V o L u m e I : a d

he was forced into exile in Britain. In 1942, he returned to power following

the defeat of Italian forces by the British Army and the signing of the Addis

Ababa Agreement, which granted Ethiopia full sovereignty and indepen-

dence. Selassie forged a close relationship with the United States, which

established a military command center in Ethiopia during World War II.

By the late 1940s, northern Africa and the Middle East had become a

key strategic region in the growing Cold War, and the United States feared

Soviet expansion in the area. This threat was magnified by the rising tide of

Pan-Arabism, a movement that sought the unification of all Arab countries

and an end to the West’s exploitation of Middle Eastern oil resources. In

May 1953, Selassie signed an economic pact with the United States designed

to provide significant developmental and military assistance. This was par-

ticularly useful because of the emerging local independence movements in

the rebellious provinces of Eritrea, Tigray, and Ogaden, which threatened

Selassie’s Pan-African vision of a grand Ethiopian union. In the early 1960s,

the United States extended an aid package to Ethiopia, a development trig-

gered partly by the burgeoning links between Eritrean Liberation Front

(ELF) rebels and Pan-Arabic governments in Egypt and Syria as well as the

independence of neighboring Somalia.

In 1963, war broke out between Ethiopia and Somalia, now in the Soviet

orbit, over land disputes in Ogaden. The Somalians were defeated, but at a

high cost. This Pyrrhic victory increased domestic discontent with Selassie’s

leadership. Public disaffection was further heightened by a sharp economic

downturn and the advent of several major famines during the early 1970s.

Many Ethiopian students and intellectuals, influenced by Marxist-Leninist

models of economic development, called for the nationalization of state indus-

try and an end to economic dependency on Western markets. Within this

milieu, Selassie became increasingly viewed as an intransigent ideological

reactionary, and the pomp and grandeur of his imperial court only enhanced

the perception that he was unconcerned about the suffering of his people.

By the early 1970s Selassie’s grip on power had sharply eroded, and he

was deposed in a coup led by Haile Mariam Mengistu, a radical junior officer,

on 12 September 1974. The junta pushed Ethiopia into the Soviet orbit and

ended Ethiopia’s alliance with the West. In terms of the Cold War, Selassie

is an important figure who took advantage of Ethiopia’s strategic importance

in northern Africa to advance his nationalistic agenda of economic develop-

ment and territorial expansion. Haile Selassie died in prison in Addis Ababa

on 27 July 1975.

Jeremy Kuzmarow

See also

Africa; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Mengistu, Haile Mariam; Middle East

References

Clapham, Christopher. Haile Selassie’s Government. London: Longmans Green, 1969.

Iyob, Ruth. The Eritrean Struggle for Independence: Domination, Resistance, Nationalism,

1941–1993. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia

887

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Lockot, Hans Wilhelm. The Mission: The Life, Reign, and Character of Haile Sellassie I.

New York: St. Martin’s, 1989.

Marcus, Harold G. Ethiopia: A History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Schwab, Peter. Haile Selassie I: Ethiopia’s Lion of Judah. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979.

Caribbean nation often the victim of internal violence and external inter-

vention. Haiti, with a 1945 population of approximately 3 million, is located

in the Caribbean Sea on the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the

Dominican Republic. Haiti occupies the western third of Hispaniola and is

bordered by the Dominican Republic to its east. The remainder of the coun-

try is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and lies immediately south and east

of Cuba. A small nation, Haiti encompasses just 10,714 square miles, roughly

the size of the U.S. State of Maryland. Ninety-five percent of its population

is directly descended from African slaves, imported to the island in huge

numbers during the seventeenth century.

Beginning in the early sixteenth century, the Spanish controlled His-

paniola and began to populate it with African slaves to work the vast sugar

and later coffee plantations that prospered in the island’s tropical climate. In

1697 Spain ceded the island to France, and Haiti subsequently became the

wealthiest of French colonies by the end of the seventeenth century. That

all changed, however, with the Great Slave Rebellion of 1791, led by the

Haitian hero Toussaint L’Ouverture, who by 1800 had managed to gain con-

trol over most of the island. Although L’Ouverture was captured by French

forces and sent to France in 1802, the rebellion continued, and the rebels

defeated the French a year later. In 1804 Haiti declared itself an indepen-

dent republic, making it the second-oldest black republic in the world.

The nineteenth century was not kind to the tiny nation, as it experi-

enced a series of coups, revolts, and grinding poverty. After an angry mob

executed Haiti’s leader, the U.S. Marine Corps invaded Haiti in 1915 and

occupied it until 1934, in the process establishing a tradition of undemocratic

military rule and training a generation of Haitian leaders enamored with

strong-arm military tactics. More instability followed the U.S. occupation.

There were coups in 1946 and 1950, and in 1957 alone Haiti had six dif-

ferent presidents. In 1957, François “Papa Doc” Duvalier was elected presi-

dent, beginning a twenty-nine-year reign of despotic terror. In 1964, he

proclaimed himself president for life while ruling the nation with an iron fist.

Political opponents were murdered, and the population was kept in check by

his nefarious militia known as the Tontons Macoutes.

When Duvalier died on 22 April 1971, he was immediately succeeded by

his son Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, who proved to be just as auto-

cratic as his father. His government terrorized political opponents, quashed

public criticism of his rule, was riddled with corruption and cronyism, and

kept the population in abject poverty, so much so that Haiti has had the

888

Haiti

Haiti

In 1957, Francois

(“Papa Doc”)

Duvalier was elected

president, beginning

a twenty-nine-year

reign of despotic

terror. In 1964, he

proclaimed himself

president for life

while ruling the

nation with an 

iron fist.

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