Editing Haile Selassie (section)

=== Second constitutional period ===

During the celebrations of his Silver Jubilee in November 1955, Selassie introduced a [[1955 Constitution of Ethiopia|revised constitution]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.country-studies.com/ethiopia/administrative-change-and-the-1955-constitution.html|title=Ethiopia Administrative Change and the 1955 Constitution|publisher=Country studies|access-date=12 September 2010|archive-date=6 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006140802/http://www.country-studies.com/ethiopia/administrative-change-and-the-1955-constitution.html|url-status=live}}</ref> whereby he retained effective power, while extending political participation to the people by allowing the lower house of parliament to become an elected body. Party politics were not provided for. Modern educational methods were more widely spread throughout the [[Ethiopian Empire|Empire]].<ref name="Lewis 1956 257–268">{{Cite journal|last=Lewis|first=William H.|date=1956|title=The Ethiopian Empire: Progress and Problems|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4322824|journal=Middle East Journal|volume=10|issue=3|pages=257–268|issn=0026-3141|jstor=4322824|access-date=23 March 2024|archive-date=9 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231209113310/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4322824|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="teferra">{{cite book|editor-first=Damtew|editor-last=Teferra|editor2=Philip G. Altbach|title=African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook|publisher=Indiana University Press|date=2003|pages=316–325}}</ref><ref>Keller, ''Revolutionary Ethiopia'', p. 87.</ref>

The country embarked on a development scheme and plans for modernisation, tempered by Ethiopian traditions, and within the framework of the state's ancient monarchical structure. Selassie compromised, when practical, with the traditionalists in the nobility and church. He also tried to improve relations between the state and ethnic groups, and granted autonomy to [[Afar people|Afar]] lands that were difficult to control. Still, his reforms to end feudalism were slow and weakened by the compromises he made with the entrenched aristocracy. The revised constitution of 1955 has been criticised for reasserting "the indisputable power of the monarch" and maintaining the relative powerlessness of the peasants.<ref name= mammo>Mammo, Tirfe (1999). ''The Paradox of Africa's Poverty: The Role of Indigenous Knowledge.'' The Red Sea Press. {{ISBN|1-56902-049-3}}, p. 103.</ref>

[[File:Soviet Union Ethiopia.png|thumb|240x240px|Haile Selassie with [[Nikita Khrushchev]], Moscow, 1959]]

Selassie also maintained cordial relations with the government of the United Kingdom through charitable gestures. He sent aid to the British government in 1947 when Britain was affected by heavy flooding. His letter to Lord Meork, National Distress Fund, London said, "even though We are busy of helping our people who didn't recover from the crises of the war, We heard that your fertile and beautiful country is devastated by the unusually heavy rain, and your request for aid. Therefore, We are sending small amount of money, about one thousand pounds through our embassy to show our sympathy and cooperation."<ref>''Addis Zemen'' newspaper, 3 October 1947.</ref>

==== 1958 famine of Tigray ====

In the summer of 1958, a widespread [[1958 Tigray famine|famine in the Tigray province]] of northern Ethiopia was already two years old yet people in Addis Ababa knew hardly anything about it. When significant reports of death finally reached the Ministry of Interior in September 1959 the central government immediately disclosed the information to the public and began asking for contributions. The Emperor personally donated 2,000 tons of relief grain, the U.S. sent 32,000 tons, which was distributed between Eritrea and Tigray, and money for aid was raised throughout the country but it is estimated that approximately 100,000 people had died before the crisis ended in August 1961. The causes of the famine were attributed to drought, locusts, hailstone and epidemics of small-pox, typhus, measles and malaria.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bahru Zewde, [London: James Currey, 1991], p. 196. "A History of Modern Ethiopia: 1855–1974"|isbn=0-8214-0972-7|last1=Zewde|first1=Bahru|year=1991|publisher=J. Currey}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/file%20uploads%20/peter_gill_famine_and_foreigners_ethiopia_sincebook4you.pdf|first=Peter|last=Gill|pages=26 & 27|title=Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=2010|access-date=4 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180516155623/http://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/file%20uploads%20/peter_gill_famine_and_foreigners_ethiopia_sincebook4you.pdf|archive-date=16 May 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Rural vulnerability pp. 35-36">{{cite book|last1=Wolde Mariam|first1=Mesfin|title=Rural vulnerability to famine in Ethiopia: 1958–1977|date=1986|publisher=Intermediate Technology Publications Ltd.|location=Great Britain|isbn=0-946688-03-6|pages=35–36}}</ref>