Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
DISCONTENT
Despite modernisation, the pace of development was slow, and dissatisfaction with it, and
with the emperor's autocratic rule, began to grow. Finally, taking advantage of a state visit
to Brazil in December 1960, the emperor's imperial bodyguard staged a coup d'etat.
Though put down by the army and air force, it signalled the beginning of the end of imperi-
al rule in Ethiopia.
Discontent simmered among the students too, who protested in particular against land
tenure, corruption and the appalling famine of 1972-74 in which an estimated 200,000
died.
Meanwhile, international relations had also been deteriorating. In 1962 Ethiopia abrog-
ated the UN-sponsored federation with Eritrea and unilaterally annexed the Eritrean state.
Then war broke out in 1964 with Somalia over joint claims to Ethiopia's Somali-inhab-
ited region of the Ogaden Desert.
