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Introduction It is easier to date the beginning of revolutions than their endings. The dismissal of the Derg from Tigray in 1989 marked an ending of sorts, but the war went on until the overthrow of the Derg and the EPRDF's capture of the entire country in 1991. That date served as another important marker, although struggles within the state and for development continued unabated, albeit under the very different conditions of peace and with the TPLF in a leading position in which to influence the political agenda of all Ethiopia. It is these new conditions and the challenges they pose in Tigray in the period from 1991 to 1996 that will be outlined in the first part of this concluding chapter. The second part of the chapter will summarily examine political developments at the Ethiopia-wide level during this period, and in particular, link the revolutionary struggle for Tigayran national self-determination with the EPRDF's efforts to reconstruct the Ethiopian state. Tigray: from revolutionary struggles to peace-time struggles Although the overthrow of the Derg brought much-desired peace, Tigray's transition from a regime of virtual independence to one of measured autonomy in post-1991 Ethiopia has not always been easy. In spite of the widely held assumption outside Tigray that the province was the beneficiary of enormous funds from a government dominated by Tigrayans, development, and even emergency, funds for war-affected areas in the province were slow to materialise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction The TPLF entered the final period of the war against the Derg weakened by the famine which disrupted the peasant economy and diverted energies away from mobilisation and military campaigns, to relief and later reconstruction. But by this point in time the TPLF and peasants were united in struggle, and with the passing of the famine many peasants were able to resume their livelihoods and continue their support of the guerrilla fighters in their midst. Thus the TPLF was soon focused on the key elements of this stage of the struggle: confronting the Derg's plans to forcibly remove its peasant supporters; taking the revolution to the heterogeneous peoples of southern Tigray; and resolving political disagreements with the EPLF in preparation for the removal of the Derg from Tigray and the country. The Derg's resettlement programme The Derg's war against the liberation movements had many dimensions: military campaigns; reform programmes to win the support of civilians; and efforts to isolate peasants from the appeal of dissidents, such as its resettlement programme. Because of the extent of environmental degradation and poverty in the northern provinces, proposals had frequently been made by a variety of sources to relocate northern peasants to the richer and less populated lands in the south. Indeed, between 1950 and 1974 an estimated one million peasants voluntarily left the northern highlands and moved to the south and west of the country, and what evidence there is suggests that Tigray had the largest net outflows of any of the provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction The primary objective of this chapter is to examine the historical and social development of Tigray from its origins in ancient Axum through its marginalisation which began in Abyssinia and continued in the Amharadominated modern empire-state of Ethiopia. Historically as part of the Abyssinian core Tigrayans have held a privileged position in society. However, from the tenth century state power generally shifted southward from Tigray, briefly to the Agaw, and then to the Amhara lands, culminating in Shoa in the late nineteenth century. Tigrayan power within the nexus of Abyssinia varied according to, first, the importance of external trade, for which access to Tigray was essential, and secondly, the progressive ecological degradation of the territory's land, both of which fostered emigration south. However, political and economic marginalisation, exacerbated in this century by modernisation, cannot alone provide an explanatory framework for peasant revolt since similar processes were being experienced throughout the non-core areas of the Ethiopian empire without producing such a dramatic response as that which took place in Tigray. An explanation of revolution in Tigray must thus draw the linkage between historically rooted structural factors, the focus here, and a range of political factors which will be examined in the following chapters. Tigray: emergence and decline The known history of Tigray began with the establishment of the Axumite empire, but these origins remain obscure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]