History of Addis Ababa Timeline

Ras Tafari, later Emperor Haile Selassie, had considerable influence in the city after his appointment as Regent Plenipotentiary in 1917.

Image source: Haile Selassie

By 1926 and 1927, Addis Ababa saw an economic revolution, with a surplus of coffee production growing as a result of capital accumulation.

Image source: Economy of Ethiopia

Total registered automobiles were 76 in 1926, and summed up to 578 by 1930, reflecting the city's rapid modernization.

Image source: Transport in Ethiopia

Modernization in public health and education led to the erection of schools and hospitals, including a school dedicated to freed slaves founded by Tafari Makonnen in 1927.

A road was considered the longest continuous motor route, initially connecting Italian-occupied Assab in Eritrea and Addis Ababa via Dessie as accorded in the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928.

Image source: Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928

Significant merchants of Addis Ababa were received by Tafari Mekonnen on 18 November 1929, to deal with road extension.

The Emperor's private printing press, the Berhanena Salam Printing Press, was formally opened in December 1929.

Image source: History of Addis Ababa

In 1946, Haile Selassie invited famous British master plan designer Sir Patrick Abercrombie, who wanted to beautify the city as a role model for Africa. Abercrombie achieved a careful plan of major traffic routes, separating neighborhood units, taken from his solution for London's traffic problem in 1943.

Image source: Patrick Abercrombie

In 1959, British consultant team Bolton Hennessy and Partners commissioned an improvement of Abercrombie's 1954–56 master plan regarding satellite towns.

The Haile Selassie regime faced backlash—as evidenced by a 1960 coup d'état attempt—from various reactionary partisans.

Image source: 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt

According to Pankhurst's 1962 survey, 212 square kilometers—58% of total land—were owned by 1,768 persons, owing to 10,000 square meters each, highlighting stark land inequality.

Image source: Richard Pankhurst

Haile Selassie helped form the Organization of African Unity in 1963 and invited the new organization to keep its headquarters in the city. The OAU was dissolved in 2002 and replaced by the African Union, also headquartered in Addis Ababa.

Image source: Organisation of African Unity

In 1965, the French Mission for Urban Studies and Habitat led by Luis De Marien prepared a master plan responsible for creating a monumental axis passing through Addis Ababa City Hall through the railway station extending to Gofa Mazoria in the southern part of the city.

Addis Ababa was the site of the Council of the Oriental Orthodox Churches in 1965, underscoring the city's role as a center of pan-Christian diplomacy.

Image source: Oriental Orthodox Churches

In 1965, Haile Selassie I University students marched chanting 'Land to the Tiller' in response to the imperial feudal system, culminating in revolutionary protests across Addis Ababa and ushering Marxist–Leninist momentum.

Image source: Ethiopian Student Movement

Prior to the Italian invasion in 1935, the population of Addis Ababa was estimated to be between 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants, including 6,000 foreigners, mainly Arabs, Greeks, Armenians and some British, French, Italians and Americans.

Image source: Second Italo-Ethiopian War

Throughout the occupation, trade routes increasingly became spatial growth; Addis Ababa experienced profound road and trade route expansion, opening pavement to Adama and the Ethio-Djibouti trade corridor to the north, Moyale with Kenyan territories to the southwest, and trade routes with Sudan to the west.

Addis Ababa was governed by the Italian Governors of Addis Ababa from 1936 to 1941 during the period of Italian occupation.

Image source: Mayor of Addis Ababa

On 5 May 1936, Italian troops occupied Addis Ababa during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, making it the capital of Italian East Africa.

Image source: Italian East Africa

The Guildi and Valle's master plan prepared in the summer of 1936 more emphasized fascist ideology and their monumental icons, with no native Ethiopian involvement in the designing sector. Earlier, during a meeting with Mussolini, a French Swiss architect prepared a guideline sketch demonstrating monumental structure traversed by a grand boulevard across the city from north to south, extracted from his Radiant City concept of 1930 to 1933.

After the Italian army in Ethiopia was defeated by the British army (with the help of Arbegnoch) during the liberation of Ethiopia in World War II, Emperor Haile Selassie returned to Addis Ababa on 5 May 1941—five years to the very day after he had departed—and immediately began re-establishing his capital.

Image source: Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement

In addition to famine and economic hardship, the 1973 oil crisis heavily impacted Addis Ababa, worsening living conditions and fueling unrest.

Image source: 1973 oil crisis

After the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie by the communist Derg in 1974, roughly two-thirds of the housing stock was transferred to rental housing.

Image source: Derg

Students around the city gathered to protest in February 1974 after Haile Selassie responded dismissively to complaints, stating 'rich and poor have always existed.' Eventually Haile Selassie was deposed from office in 1974 by a group of police officers.

Image source: Ethiopian Revolution

In 1975, the Derg nationalized all 'extra' rental structures built by private stockholders. Under Proclamation No 47/1975, small buildings went to kebele units, whereas large quality rental houses went to the Agency for Rental Housing Administration (ARHA).

In 1986, a master plan was created by 45 Ethiopian professionals and 75 Italian experts. Despite extensive projections, it was delayed for eight years due to the bureaucratic system of the Derg government and finally approved in 1994.

On 28 May 1991, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition party, in the course of overthrowing the Derg government, seized Addis Ababa, marking the end of Marxist rule.

Image source: Fall of the Derg regime

A new constitution was adopted in 1994 and enacted a year later: while all cities in Ethiopia are administrated by regional authority, only Addis Ababa (Proclamation No 87/1997) and Dire Dawa remain chartered cities, mandated for self-governing and development.

Image source: 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia

By the end of 1998, a new project was launched by the Addis Ababa City Administration named the Office for Revision of Addis Ababa Master Plan (ORAAMP), producing the Revised Addis Ababa Master Plan covering 1999 to 2003, similar to the revisited 1986 plan in terms of urban area.

A master plan for Addis Ababa boundary expansion with 1.1 million hectares into the Oromia special zone sparked violent crackdowns and Oromo-led protests since 25 April 2014. After deadly protests led to numerous casualties in Addis Ababa and Ginchi town, the controversial plan was cancelled on 12 January 2016.

Image source: 2014–2016 Oromo protests

In 2018, Abiy initiated a project called 'Riverside' planned to expand riverbanks for 56 kilometres (35 mi), from the Entoto Mountains to the Akaki river.

Image source: Abiy Ahmed

United Nations Population Projections estimated the metro area of Addis Ababa at 5,228,000 in 2022, a 4.43% increase from 2021.