HISTORY
Early
history traces the development of the Somali state to an Arab
sultanate, which was founded in the seventh century A.D. by Koreishite
immigrants from Yemen. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese
traders landed in present Somali territory and ruled several coastal
towns. The sultan of Oman and Zanzibar subsequently took control
of these towns and their surrounding territory.
Somalia's
modern history began in the late l9th century, when various European
powers began to trade and establish themselves in the area. The
British East India Company's desire for unrestricted harbor facilities
led to the conclusion of treaties with the sultan of Tajura as
early as 1840. It was not until 1886, however, that the British
gained control over northern Somalia through treaties with various
Somali chiefs who were guaranteed British protection. British
objectives centered on safeguarding trade links to the east and
securing local sources of food and provisions for its coaling
station in Aden. The boundary between Ethiopia and British Somaliland
was established in 1897 through treaty negotiations between British
negotiators and King Menelik.
During
the first two decades of this century, British rule was challenged
through persistent attacks by a dervish rebellion led by Mohamed
Abdullah, known as the "Mad Mullah" by the British.
A long series of intermittent engagements and truces ended in
1920 when British warplanes bombed Abdullah's stronghold at Taleex.
Although Abdullah was defeated as much by rival Somali factions
as by British forces, he was lauded as a popular hero and stands
as a major figure of national identity to many Somalis.
In 1885,
Italy obtained commercial advantages in the area from the sultan
of Zanzibar and in 1889 concluded agreements with the sultans
of Obbia and Aluula, who placed their territories under Italy's
protection. Between 1897 and 1908, Italy made agreements with
the Ethiopians and the British that marked out the boundaries
of Italian Somaliland. The Italian Government assumed direct administration,
giving the territory colonial status.
Italian
occupation gradually extended inland. In 1924, the Jubaland Province
of Kenya, including the town and port of Kismayo, was ceded to
Italy by the United Kingdom. The subjugation and occupation of
the independent sultanates of Obbia and Mijertein, begun in 1925,
were completed in 1927. In the late 1920s, Italian and Somali
influence expanded into the Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia.
Continuing incursions climaxed in 1935 when Italian forces launched
an offensive that led to the capture of Addis Ababa and the Italian
annexation of Ethiopia in 1936.
Following
Italy's declaration of war on the United Kingdom in June 1940,
Italian troops overran British Somaliland and drove out the British
garrison. In 1941, British forces began operations against the
Italian East African Empire and quickly brought the greater part
of Italian Somaliland under British control. From 1941 to 1950,
while Somalia was under British military administration, transition
toward self-government was begun through the establishment of
local courts, planning committees, and the Protectorate Advisory
Council. In 1948 Britain turned the Ogaden and neighboring Somali
territories over to Ethiopia.
In Article
23 of the 1947 peace treaty, Italy renounced all rights and titles
to Italian Somaliland. In accordance with treaty stipulations,
on September 15, 1948, the Four Powers referred the question of
disposal of former Italian colonies to the UN General Assembly.
On November 21, 1949, the General Assembly adopted a resolution
recommending that Italian Somaliland be placed under an international
trusteeship system for 10 years, with Italy as the administering
authority, followed by independence for Italian Somaliland. In
1959, at the request of the Somali Government, the UN General
Assembly advanced the date of independence from December 2 to
July 1, 1960.
Meanwhile,
rapid progress toward self-government was being made in British
Somaliland. Elections for the Legislative Assembly were held in
February 1960, and one of the first acts of the new legislature
was to request that the United Kingdom grant the area independence
so that it could be united with Italian Somaliland when the latter
became independent. The protectorate became independent on June
26, 1960; five days later, on July 1, it joined Italian Somaliland
to form the Somali Republic.
In June
1961, Somalia adopted its first national constitution in a countrywide
referendum, which provided for a democratic state with a parliamentary
form of government based on European models. During the early
post-independence period, political parties were a fluid concept,
with one-person political parties forming before an election,
only to defect to the winning party following the election. A
constitutional conference in Mogadishu in April 1960, which made
the system of government in the southern Somali trust territory
the basis for the future government structure of the Somali Republic,
resulted in the concentration of political power in the former
Italian Somalia capital of Mogadishu and a southern-dominated
central government, with most key government positions occupied
by southern Somalis, producing increased disenchantment with the
union in the former British-controlled north. Pan-Somali nationalism,
with the goal of uniting the Somali-populated regions of French
Somaliland (Djibouti), Kenya and Ethiopia into a Greater Somalia,
remained the driving political ideology in the initial post-independence
period. Under the leadership of Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, prime minister
from 1967 to 1969, Somalia renounced its claims to the Somali-populated
regions of Ethiopia and Kenya, greatly improving its relations
with both countries. Egal attempted a similar approach with Ethiopia,
but the move towards reconciliation with Ethiopia, which had been
a traditional enemy of Somalia since the 16th century, made many
Somalis furious, including the army. Egal’s reconciliation
effort toward Ethiopia is argued to be one of the principal factors
that provoked the military officers, led by Maj. Gen. Mohamed
Siad Barre, to stage a bloodless coup on October 21, 1969, bringing
an abrupt end to the process of party-based constitutional democracy
in Somalia.
Following
the coup, executive and legislative power was vested in the 20-member
Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC), headed by Maj. Gen. Siad
Barre as president. The SRC pursued a course of "scientific
socialism" that reflected both ideological and economic dependence
on the Soviet Union. The government instituted a national security
service, centralized control over information, and initiated a
number of grassroots development projects. Barre reduced political
freedoms and used military force to seize and redistribute rich
farmlands in the interriverine areas of southern Somalia, relying
on the use of force and terror against the Somali population to
consolidate his political power base.
The SRC
became increasingly radical in foreign affairs, and in 1974, Somalia
and the Soviet Union concluded a treaty of friendship and cooperation.
As early as 1972, tensions began increasing along the Somali-Ethiopian
border; these tensions heightened after the accession to power
in Ethiopia in 1973 of the Mengistu Haile Mariam regime, which
turned increasingly toward the Soviet Union. In the mid-1970s,
the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) began guerrilla operations
in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. Following the overthrow of the
Ethiopian Emperor in 1975, Somalia invaded Ethiopia in 1977 in
a second attempt to regain the Ogaden, and the second attempt
initially appeared to be in Somalia’s favor. The SNA moved
quickly toward Harer, Jijiga, and Dire Dawa, the principal cities
of the region. However, following the Ethiopian revolution, the
new Ethiopian government shifted its alliance from the West to
the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union supplied Ethiopia with
10,000 – 15,000 Cuban troops and Soviet military advisors
during the 1977-78 Ogaden war, shifting the advantage to Ethiopia
and resulting in Somalia’s defeat. In November 1977, Barre
expelled all Soviet advisers and abrogated the friendship agreement
with the U.S.S.R. In March 1978, Somali forces retreated into
Somalia; however, the WSLF continues to carry out sporadic but
greatly reduced guerrilla activity in the Ogaden. Such activities
also were subsequently undertaken by another dissident group,
the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).
Following the 1977-1978 Ogaden war, desperate to find a strong external alliance to replace the Soviet Union, Somalia abandoned its Socialist ideology and turned to the West for international support, military equipment, and economic aid. In 1978, the United States reopened the U.S. Agency for International Development mission in Somalia. Two years later, an agreement was concluded that gave U.S. forces access to military facilities at the port of Berbera in northwestern Somalia. In the summer of 1982, Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia along the central border, and the United States provided two emergency airlifts to help Somalia defend its territorial integrity. From 1982 to 1988, the United States viewed Somalia as a partner in defense in the context of the Cold War. Somali officers of the National Armed Forces were trained in U.S. military schools in civilian as well as military subjects.
Following the Ogaden war, the Barre regime violently suppressed opposition movements and ethnic groups, particularly the Isaaq clan in the northern region, using the military and elite security forces to quash any hint of rebellion. By the 1980s, an all-out civil war developed in Somalia. Opposition groups began to form following the end of the Ogaden war, beginning in 1979 with a group of dissatisfied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF). In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre regime, the Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre regime. In January 1989, the United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a former political prisoner imprisoned by Barre from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other opposition groups, including the SNM and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Ogadeen sub-clan force under Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. In 1988, at the President's order, aircraft from the Somali National Air Force bombed the city of Hargeisa in northwestern Somalia, the former capital of British Somaliland, killing nearly 10,000 civilians and insurgents. The warfare in the northwest sped up the decay already evident elsewhere in the republic. Economic crisis, brought on by the cost of anti-insurgency activities, caused further hardship as Siad Barre and his cronies looted the national treasury.
By the
end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government,
fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central
and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their
homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti
and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined
their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial
control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu
known as the Benadir, earning Barre the title "Mayor of Mogadishu"
and resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support,
including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali
state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the
first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency
as USC and SNM forces advanced toward Mogadishu. Barre began to
lose control over his own militia groups and became increasingly
isolated. In January 1991, armed opposition factions drove Barre
out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central
government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding
to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and
starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched
Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF),
the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance
could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual
catastrophes--one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed
by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United
States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when
U.S. forces withdrew.
Following the collapse of the Barre regime in 1991, various groupings of Somali factions sought to control the national territory (or portions thereof) and fought small wars with one another. Approximately 14 national reconciliation conferences were convened over the succeeding decade. Efforts at mediation of the Somali internal dispute were also undertaken by many regional states. In the mid-1990s, Ethiopia played host to several Somali peace conferences and initiated talks at the Ethiopian city of Sodere, which led to some degree of agreement between competing factions. The Governments of Egypt, Yemen, Kenya, and Italy also have attempted to bring the Somali factions together. In 1997, the Organization of African Unity and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) gave Ethiopia the mandate to pursue Somali reconciliation. In 2000, Djibouti hosted a major reconciliation conference (the 13th such effort), which in August resulted in creation of the Transitional National Government (TNG), whose 3-year mandate expired in August 2003. The absence of a central government in Somalia also allowed outside forces to become more influential by supporting various groups and persons in Somalia, particularly Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya, all of which have supported various Somali factions and transitional governments.
