Eurasian Empires as Blueprints for Ethiopia: From Ethnolinguistic Nation-State to Multiethnic Federation Kefale Asnake

This book is a contribution to the global history of the transfer of political ideas, as exemplified by the case of modern Ethiopia.Like many non-European nation-states, Ethiopia adopted a western model of statehood, that is, the nation-state. In 1931, via Japan, they adopted the model of unitary, ethnolinguistically homogenous nation-state, in turn copied by Tokyo in 1889 from the German Empire (founded in 1871). Unlike the postcolonial polities that have retained the mode of statehood imposed on them by their colonial powers, Ethiopia was never successfully colonized leaving its ruling elite free to select a model of 'modern' (western) statehood.

The Soviet model of ethnolinguistic Following the Ethiopian Revolution (1974) that overthrew the imperial system, the new revolutionary elite promised to address the 'nationality question' through the marxist-leninist model.