Haile Selassie

Paper Summary:

Emperor Haile Selassie's reign in Ethiopia has been described by the term Kleptocracy, indicating that the Emperor and his cronies plundered the country for their own benefit. Ethiopia was a poor country in any case, and it was poorer after Selassie had taken most of its wealth and left the peasants much worse off then they were when he arrived in office. This paper examines Haile Selassie's reign from 1930, through to his flee from invading Italian troops in 1935 and his reinstatement as Emperor in 1940. The paper traces Haile Selassie's attempts to reform Ethiopia's economy and his final fourteen years in office in which he became greedier and cared less for his subjects.

From the Paper:

"Improvement was slow and was hindered by a number of factors, but by the early 1970s the economy had started to grow and to diversify into areas such as manufacturing and services. Such improvements did not aid most Ethiopians, however, and about four-fifths of the population remained subsistence farmers who lived in poverty (Ofcansky and Berry 149). This was one reason why there was growing opposition to the regime of Haile Selassie during the last fourteen years of his reign. There had been a coup attempt in 1960, after which the emperor sought to reclaim the loyalty of the opposition by stepping up reform."

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