groups, and had adapted to living in open areas rather than in forests.

Coming forward to the late Stone Age, recent research in historical linguistics--and increasingly in archaeology as well--has begun to clarify the broad outlines of the prehistoric populations of present-day Ethiopia. These populations spoke languages that belong to the Afro-Asiatic super-language family, a group of related languages that includes Omotic, Cushitic, and Semitic, all of which are found in Ethiopia today. Linguists postulate that the original home of the Afro-Asiatic cluster of languages was somewhere in northeastern Africa, possibly in the area between the Nile River and the Red Sea in modern Sudan. From here the major languages of the family gradually dispersed at different times and in different directions--these languages being ancestral to those spoken today in northern and northeastern Africa and far southwestern Asia.

The first language to separate seems to have been Omotic, at a date sometime after 13,000 B.C. Omotic speakers moved southward into the central and southwestern highlands of Ethiopia, followed at some subsequent time by Cushitic speakers, who settled in territories in the northern Horn of Africa, including the northern highlands of Ethiopia. The last language to separate was Semitic, which split from Berber and ancient Egyptian, two other Afro-Asiatic languages, and migrated eastward into far southwestern Asia.

By about 7000 B.C. at the latest, linguistic evidence indicates that both Cushitic speakers and Omotic speakers were present in Ethiopia. Linguistic diversification within each group thereafter gave rise to a large number of new languages. In the case of Cushitic, these include Agew in the central and northern highlands and, in regions to the east and southeast, Saho, Afar, Somali, Sidamo, and Oromo, all spoken by peoples who would play major roles in the subsequent history of the region. Omotic also spawned a large number of languages, Welamo (often called Wolayta) and Gemu-Gofa being among the most widely spoken of them, but Omotic speakers would remain outside the main zone of ethnic interaction in Ethiopia until the late nineteenth century.

Both Cushitic- and Omotic-speaking peoples collected wild grasses and other plants for thousands of years before they eventually domesticated those they most preferred. According to linguistic and limited archaeological analyses, plough agriculture based on grain cultivation was established in the drier, grassier parts of the northern highlands by at least several millennia before the Christian era. Indigenous grasses such as teff and eleusine were the initial domesticates; considerably later, barley and wheat were introduced from Southwest Asia. The corresponding domesticate in the better watered and heavily forested southern highlands was ensete, a root crop known locally as false banana. All of these early peoples also kept domesticated animals, including cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys. Thus, from the late prehistoric period, agricultural patterns of livelihood were established that were to be characteristic of the region through modern times. It was the descendants of these peoples and cultures of the Ethiopian region who at various times and places interacted with successive waves of migrants from across the Red Sea. This interaction began well before the modern era and has continued through contemporary times.

During the first millennium B.C. and possibly even earlier, various Semitic-speaking groups from Southwest Arabia began to cross the Red Sea and settle along the coast and in the nearby highlands. These migrants brought with them their Semitic speech (Sabaean and perhaps others) and script (Old Epigraphic South Arabic) and monumental stone architecture. A fusion of the newcomers with the indigenous inhabitants produced a culture known as pre-Aksumite. The factors that motivated this settlement in the area are not known, but to judge from subsequent history, commercial activity must have figured strongly. The port city of Adulis, near modern-day Mitsiwa, was a major regional entrepôt and probably the main gateway to the interior for new arrivals from Southwest Arabia. Archaeological evidence indicates that by the beginning of the Christian era this pre-Aksumite culture had developed western and eastern regional variants. The former, which included the region of Aksum, was probably the polity or series of polities that became the Aksumite state.

During the 1st millennium BC, Semitic people from Saba' (Hebrew Sheba) crossed the Red Sea and conquered the Hamite on the coast of what was eventually to become the Ethiopian Empire. By the 2nd century AD the victors had established the kingdom of Axum. The kingdom was ruled by the Solomonid dynasty, so called because the kings claimed direct descent from the biblical king Solomon and the queen of Sheba. Axum converted to Christianity, belonging to the same tradition as the Coptic Christians of Egypt. It flourished for a while, but beginning in about the 7th century the kingdom declined as the Solomonids lost control of section after section of their realm. Early in the 10th century the Solomonid dynasty was overthrown and replaced by the Zagwe dynasty, the ruling family of a region on the central plateau known as Lasta. Regaining control of the country around or after 1260, the Solomonids gradually succeeded in reasserting their authority over much of Ethiopia, although Muslims retained control of the coastal area and the southeast. During the reign (1434-1468) of Zara Yakub, the administration of the Ethiopian church, which had become divided by factionalism, was reformed, and religious doctrines were codified. At about this time a political system emerged that lasted until the middle of the 20th century. It was characterized by absolutist monarchs who exacted military service in return for grants of land.

Ethiopia and the Early Islamic Period

Warriors from the Islamic state of Adal with their Leader Gragn Ahmed invaded Ethiopia beginning about 1527.

Ethiopians defeated the Muslims in 1543. In 1557 Jesuit missionaries arrived, but their ongoing attempts to convert the Ethiopian emperors from Coptic Christianity to Roman Catholicism were largely unsuccessful, and provoked social and political unrest in those who felt the Coptic Church was the backbone of an independent Ethiopian culture. In 1632, following a period of turbulence and dynastic confusion, Fasiladas became emperor. He was succeeded by his son, Johannes I, in 1637. During the 17th century the country experienced an artistic renaissance for Ethiopian culture, as it was exposed to styles of expression from Western Europe and the Muslim world. This was especially true during the reign of Johannes' son, Iyasus I, also known as Iyasus the Great. After succeeding to the crown in 1682, Iyasus became known as a lover of the arts, as well as a modernizer and brilliant military tactician. His reign saw the construction of some of Ethiopia's most beautiful religious architecture as well as the re-establishment of governmental authority over several provinces in the south that had succumbed to Muslim and tribal encroachment. After the death of Iyasus in 1706, Ethiopia entered another prolonged period of dynastic confusion and decline, during which the country fractured into separate regions.

The only unifying force that remained throughout this period was the Ethiopian church. Gaining the support of high church officials, a successful brigand from the northwestern frontier, Kassa Haylu, had himself crowned Emperor Theodore II in 1855, after having defeated a number of petty feudal rulers who controlled various sections of the country. He began to modernize and centralize the legal and administrative systems, despite the opposition of local governors. Tensions developed with Great Britain. Later, when Theodore imprisoned some British officials for conspiring against him, including the British consul, the British dispatched an expeditionary under Robert (later Lord) Napier force to Ethiopia, and the emperor committed suicide in Magdala (now Amba Mariam) 1868 rather than be taken prisoner. After a four-year struggle for the throne by various claimants, Dejach Kassai, governor of the province of Tigray, succeeded, in being crowned Johannes IV, emperor of Ethiopia. Johannes IV attempts to further centralize the government led to revolts by local leaders; in addition, his regime was threatened during 1875-76 by Egyptian incursions and, after 1881, by raids by followers of the Mahdi in Sudan.

In the 1870s the main external enemy of the empire, which was little more than a collection of semi-independent states, was Egypt. In 1875 the Egyptian khedive Ismail Pasha extended Egyptian protection to the Muslim ruler of Harer and launched an attack on Ethiopia from both the north and the east. Johannes successfully halted the Egyptian invasion, but the continued occupation by Egypt of the Red Sea and Somali ports severely curtailed the supply of arms and other goods to Ethiopia. The opening (1869) of the Suez Canal increased the strategic importance of Ethiopia, and several European powers (particularly Italy, France, and Great Britain) sought influence in the area. Johannes was killed defending his western frontier against the Sudanese in 1889. He was succeeded by Menelik II, who established a new capital at Addis Ababa and succeeded in uniting the provinces of Tigray and Amhara with Shewa.

Menelik II (1844-1913) was the one monarch who accomplished the dreams Tewodros had for his country. Menelik took over as king of Ethiopia in 1889 after the death of Yohannes in the Battle of Metema. Most European powers in the late 19th century were determined to secure territories in Africa. Italy was focusing its desires on particularly Ethiopia. The Treaty of Uccialli was negotiated between Ethiopia and Italy in 1890. Two copies, one in Amharic and one in Italian, were prepared. On the Italian version of the treaty, Francesco Crispi, prime minister of Italy, announced to all European nations that Ethiopia had become a territory belonging to Italy. On the Amharic version, it gave Menelik II the right to ask Italy for help in times of need, but it did not say anything about Ethiopia becoming a territory of Italy. When Menelik II discovered the misunderstanding, he immediately wrote to Britain's Queen Victoria, to the ruler of Germany, and to the president of France insisting that Ethiopia was still an independent nation. In 1893, Menelik II denounced the treaty and by 1895 Ethiopia and Italy were at war. On March 1896 Menelik's troops crushed the Italian army at Adwa, Ethiopia. Later, Italy did recognize Ethiopia as an independent nation.

After Menelik defeated the Italians at the Battle of Adwa, he expanded Ethiopia by conquest. Turmoil led to Menelik’s death, which brought his daughter, Empress Zauditu, to power in 1917. Tafari Makonnen was regent and heir apparent. Upon Empress Zauditu’s death in 1930, Tafari Makonnen was crowned Haile Selassie I as he became the 225th successor of the Solomonic dynasty. The name Haile Selassie means 'the Power of the Trinity' in Amharic, and his official titles also included 'King of Kings' and the ‘Lion of Judah.' In 1931, Haile Sellasie decreed the nation's first written constitution. Through his efforts, Ethiopia became a member of the international organization called the League of Nations (now United Nations) in 1932.

The Italo-Ethiopian Wars

With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the Red Sea coast had become increasingly attractive to the European powers as an object for colonization. Italy focused its attention on Ethiopia, seizing Aseb in 1872 and Massawa in 1885. In 1889 Menelik and the Italians signed the Treaty of Wichale (Ucciali). The treaty was one of friendship and cooperation, but the Amharic and Italian versions of it differed, and the Italians claimed that it made all of Ethiopia their protectorate. As a result, war broke out between Italy and Ethiopia in 1895, and Italian forces were decisively defeated at Adwa (Aduwa) the following year. Italy was forced to recognize the independence of Ethiopia, and Menelik’s present-day boundaries. The successor of Menelik, Emperor Lij Iyasu (reigned 1913-1916), was deposed in favor of his aunt, crowned Empress Zauditu. Tafari Makonnen, her cousin, was selected as heir apparent; he succeeded to the throne as Haile Selassie I. In 1931 he granted Ethiopia its first constitution.

With the rise of the dictator Benito Mussolini, Italian designs toward Ethiopia were revived, and in October 1935 Italy invaded the country (see Italy: The Ethiopian Campaign). An attempt by the League of Nations to halt the conquest failed. Addis Ababa fell to the invaders, and in May 1936 Mussolini proclaimed Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III emperor of Ethiopia. Haile Selassie was forced to flee the country and take refuge in England, but he was restored to the throne by British and Ethiopian forces in 1941.

The Later Reign of Haile Selassie

According to the terms of the Allied peace treaty with Italy, signed in1947, agreement was to be reached within a year on the disposition of the former Italian colonies of Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, and Libya. In the absence of such an agreement, however, the decision was left to the United Nations (UN). The UN General Assembly voted for the federation of Eritrea with Ethiopia, to be completed by September 1952.

In 1955 Haile Selassie issued a revised constitution, which was a half-hearted attempt to move the country into the 20th century. For example, it gave certain limited powers to the parliament. Progressive elements in the country, however, felt it was insufficient. After an unsuccessful attempt by members of the imperial guard to overthrow Haile Selassie in December 1960, the emperor increased government efforts toward economic development and social reform.

As the 1960s progressed, Haile Selassie became increasingly preoccupied with foreign affairs. In 1963 he played a leading role in the formation of the Organization of African Unity, which located its secretariat at Addis Ababa. During the following year a long-standing border dispute between Ethiopia and the Somali Republic erupted into armed warfare. A truce, agreed to in March, established a demilitarized zone along the border, but hostilities recurred sporadically. Trouble also arose in 1965 with Sudan, which Ethiopia accused of abetting an Eritrean independence movement. The conflict intensified when 7,000 Eritreans fled to Sudan in 1967 because of Ethiopian military reprisals against the secessionists. In December 1970 the government declared a state of siege in parts of Eritrea. The move failed, however, to end the guerrilla warfare.

In the early 1970s Haile Selassie continued to play a major role in international affairs, helping to mediate disputes between Senegal and Guinea, Tanzania and Uganda, and northern and southern Sudan. Nevertheless, he largely ignored urgent domestic problems: the great inequality in the distribution of wealth, rural underdevelopment, and corruption in government, rampant inflation, unemployment and severe drought in the north from 1972 to 1975.

The Mengistu Regime

In February 1974 students, workers, and soldiers began a series of strikes and demonstrations that culminated on September 12, 1974, with the deposition of Haile Selassie by members of the armed forces. Chief among the coup leaders was Major Mengistu Haile Mariam. A group called the Provisional Military Administrative Council, known as the Derg, was established to run the country, with Mengistu serving as chairman. In late 1974 the Derg issued a program for the establishment of a state-controlled socialist economy. In early 1975 all agricultural land in Ethiopia was nationalized, with much of it then parceled out in small

Plots to individuals. In March 1975 the monarchy was abolished, and Ethiopia became a republic.

The overthrow of the monarchy and the creation of the republic ushered in a new era of political openness. Ethnic groups that were brought into Ethiopia in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as the Oromo, Afars, Somali, and Eritreans, stepped up their demands for self-determination. Several of these groups even questioned the legitimacy of the Ethiopian state and created guerrilla forces to fight for independence. With the liberalization of politics, various ideologically based political organizations formed, each with its own view as to the preferred character of a new Ethiopia. Rather than allow democratic elections, the military regime attempted to co-opt potential opponents, giving the most significant political organizations representation in a deliberative body, the Politbureau.

By 1975 it was clear that Mengistu intended to consolidate his hold on power. This led to criticism from the civilian left, particularly after several top leaders of the Derg were killed in early 1977, reportedly on Mengistu's orders. Chief among opponents was the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP), which by the beginning of 1977 had launched a systematic campaign to undermine the military regime. The EPRP conducted urban guerrilla warfare against the regime, referred to as the “White Terror.” The government responded with its own “Red Terror” campaign. The government provided peasants, workers, public officials, and students considered loyal to the government with arms to help government security forces root out so-called enemies of the revolution. Between 1977 and 1978 an estimated 100,000 people suspected of being enemies of the government were killed or disappeared in the name of the Red Terror.

Increasing human rights violations led to tensions between Ethiopia and the United States (Ethiopia's superpower ally of more than 20 years), culminating in a complete break in relations in 1977. The regime was weakened by the withdrawal of military aid, and opponents of the regime gained control of vast amounts of rural territory and destabilized life in the cities. By the summer of 1977 the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) controlled all but the major cities in the province of Eritrea; the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), supported by the EPLF, had successfully captured significant territory in the Tigray region; and Somali separatists, aided by the national army of Somalia, had completely routed the Ethiopian army in the Ogaden region. However, by early 1978 the Mengistu regime had managed to secure military assistance from the USSR and Cuba, enabling it to regain control of lost territories and drive its opponents underground.

Following this success, Mengistu attempted to win popular support for his regime. He created the Worker's Party of Ethiopia (WPE) in 1984 as Ethiopia's official Marxist-Leninist party and prepared a new constitution to make Ethiopia a Marxist-Leninist people's republic. In 1987 the new constitution was proclaimed and the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia declared, modeled after the Soviet system of government. Nominally a system of civilian rule, the new constitution abolished the Derg and established a new, popularly elected national assembly. Former Derg members remained in control, however, and the new assembly elected Mengistu as president of Ethiopia.

Resistance and Revolution

Despite its reorganization, the Mengistu government continued to be viewed by many as illegitimate, and by 1987 opposition groups such as the EPLF and the TPLF, which had been driven underground a decade earlier, emerged as revitalized and better organized military organizations. Over the next two years, the Ethiopian army suffered an increasing number of defeats, and its forces became demoralized. The EPLF regained control of most of Eritrea, and the TPLF captured the entire Tigray region and began operations in surrounding regions.

Beginning in the late 1970s Ethiopia suffered from a series of droughts, which progressively lowered agricultural production. A prolonged drought between 1984 and 1986 plunged the country into famine. The embattled northern regions of Ethiopia were hardest hit by the drought. Under an ill-planned resettlement program, the government forcibly relocated about 600,000 northerners to the south. The protracted civil war and the government's mistrust of Westerners hampered worldwide efforts to provide food and medical aid to the inhabitants of Ethiopia. During the 1980s an estimated 1 million Ethiopians died from starvation as a result of famine.

In the late 1980s Ethiopia lost the support of the Soviet Union, which had become dissatisfied with Ethiopia’s political and economic development under Mengistu. Faced with economic and military shortages, the government was forced to devise a political solution to its problems. The Ethiopian national assembly called for unconditional peace talks with the EPLF in June 1989, and later agreed to similar talks with the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), an umbrella organization headed by the TPLF. Even as these talks proceeded, the opposition forces acquired more and more territory. In February 1990 the EPLF mounted a major drive aimed at capturing the Eritrean port city of Massawa, the entry point for much of the food and military supplies coming into Ethiopia. By the middle of the month it had overrun the city, dealing a decisive blow to the Ethiopian army. A year later the EPRDF had encircled Addis Ababa in the country's heartland. The Ethiopian army lost its will to fight, and the country's political leaders conceded defeat. In May 1991 the EPLF took complete control of Eritrea, Mengistu flea the country, and the EPRDF took control of Addis Ababa.

The EPRDF, led by Meles Zenawi, set up a national transitional government in Addis Ababa, and the EPLF established a provisional government in Eritrea. After a referendum in 1993, Eritrea declared its independence, and Ethiopia recognized the new Eritrean government. In June 1994 Ethiopian voters elected representatives to a Constituent Assembly, charged with writing a new democratic constitution. The EPRDF won 484 out of 547 seats in the assembly. A new constitution granting special rights to different ethnic groups in Ethiopia was ratified in December, and became effective in August 1995. In May 1995 a new legislative body, the Council of People's Representatives, was elected, with the majority of seats going to the EPRDF. In August the Constituent Assembly officially transferred power to the new legislature, and the country was renamed the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. In the same month the legislature elected Meles as the country's prime minister. He was reelected in October 2000.

Some ethnic groups, including segments of the Oromo and Amhara people, remain displeased with the Ethiopian government and consider it as illegitimate as the one that preceded it. The most vigorous opposition has come from the Ogaden region of southeastern Ethiopia, where Islamic fundamentalist Somali rebels, supported by Somali kinsmen, have battled for the region's independence since before the overthrow of Mengistu. In late 1996 the Ethiopian army attacked rebel bases in Somalia, killing more than 200 Somali rebels.

In 1994 Ethiopian courts began criminal proceedings against members and supporters of Mengistu's regime for offenses committed during and after the years of the Red Terror. By 1997 more than 5,000 suspects had been charged with war crimes such as torture, murder, and genocide. Prosecution began in 1996 against 73 Derg members, 23 of whom, including Mengistu, were tried in absentia. The Ethiopian government has attempted to extradite Mengistu from Zimbabwe, where he lives in exile. Human rights groups have criticized the fact that many of the suspects in custody-who total more than 2,000-have been in prison without trial since 1991.

In mid-1998 clashes broke out between Ethiopia and Eritrea along the countries' border, with each side accusing the other of seizing territory. The border had not been precisely delineated when Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia in 1993. By early 1999 hundreds of thousands of troops had been sent to the border, and the dispute had become bitter war. Tens of thousands of soldiers died in the fighting before a cease-fire was declared in June 2000. In December Eritrea and Ethiopia, under the auspices of the UN, signed a peace agreement that formally ended the war and established a commission to demarcate the border between the countries.

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