Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The victory preserved Ethiopian independence for another 40 years, until Mussolini's war of revenge for Adowa in 1936." [Furtado: 1001 Days] During the late 19th-century Scramble for Africa, Ethiopia was one of two nations to retain its sovereignty from long-term colonialism by a European colonial power. . . . The country was occupied by Italy in 1936 and became Italian Ethiopia (part of the Italian East Africa) until it was liberated during World War II. Ethiopia was also the first independent member from Africa of the 20th-century League of Nations and the United Nations. In 1974, the Ethiopian monarchy under Haile Selassie was overthrown by the Derg, a communist military government backed by the Soviet Union. In 1987, the Derg established the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, but it was overthrown in 1991 by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, which has been the ruling political coalition since. . . . Ethiopia is a multilingual nation with around 80 ethnolinguistic groups . . . In the 1970s and 1980s, Ethiopia experienced civil conflicts and communist purges, which hindered its economy. The country has since recovered and now has the largest economy (by GDP) in East Africa, having the largest population in the region." [Wikipedia]