History of Eritrea
Eritrea is an ancient name, associated in the past with its
Greek form
ErythraÃa (
Greek alphabet Ερυθραία), and its derived
Latin form
Erythræa. In the past, Eritrea had given its name to the
Red Sea, then called the
Erythræan Sea.
Eritrea officially celebrated its independence on
May 24,
1993.
Eritrean history is one of the oldest of sub-Saharan Africa and even the world. Together with
Ethiopia and the western
Red Sea coast of Sudan, it is considered the most likely location of the land known to the
ancient Egyptians as
Punt (or "Ta Netjeru," meaning land of the Gods), whose first mention dates to the
25th century BC. The earliest known reference to the Sea of Eritrea (referring to the
Red Sea, "Eritrea" meaning "red") from which the modern state takes its name is from
Aeschylus (Fragment 67) in which he refers to the "Mare Erythreum" ("Red Sea") as "the lake that is the jewel of Ethiopia" (though Ethiopia in this case most probably meant
Nubia or Africa south of Egypt in general). Around the
8th century BC, a kingdom known as
D'mt was established in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, with its capital at
Yeha in northern Ethiopia. Its successor, the
Kingdom of Aksum, emerged around the
1st century BC or
1st century AD and grew to be, according to
Mani, one of the four greatest civilizations in the world, along with
China,
Persia, and
Rome. Central areas of Eritrea and most tribes in today's northern Ethiopia share a common background and cultural heritage in the
Kingdom of Aksum (and its successor dynasties) of the first millennium (as well as the first millennium BC kingdom of
D'mt), and in its
Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church (today, with an autocephalous
Eritrean branch), as well as in its
Ge'ez language. Around 90% of today's Eritreans speak languages (
Tigrinya and
Tigre) that are closely related to the now-extinct Geez language - as do Tigrinya-speakers in northern Ethiopia and Amharic-speakers of Ethiopia, among others.
Eritrea's first experience with partial domination by a foreign power occurred in
1557, when an
Ottoman invasion under
Suleiman I conquered
Massawa,
Arqiqo, and
Debarwa the capital of
Bahr negus Yeshaq (ruler of an area very roughly contemporaneous with Eritrea). Yeshaq rallied his peasants and recaptured Debarwa, taking all the gold the invaders had piled within. In 1560 Yeshaq, disillusioned with the new Emperor, revolted with Ottoman support but pledged his support again with the crowning of Emperor
Sarsa Dengel. However, not long after,
Yeshaq revolted once again with Ottoman support but was defeated once and for all in
1578, leaving the Ottomans with domain over
Massawa (an important port and the primary one used by
Ethiopia), Arqiqo and some of the nearby coastal environs.
Eritrea's highlands continued to be part of Ethiopia throughout the second millennium. During the decentralized
Zemene Mesafint, various sorts of warlords of
Tigray held sway also in parts of today Eritrea, as they ruled parts of today northern Ethiopia. During this decentralized period, there existed traditions of autonomy of provinces throughout Ethiopia, including the so-called republic of
Hamasien in what is now Eritrea.
Eritrean areas were no more saved from Muslim invasions than Ethiopia, either. Particularly the coastline and other lowlands underwent a process of
Islamization in the late Medieval period (the early Medieval period for the
Dahlak Archipelago), and, in the mid 19th century, even housed some immigrants from the
Arabian Peninsula (the
Rashaida, today less than 1% of the population).
The Ottoman state maintained control over much of the northern coastal areas for nearly 300 hundred years, leaving their possessions (a province called
Habesh, related to
Habesha) to their
Egyptian heirs in
1865 before being given to the Italians in 1885. The interior, particularly the
Christian (predominantly
Ethiopian Orthodox)
Highlands (
Kebessa) of
Hamasien,
Akkele Guzay, and
Serae, were traditionally part of
Ethiopia. An Italian
Roman Catholic priest by the name of
Sapetto purchased the southeastern port of
Assab from the
Afar Sultan (a vassal of the
Emperor of Ethiopia) on behalf of an Italian commercial conglomerate. Later, as the Egyptians retreated out of Sudan during the
Mahdist rebellion, the
British brokered an agreement whereby the Egyptians could retreat through
Ethiopia, and in exchange they would allow the Emperor to occupy those lowland districts that he had disputed with the Turks and Egyptians. Emperor
Yohannis IV believed this included
Massawa, but instead, the port was handed by the Egyptians and the British to the Italians, who united it with the already colonised port of Assab to form a coastal Italian possession. The Italians took advantage of disorder in northern Ethiopia following the death of Emperor
Yohannis IV to occupy the highlands, and established their new colony, henceforth known as Eritrea, and achieved recognition by Ethiopia's new Emperor
Menelik II.
Prior to
Italian colonization in
1885, what is now Eritrea had been part of Ethiopia as the province Medri Bahri (
Tigrigna for Sealand), though
Mitsiwa and some other portions had at times been ruled by the various local or international powers that successively dominated the
Red Sea region.
The boundaries of modern Eritrea were established during the period of Italian colonization that began in the late 1800s. An Italian shipping company, Rubatinno Shipping, purchased the port of Assab from a local ruler. In turn, the Italian government took over the port in 1882, hoping to use Eritrea as a launching point for the colonization of Ethiopia. In
1896, the Italians used Eritrea as a springboard for their disastrous attempt to conquer
Ethiopia.
The Italian presence in the
Horn of Africa was formalized in 1889 with the signing of the
Treaty of Wuchale with
Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia (r. 1889â€"1913), although Menelik would later renounce the agreement. For the next half-century, relations between Ethiopia and Italy, despite intermittent diplomatic agreements, were strained by repeated Italian efforts to expand their colonial base into
Somali territory and Ethiopia, most notably in 1896, when Ethiopia defeated the Italian army in Tigray. Italian administration of Eritrea brought improvements in the medical and agricultural sectors of Eritrean society. Furthermore, the Italians employed many Eritreans in public service (in particular in the police and public works departments) and oversaw the provision of urban amenities in
Asmara and
Massawa. In a region marked by cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity, a succession of Italian governors maintained a notable degree of unity and public order.
Benito Mussolini's rise to power in Italy in
1922 brought profound changes to the colonial government in Eritrea. The
Fascists imposed harsh rule that stressed the political and racial superiority of Italians. Segregation was established, and Eritreans were demoted to menialpositions in the public sector. Although
Rome continued to implement agricultural reforms, these took place largely on farms owned by Italian colonists. The Fascist dictatorship regarded the colony as a strategic base for future aggrandizement and ruled accordingly. True to form, Italy used Eritrea as a base from which to launch its 1935â€"36 campaign to colonize Ethiopia.
Eritrea was placed under
British military administration after the Italian surrender in
World War II.
Although Italian colonization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries gave Eritrea its boundaries, Eritrean separatism as a political goal had its roots in World War II. British forces defeated the Italian army in Eritrea in 1941 at the
Battle of Keren and placed the colony under British military administration until
Allied forces could determine its fate. Absent agreement among the Allies about the status of Eritrea, British administration continued for the remainder of World War II and into
1950. In the immediate postwar years, the British proposed that Eritrea be divided along religious lines and parceled off to
Sudan and Ethiopia. The
Soviet Union, anticipating a
communist victory in the Italian polls, initially supported returning Eritrea to Italy under trusteeship or as a colony. Arab states, seeing Eritrea and its large Muslim population as an extension of the Arab world, sought the establishment of an independent state.
In the absence of Allied agreement, and in the face of Eritrean demands for self-determination, a
United Nations (UN) commission was dispatched to the former colony in February 1950 in the hope of finding a solution. The commission proposed the establishment of some form of association with Ethiopia, and the UN General Assembly adopted that proposal along with a provision terminating British administration of Eritrea no later than September 15, 1952. The British, faced with a deadline for leaving, held elections on March 16, 1952, for a representative Assembly of 68 members, evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. This body in turn accepted a draft constitution put forward by the UN commissioner on July 10. On September 11, 1952, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia (r. 1930â€"74) ratified the constitution. The Representative Assembly subsequently became the Eritrean Assembly. In
1952, the United Nations resolution to federate Eritrea with Ethiopia went into effect. The resolution ignored Eritrean pleas for independence, but guaranteed Eritreans some democratic rights and a measure of autonomy. Almost immediately after the federation went into effect, however, these rights began to be abridged or violated.
The details of Eritrea's association with Ethiopia were established by the
UN General Assembly resolution of September 15, 1952. It called for Eritrea and Ethiopia to be linked through a loose federal structure under the sovereignty of the emperor. Eritrea was to have its own administrative and judicial structure, its own flag, and control over its domestic affairs, including police, local administration, and taxation. The federal government, which for all intents and purposes was the existing imperial government, was to control foreign affairs (including commerce), defense, finance, and transportation. As a result of exposure to Italian and especially British methods of governance and political life, Eritreans had developed a distinct sense of cultural identity and superiority vis-Ã -vis Ethiopians, and a desire for political freedoms alien to Ethiopian political tradition. From the start of the federation, however, Haile Selassie attempted to undercut Eritrea's independent status, a policy that alienated many Eritreans. The emperor pressured Eritrea's elected chief executive to resign, made Amharic the official language in place of Arabic and Tigrinya, terminated the use of the Eritrean flag, imposed censorship, and moved many businesses out of Eritrea. Finally, in 1962 Haile Selassie pressured the Eritrean Assembly to abolish the federation and return to the imperial Ethiopian fold, much to the dismay of those in Eritrea who favored a more liberal political order.
In the earlier decades, Ethiopia had expanded very much to south and east, becoming inclusive of much
Galla, and other tribes than traditionally christian highlanders, as well as several other languages not related to Ethiopian semitic. Ethiopia was clearly then an empire of a variety of languages and ethnicities, now most of them differing very much from Eritreans. The ethnicities with whom Eritreans had most in common (i.e, certain tribes in northern Ethiopia) were a minority in the country, and held no longer any significant power in the empire after
Shewans had gained the central government as result of
Menelek II's accession. These circumstances may explain some of the reasons why Eritreans desired independence rather than becoming a part of Ethiopian empire.
Militant opposition to the incorporation of Eritrea into Ethiopia had begun in
1958 with the founding of the
Eritrean Liberation Movement (ELM), an organization made up mainly of students, intellectuals, and urban wage laborers. The ELM, under the leadership of Hamid Idris Awate, engaged in clandestine political activities intended to cultivate resistance to the centralizing policies of the imperial state. By 1962, however, the ELM had been discovered and destroyed by imperial authorities.
In
1962, Emperor
Haile Selassie unilaterally dissolved the Eritrean parliament and annexed the country, sparking the Eritrean fight for independence. This fight continued after Haile Sellassie was ousted in a coup in
1974. The new Ethiopian Government, called the
Derg, was a
Marxist military
junta led by
strongman Mengistu Haile Mariam.
During the
1960s, the Eritrean independence struggle was led by the
Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). In 1960 Eritrean exiles in
Cairo founded the Eritrean Liberation Front. In contrast to the ELM, from the outset the ELF was bent on waging armed struggle on behalf of Eritrean independence. The ELF was composed mainly of Eritrean Muslims from the rural lowlands on the western edge of the territory. In 1961 the ELF's political character was vague, but radical Arab states such as
Syria and
Iraq sympathized with Eritrea as a predominantly Muslim region struggling to escape oppression and imperial domination. These two countries therefore supplied military and financial assistance to the ELF.
The ELF initiated military operations in 1961 and intensified its activities in response to the dissolution of the federation in 1962. By
1967 the ELF had gained considerable support among peasants, particularly in Eritrea's north and west, and around the port city of
Massawa. Haile Selassie attempted to calm the growing unrest by visiting Eritrea and assuring its inhabitants that they would be treated as equals under the new arrangements. Although he doled out offices, money, and titles in early 1967 in the hope of co-opting would-be Eritrean opponents, the resistance persisted.
By 1971 ELF activity had become enough of a threat that the emperor had declared
martial law in Eritrea and had deployed roughly half his army to contain the struggle. Internal disputes over strategy and tactics, however, eventually led to the ELF's fragmentation and the founding in 1972 of another group, the
Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF). The leadership of this multiethnic movement came to be dominated by leftist, Christian dissidents who spoke Tigrinya, Eritrea's predominant language. Sporadic armed conflict ensued between the two groups from 1972 to 1974, even as they fought Ethiopian forces. By the late
1970s, the EPLF had become the dominant armed Eritrean group fighting against the Ethiopian Government, and
Isaias Afewerki had emerged as its leader. Much of the material used to combat Ethiopia was captured from the Ethiopian Army.
By
1977, the EPLF was poised to drive the Ethiopians out of Eritrea. That same year, however, a massive airlift of
Soviet arms to Ethiopia enabled the Ethiopian Army to regain the initiative and forced the EPLF to retreat to the bush. Between
1978 and
1986, the Derg launched eight major offensives against the independence movement along with other Ethiopian rebel forces -- began to advance on Ethiopian positions.
The
United States played a facilitative role in the peace talks in
Washington during the months leading up to the May
1991 fall of the Mengistu regime. In mid-May, Mengistu resigned as head of the Ethiopian Government and went into exile in
Zimbabwe, leaving a caretaker government in
Addis Ababa. Having defeated the Ethiopian forces in Eritrea, EPLF troops took control of their homeland. Later that month, the United States chaired talks in
London to formalize the end of the war. These talks were attended by the four major combatant groups, including the EPLF.
A high-level U.S. delegation also was present in Addis Ababa for the July 1-5, 1991 conference that established a transitional government in Ethiopia. The EPLF attended the July conference as an observer and held talks with the new transitional government regarding Eritrea's relationship to Ethiopia. The outcome of those talks was an agreement in which the Ethiopians recognized the right of the Eritreans to hold a referendum on independence.
Although some EPLF cadres at one time espoused a Marxist ideology, Soviet support for Mengistu had cooled their ardor. The fall of
communist regimes in the former Soviet Union and the
Eastern Bloc convinced them it was a failed system. The EPLF now says it is committed to establishing a democratic form of government and a free-market economy in Eritrea. The United States agreed to provide assistance to both Ethiopia and Eritrea, conditional on continued progress toward democracy and human rights.
In May 1991, the EPLF established the Provisional Government of Eritrea (PGE) to administer Eritrean affairs until a referendum was held on independence and a permanent government established. EPLF leader Isaias became the head of the PGE, and the EPLF Central Committee served as its legislative body.
On April 23-25,
1993, Eritreans voted overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a UN-monitored free and fair referendum. The Eritrean authorities declared Eritrea an independent state on
April 27. The government was reorganized and after a national, freely contested election, the National Assembly, which chose Isaias as President of the PGE, was expanded to include both EPLF and non-EPLF members. The EPLF reorganized itself as a political party, the
People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), and is now in the process of drafting a new constitution and setting up a permanent government.
In July 1996 the
Eritrean Constitution was ratified, but it has yet to be implemented.
In 1998, a border dispute with Ethiopia led to the
Eritrean-Ethiopian War, a which killed thousands of soldiers from both countries and left Eritrea with significant economic and social stresses, including massive population displacement, reduced economic development, and one of Africa's more severe
landmine problems. The border war ended in
2000 with a negotiated agreement known as the
Algiers Agreement. One of the terms of the agreement was the establishment of a UN peacekeeping operation, known as the
United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE); over 4,000 UN peacekeepers remain as of April 2006. Another term of the Algiers agreement was the final demarcation of the disputed border area between Eritrea and Ethiopia. After extensive study, an independent, UN-associated Eritrean-Ethiopian Boundary Commission (EEBC) issued a final border ruling in 2003, but its decision was rejected by Ethiopia.
As of 2006, the border question remains in dispute, while a tentative peace remains in place.
