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Eritrea is a country in northern East Africa bordered by
Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the
southeast. The east and northeast of the country have an extensive
coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
The Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands are part of
Eritrea. Eritrea was consolidated into a colony by the Italian
government on January 1, 1890. The modern state of Eritrea gained its
independence from Ethiopia following a thirty-year war which lasted
from 1961 to 1991. Eritrea's constitution adopted in 1997 stipulates
that the state is a presidential republic with a unicameral
parliamentary democracy. The constitution, however, was never ratified.
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Eritrea is a multilingual
and multicultural country with two dominant religions (Sunni Islam and
Oriental Orthodox Christianity) and nine ethnic groups. The country has
no official language, but it has three working languages: Tigrinya,
Arabic, and English.
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The
history of the land that is now called Eritrea, in one way or another,
is associated with its coastline on the Red Sea, which extends more
than 1000 km. From across the seas came various invaders (and
colonizers) such as the South Arabians hailing from the present-day
Yemen area, the Ottoman Turks, the Portugese from Goa (India), the
Egyptians, the British and, in the 19th century, the Italians. Over the
centuries, invaders also came from the neighboring countries of Africa
to the south (Ethiopia) and to the west (Sudan). However, present-day
Eritrea was largely impacted by the Italian invaders in the 19th
century.
In
the period following the opening of the Suez canal in 1869, when
European powers scrambled for territory in Africa and tried to
establish coaling stations for their ships, Italy invaded and occupied
Eritrea. On January 1, 1890 Eritrea offically became a colony of Italy.
In 1936 it became a province of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale
Italiana), along with Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland. The British
armed forces expelled those of Italy in 1941 and took over the
administration of the country which had been set up by the Italians.
The British continued to administer the territory under a UN Mandate until
1951 when Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia as per UN resolution
390(A) under the prompting of the United States adopted in December
1950; the resolution was adopted after a referendum to consult the
people of Eritrea.
The
strategic importance of Eritrea — because of its Red Sea coastline
and mineral resources — was the main cause for the federation with
Ethiopia, which was the first step in the annexing of Eritrea as its
14th province in 1962. This was the culmination of a gradual process of
takeover by the Ethiopian authorities, a process which included a 1959
edict establishing the compulsory teaching of Amharic, the main
language of Ethiopia, in all Eritrean schools. The lack of regard for
the Eritrean population led to the formation of an independence
movement in the early 1960s, which erupted into a 30-year war against
successive Ethiopian governments that ended in 1991. Following a
UN-supervised referendum in Eritrea (dubbed UNOVER) in which the
Eritrean people overwhelmingly voted for independence, Eritrea declared
its independence and gained international recognition in 1993.
English
is used in the government's international communication and is the
language of instruction in all formal education beyond the fifth grade.
Eritrea
is a single-party state. Though its constitution, adopted in 1997,
stipulates that the state is a presidential republic with a unicameral
parliamentary democracy, it has yet to be implemented. According to the
government, this is due to the prevailing border conflict with
Ethiopia, which began in May 1998.
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