Nationalism and Socialism: A Complex Relationship in the Ethiopian Revolution within the Contexts of the Cold War and Modernization

Abstract

After World War II, under the leadership of Haile Selassie, Ethiopia carried out significant domestic reforms and promoted the process of economic and social modernization with external support. However, the ethnic level disparities and national policies in the modernization process, the interference of major powers based on Cold War ideology, and the influence of foreign ideas jointly contributed to the emergence of nationalism in Ethiopia. From 1960 to 1974, nationalism was incorporated into social struggles in the form of student movements. Under the combined impetus of idealism, nationalism, socialism, and revisionist sentiment, political party organizations with ethnic characteristics emerged. The opposition to national chauvinism and the ethnicization of armed groups became the connection point between nationalism and socialist ideology, and these two opposing ideological trends were integrated into the foundation of Ethiopian political culture. Around the Ethiopian Revolution in 1974, nationalism, as an ideology and power structure, was fundamentally established in the Horn of Africa. This period became the origin of political division in contemporary Ethiopia and laid profound latent risks for the future.