History
Independent article: History of Eritrea

Eritrea experienced been ruled by several powers prior to it was colonised by the Italians in 1885. Antecedently, a coast was hanker occupied per Ottoman Turks, who so left it to their Egyptian heirs in the mid 19th century. A interior, particularly a Christian highlands of Hamasien, Akale Guzai, and Serai, were traditionally loosely associated with a Abyssinian Empire. An Italian Roman Catholic priest by the title of Sapetto purchased the port of Assab from the Afar Sultan (a feudatory of the Emperor of Ethiopia) on behalf of an Italian commercial conglomerate. Late, when a Egyptians retreated away from Sudan when you took a Mahdist rebellion, the British brokered an agreement whereby the Egyptians can retreat across Ethiopia, & within exchange it would allow a Emperor to occupy people lowland territorial dominion that he experienced disputed by having a Turks and Egyptians. Emperor Yohannis IV believed this included Massawa, but instead, the port was handed per Egyptians & a British, to a Italians, world health organization united it by using the already settled port of Asab to form a coastal Italian possession. A Italians took benefit of disorder around northern Ethiopia as punishment a dying of Emperor Yohannis IV to occupy the upl&, & established their fresh colony, henceforward called Eritrea, and achieved recognition by Ethiopia's fresh Emperor Menelik II.

A Italians remained a compound power inside Eritrea until it were defeated by Allied forces around World War II (1941), and Eritrethe became a British protectorate. Fallowing a war, a United Nations, after a prolonged inquiry where people world health organization wanted union using Ethiopia & victims world health organization wanted independence lobbied a smashing powers & the U.N. extensively, eventually reached a compromise that the former Italian colony was to join Ethiopia as part of a federation. Eritrea would keep close at hand its have parliament and administration, and would become represented in a Ethiopian parliament which would work when the Federal Parliament. A Emperor of Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie, would be a monarch of Eritrethe and would exist as represented there by a viceroy. Two union member & pro-independence population obtained a federation to become undesirable. By a indicate of military unit in the Eritrean Parliament the federation was dissolved by Ethiopia. A Emperor agreed readily & annexed Eritrea within 1960 even over a good reservations of his Prime Minister, Aklilu Hapte-Wold who was ardently in favor of retaining a federation. Promptly, pro-independence Eritreans went into rebellion & launched an extended war of independence. It were joined by ill-affected federationists world health organization at present were convinced Eritrea would exist as better hit as an independent state. A war would survive Thirty years.

A war of Eritrean Independence would escalate substantially when a overthrow of the Ethiopian monarchy within 1974, when the hardline Marxist military junta known as a Derg seized power, and launched the major offense around Eritrea. A brutality of the government of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam did much to increase a many a independence movements supporters pertinent that Eritrean became well-nigh only pro-independence per mid 1980's.

A liberation struggle was dominated by ii movements, a Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), often refered to when "Jebha", & per Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), often known as "Shaebia". A ELF was dominated by Muslim lowlanders, & was a conservative grass roots movement, whereas the EPLF was dominated by Christian highlanders, and professed Marxism-Leninism. A ELF received backing from either either a extra conservative Arab governments, whereas a EPLF from a other left-wing ones, & a bit of Eastern bloc countries which abandoned it within favor of a Derg regime in Ethiopia upon the Ethiopian revolution. A ELF & EPLF mass produced tries to consolidate their operations, however before long encountered that it may not operate together. A ELF was at length overshadowed & eliminated per EPLF.

A hanker war ended inside 1991, when joint Eritrean & rebellious Ethiopian forces defeated a Ethiopian army, & a Derg regime fell. 2 years late, fallowing the referendum, Eritrean independence was declared. A leader of the EPLF, Isaias Afewerki, became Eritrea's first Provisionary President. A Eritrean Peoples Liberation front (EPLF or even Shaebia), bacame a resole legal regnant person, & changed its title to the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ).

Within 1998, a border war by having Ethiopia resulted in the deaths of thousands of soldiers from either each countries, & subjected Eritrea to important economic & social stresses, including massive people displacement, decreased economic development, & one of Africa's more severe landmine problems. A Ethiopian government, it used to be that firmly allies of a Eritrean authorities, expelled heavy many Eritreans & Ethiopians of Eritrean heritage from either Ethiopia at the commencement of the war. These when-prosperous population witnessed themselves suddenly dispossessed & dropped remove in the border zone between them countries, adding to the good displaced-souls condition.

Inside spite of ab initio promising economic & political strides, a Eritrean government cracked down inside a loose click & on opposition in 1998 once questions just about the conduct of the war were raised. a food and drug administration besides failed to implement the newly Constitution and to hold long-promised elections. Late, a food and drug administration of Eritrea enforced the Italian compound practice of requiring government approval of everthing expert religions. Presently sanctioned religions come a Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Eritrean Mekane Yesus Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Islam. Altogether more sects in the main, & fundamentalistic Evangelical Protestant Christians particularly, were suppressed across the nation. A Eritrean-Ethiopian War ended in 2000 with a negotiated agreement called a Algiers Agreement. One of a terms of a agreement wwhen the establishment of a UN peacekeeping, called the United Nations Mission around Eritrea & Ethiopia (UNMEE); on top 4,000 UN peacekeepers remain as of August 2004. An additional term of the Algiers Agreement was the establishment of a final demarcation of the disputed border region between Eritrea & Ethiopia. An independent, UN-associated boundary commission called the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC), fallowing extensive survey, issued a final border opinion around April 2002, but its guide was rejected by Ethiopia. When of October 2005 the border question remains in question, possibly when the tentative & tense ceasefire remains in situ.

Politics
Independent article: Politics of Eritrea

Because a Eritrean constitution is non however effectively, a unicameral Eritrean parliament, the National Assembly, is totally populated by members of the Population's Front for Democracy & Justice. This assembly of 150 seats, formed around 1993 shortly after independence, elected a todays president, Isaias Afewerki. National elections st& been sporadically scheduled and cancelled. Independent local sources of political facts inside Eritrean household politics come just; in September 2001 the government closed down 100% of the united states's privately owned print media, & outspoken critics of the government use at times been arrested and held while forgoing test, based on data from various international observers, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Around 2004 the U.S. State Department declared Eritrea a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its record of religious persecution (see below).

Regions
Independent article: Regions of Eritrea

Eritrea is divided into Captain hicks regions:

Central (Maekel) Anseba Southern Red Sea (Debubawi-Keih-Bahri) Northern Red Sea (Semienawi-Keih-Bahri) Southern (Debub) Gash-Barka

Geography
Independent article: Geography of Eritrea

Eritrea is in the Horn of Africa & is bordered on the northeast and east per Red Sea. Off a arenaceous & arid coastline is placed a Dahlak Archipelago and its fishing evidence. A l& south, in the upland, is slightly less prohibitionist and cooler. A greatest point of the united states, Soira, is located in the centre of Eritrea, at 3018 m above sea level.

A independent cities of a united states come the capital city of Asmara and the larboard town of Assab in a southeast, when well as the towns of Massawa and Keren.

Economy
Independent article: Economy of Eritrea

Since independence from either Ethiopia, Eritrethe has faced the economic problems of a little, desperately unfortunate united states. Prefer a economies of numbers of African nations, the economy is largely according to subsistence agriculture, with 80% of the people taking part inside farming & herding.

A Ethiopia-Eritrea war severely pain Eritrea's economy. GDP growth in 1999 fell to less than 1%, & GDP reduced by Octet.2% inside 2000. A Can 2000 Ethiopian offence into northern Eritrea driven a few $600 million inside property damage & loss, including losses of $225 million around livestock and 55,000 homes. A attack prevented planting of crops within Eritrea's virtually all productive vicinity, inducing food production to come by 62%.

Possibly when you took a war, Eritrea developed its transport infrastructure, asphalting new roads, improving its ports, & repairing war-damaged roads & bridges. Eritrea's economic first remains mixed. the surcease of Ethiopian trade, which principally utilized Eritrean ports prior to a war, leaves Eritrea by using a big economic hole to fill. Eritrea's economic first depends upon its ability to master fundamental frequency social problems rather illiteracy, unemployment, & moo skills, & to convert its diaspora money and expertness into economic incubation.

Eritrethe is at a brink of a famine, with food the diapers presently (February 2005) only lasting for of these year.

Demographics
Independent article: Demographics of Eritrea

Eritrea's 2 independent ethnic groups come a Tigrigna, who represent astir half of a people, & the Tigre , who come just about 40%. A leftover population come a Kunama, Afar, Bilen, Nara, Rashaida, Hidareb, and Saho. A local Tigrigna and the wider Arabic language are the two predominant languages for official purposes, however English and Italian are also spoken.

Dahlak is a newly found language spoken on the Dahlak Archipelago.

Religion

A dominant religions come Christianity and Islam, each class action representing about 50% of the people. A Christians consist primarily of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, which is the local Oriental Orthodox church, but little groups of Roman Catholics and Protestants also exist.

Members of the Eritrean Orthodox Church come another time described when Coptic Christians because the hierarchy of that church was once subject thereto of the Tawahido Church of Ethiopia, which was in turn erst (prior to 1950) subject to the Coptic Pope. However a word Coptic means Egyptian or even autochthonous (pre-Arab) Egyptian, then occurs as misnomer. A Eritrean & Ethiopian Orthodox churches come however in full communion with the Coptic Church around Egypt. Inside 1993 a Eritrean Orthodox Church was granted autocephaly, and inside 1998 a Archbishopric of Asmara, the immature united states's capital, was elevated to a rank of patriarchate of Eritrea, in the Coptic church.

A huge majority of Muslims within Eritrea come Sunni Muslims.

When of Will 2002, a government of Eritrea exclusively officially recognizes the Islamic, Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Lutheran churches (the Eritrean Orthodox Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodox Communion, not to the Eastern Orthodox Communion). More religions are non registered & just can not worship freely. The food and drug administration's registration formulas forces religious groups to submit home reference sequentially to become allowed worship.

Look at besides Eritrean Orthodox Church.

Culture

Cuisine of Eritrea Music of Eritrea

Miscellaneous topics
Communications in Eritrea Foreign relations of Eritrea List of Eritreans Military of Eritrea Music of Eritrea Transportation in Eritrea Eritrean Railway Zula