History

The oldest written source of the territory currently known as Eritrea is the chronicled expedition launched to the fabled Punt (or 'Ta Netjeru', meaning land of the Gods) by the Ancient Egyptians in the 25th century BC under Pharaoh Sahure. Later sources from the Pharaoh Hatshepsut in the 15th century BC present a more detailed portrayal of an expedition in search of incense. The geographical location of the missions to Punt is described as roughly corresponding to the southern west coast of the Red Sea.

The modern name Eritrea was first employed by the Italian colonialists in the late 19th century. It is the Italian form of the Greek name Erythraîa, which derives from the Greek term for the Red Sea.

Pre-History

In 1998 the cranium of a hominid, an intermediate between a Homo erectus and an archaic Homo Sapiens, was found in Buya, Eritrea by American scientists. The cranium was dated to over 1 million years old (the oldest of its kind), providing a link between hominids and the earliest humans. Furthermore, the Eritrean Research Project Team, composed of Eritrean, Canadian, American, Dutch, and French scientists, discovered in 1999 a site with stone and obsidian tools dated to over 125,000 years old (from the Palaeolithic era) near the Bay of Zula south of Massawa along the Red Sea coast. The tools are believed to have been used by early humans to harvest marine resources such as clams and oysters. Epipaleolithic or Mesolithic remains in the form of cave paintings in central and northern Eritrea attest to the early settlement of hunter-gatherers in this region.

Early History

The earliest evidence of agricultural settlement, urbanism, trade and agriculture is found in the region inhabited by people dating back to 3,500 BC known as the Gash group. Based on the archaeological evidence, there seems to have been a connection between the peoples of the Gash group and the civilisations of the Nile Valley. Ancient Egyptian sources also give references to cities and trading posts along the southwestern Red Sea coast, roughly corresponding to modern day Eritrea, calling this the land of Punt famed for its incense. Expeditions to this very land were launched by the Ancient Egyptians as early as the 25th century BC and were chronicled in detail.

In the highlands, in one of the capital city Asmara's suburbs Sembel at the mouth of the river Anseba, another site was found from the 9th century BC of an agricultural and urban settlement that traded both with the Sabeans across the Red Sea and with the civilisations of the Nile Valley.

Around the 8th century BC, a kingdom known as D'mt was established in what is today northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, with its capital at Yeha in northern Ethiopia, which had extensive relations with the Sabeans in present day Yemen across the Red Sea. After D'mt's decline around the 5th century BC, the state of Aksum arose in the northern Abyssinian plateau. It grew during the 4th century BC and came into prominence during the first century AD, minting its own coins by the 3rd century and converting in the 4th century to Christianity. In the 7th century AD; with the advent of Islam across the Red Sea in Arabia, Aksum's trade and power on the Red Sea began to decline and the centre moved farther inland to the highlands of what is today Ethiopia. The state was eventually defeated by Islamic and other internal forces around 850 or 950 AD.

Medieval History

During the medieval period, several states along with tribal and clan lands emerged in the area known today as Eritrea. Between the 8th and 13th century, northern and western Eritrea had largely come under the domination of the Beja - an Islamic, Cushitic people from northeastern Sudan. They formed five independent kingdoms known as: Naqis, Baqlin, Bazin, Jarin and Qata. The Beja brought Islam to large parts of Eritrea and connected the region to the greater Islamic world dominated by the Ummayad Caliphate, followed by the Abbasid (and Mamluk) and later the Ottoman Empire. The Ummayads were already in direct possession of small stretches of the Eritrean coastline and the Dahlak archipelago by the 8th century.

The Beja imposed themselves as rulers but did not impose their cushitic language or culture on their subjects but rather adopted the local Ge'ez based language. This language evolved over time into the Tigre language which to this day is the lingua franca of the predominantly Muslim lowlands and northern coast of Eritrea. Later, in the 15th and 16th centuries, northern Eritrea and its coastline were taken over completely by the Ottomans who were to remain there for over 300 years and govern it from the port of Massawa.

Meanwhile, the central highlands and adjacent coastline became the site of a Christian Kingdom called Midre Bahri (or Midre Bahr), meaning Sea Land, and ruled by the Bahr Negash (or Bahr Negus) - the King of the Sea. This kingdom was loosely affiliated with the Abyssinian kingdoms of the south, but at times also became involved in conflict with them in alliance with the Ottomans. The domain of the kingdom was for most of its history restricted to north of the perennial river Mareb which still serves as a natural boundary between Eritrea and Ethiopia today. The other Abyssinian kingdoms south of the river commonly referred to Midre Bahri as Mareb Mellash meaning 'beyond Mareb'.

The feudal authority of the Bahr Negash later waned and was replaced by a Republic known as Hamasien, which was based on a land-owning peasantry (citizenry) in the central highlands, ruled by elders' councils or shimagile. The southern coastline meanwhile was populated by the Afar and Saho speaking Islamic chiefdoms (or clan lands), which by the 16th century had evolved into the centralised Adal Sultanate, along with territories currently in eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti and Northern Somalia.

An Ottoman invading force under Suleiman I conquered Massawa in 1577, building what is now considered the 'old town' of Massawa on Batsi island. They also conquered the towns of Hergigo, and Debarwa, the capital city. Suleiman's forces fought as far south as southeastern Tigray before being repelled, and the Bahr Negus (ruler), Yeshaq, was able to retake much of what the Ottomans captured with Abyssinian (Ethiopian) assistance.

However, by 1578, the Ottomans were in control of the important ports of Massawa and Hergigo and their environs, and maintained their dominion over the northern coastal areas for nearly 300 years. Their possessions were left to their Egyptian heirs in 1865 and were taken over by the Italians in 1885.

Colonial Era

An Italian Roman Catholic missionary and explorer by the name of Giuseppe Sapetto purchased the port of Asseb from a local Afar Sultan on behalf of a Genovese Shipping Company (Rubattino) in 1869. With the approval of the Italian parliament and King Umberto I of Italy (later succeeded by his son Victor Emmanuel III), the government of Italy bought the Rubattino Company's holdings and expanded its possessions northwards along the Red Sea coast towards and beyond Massawa, encroaching on and quickly expelling previously 'Egyptian' possessions. The Italians met with stiffer resistance in the Eritrean highlands from the Abyssinian army, but were eventually able to consolidate their possessions into one colony, henceforth known as Eritrea, on New Years Day of 1890.

The Italians remained the colonial power in Eritrea until they were defeated by Allied forces in World War II (1941), and Eritrea became a British protectorate. The western powers (Britain, France and the United States) were in favour of uniting Eritrea with Ethiopia, rather than risk an independent Eritrea becoming a communist anti-western state. The communist bloc, along with most non-aligned independent third world countries, favoured Eritrean independence.

Eventually, a compromise was reached under which the former Italian colony was to be federated with Ethiopia. Eritrea would have its own parliament and administration, and would be represented in what had been the Ethiopian parliament and was now the federal parliament. However, in 1961, the Emperor of Ethiopia dissolved all semblance of the Federation by shutting down the parliament and declaring Eritrea the 14th province of Ethiopia, leading to the 30 year long Eritrean Struggle for Independence.

Struggle for Independence

Rebel groups such as the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) and Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) formed. The ELF was a conservative grass roots movement dominated by Muslim lowlanders, and thus received backing from Arab governments, whereas the EPLF professed Marxism and was supported by a growing Eritrean Diaspora. The ELF was eventually overshadowed and eliminated by the EPLF.

The struggle for independence neared victory in the mid-1970s but suffered a setback when the Derg, a Marxist military junta, came to power in Ethiopia in 1974. However, Eritrean resistance continued, and combined with Ethiopian resistance movements to overthrow the communist Ethiopian regime.

Independence

The struggle for independence ended in 1991 with the EPLF expelling the Ethiopian Army from Eritrea and joining forces with Ethiopian resistance movements to overthrow the Derg regime, which fell the same year. In 1993, a referendum was held on whether Eritreans wanted independence or unity with Ethiopia. Over 99% of the Eritrean people voted for independence, which was declared on May 24 1993. The leader of the EPLF, Isaias Afewerki, became Eritrea's first provisional President, and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (later renamed the People's Front for Democracy and Justice, or PFDJ) created a government.

Post Independence

In 1998, a border war with Ethiopia over the town of Badme resulted in the deaths of thousands of Eritrean soldiers, massive population displacement, reduced economic development and a severe land mine problem.

In 2000, Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to a ceasefire, known as the Algiers Agreement, which assigned an independent, UN-associated boundary commission called the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) to identify the border between the two countries clearly. The EEBC issued a final border ruling in 2003 and awarded Badme to Eritrea. However, Ethiopia has not withdrawn all its troops from the town, which has led to fears for another war.