Talk:History of Eritrea

Which Mani?
Does anybody know to what Mani the second paragraph of the Early History section is talking about? It's quite probable that it's the prophet, but there're several possibilities that fit. Thank you.--200.118.220.229 (talk) 21:26, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

It is misleading readers to say, "Prior to Italian colonization in 1885, what is now Eritrea had been ruled by the various local or international powers that successively dominated the Red Sea region."

These "various local or international powers" was Ethiopia. Over several centuries (the myth goes back to King Solomon and Queen Sheba), Ethiopia (which included the area now considered Eritrea) existed in this part of Africa. Eritrea's separate identity was initially nurtured by the colonialist Italians and later by Egyptians (who want to keep Ethiopia divided and weak so as to prevent Ethiopia's claim for use of the Blue Nile). Eritreans are Ethiopian; their script, their food, their clothing, their names, their houses of worship, their lineage, and their heritage are common. Eritrean and Ethiopian history are one.

Eritrea is as much Ethiopian as Florida or Georgia are American. The United States has unequivocally demonstrated its views regarding the principles of "right to self determination". When the 13 Southern States declared their independence, the North under Abraham Lincoln mobilized and brought those states to heel, contrary to such "right of self determination". When national unity is in question, no country will stand by and watch a piece of itself break away. It is unfair under these circumstances to blame Emperor Haile Sillassie or Mengistu for fighting to keep Eritrea as one with Ethiopia. These two have many other faults but this one is not the one.

The current authoritarian powers in Eritrea are Communist and were supported by Communist Russia for most of their struggle. True to their Communist pedigree, Isayas Afewerqi and his supporters tolerate no disagreements, indiscriminately eliminating any and all opposition. Because of this, Eritrea's economy is in ruins.

It has been 40 years since the beginning of this unfortunate fracture between Eritrea and the rest of Ethiopia. Considering Ethiopia's long history, there is hope that the two nations will some day admit the error of their ways to reconstitute themselves back again as one nation and one people. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.65.37.45 (talk • contribs) 17:36, 29 February 2004 (UTC)


 * Before the Italians there was nither Eritrea nor Ethiopia. True that different kingdoms based in what are today Tigray and Gonder provinces ruled these areas and sometimes as far as southern Eritrea. Even if the kings of Abessiniya had had some control of the tigrinya part of Eritrea, the muslim part which is 75% of Eritrea was never under Abessinyan control. Thus saying Eritrea is one with Ethiopia is misleading. &mdash; preceding unsigned comment by 193.10.51.196 (talk &bull; contribs) 23:58, 27 June 2004 (UTC)


 * To say that Eritrea is a break-away province of Ethiopia is highly incendiary and the claims surronding Eritrea and Ethiopia's similarities are highly falsified. At the very least, one recognizes that the most basic level of differentiation among ethinic groups is language. Eritreans speak predominatly Tigrena while the dominant language in Ethiopia is Amharic. That alone shows that the two nationalities are not one in the same. Second, because two ethnic groups (the Tigrenas and Amharas specifically, not even taking into consideration the other ethnic groups that are native only to Eritrea or Ethiopia) share many similarites does not mean they are one and the same. Spanish, French, and English share the same script; does this nullifiy the differences in the language? Tigrena and Amharic are mutually intelligable. Plus, there are several examples of differention between dress, food (e.g. kitfo, a favorite dish among Ethiopians is not eaten in Eritrea), names, etc. It only makes sense that two civilaztions so close in proximity develop similar cultural practices, a basic anthropoligical understanding.


 * Next, it is completely appropriate to attribute Eritrea's opression to Haile Salassie and subsequently Mengistu who advocated the banishment of an Eritrean identity. Using the United States as an example is a very poor choice since the context and circumstances are completely different (the United States was ethnically and culturally homogenous at the time of the Civil War, which was a war to defend the practice of slavery, not to the defend the conquered Southern identity). Finally, Ethiopia has been hailed as the only African nation to defeat a European army and avoid colonialization. However, if Eritrea was in fact a part of Ethiopia, and it was conquered by Italy, does that not make Ethiopia a conquered nation as well? Either Ethiopia (or part of it) was conquerored, or Eritrea was never apart of Ethiopia and feel to Italian conquerors. Pick one, you cannot have it both ways. &mdash; preceding unsigned comment by 141.161.69.76 (talk &bull; contribs) 09:08, 12 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Wouldn't both countries have the Kingdom of Aksum and Orthodox Church (to name but two example) in common? Perhaps "Prior to Italian colonization in 1885" should be re-written and expanded, as it would seem to equate the last 120 years with several centuries of previous history. While you did acknowledge that Ethiopia and Eritrea's respective cultures are not homogenous, your arguments seem to be based on the contrary. (Eritreans don't eat Kitfo, but on the other hand, do all Ethiopians eat it?) As someone pointed out, Ethiopia, in the current sense, has only existed in relatively recent times. My opinion is that the history articles for both countries should expand more upon the individual entities (Shewa, Gondar, Adal etc.) that preceded Ethiopia and Eritrea. This would be more accurate and, I believe, would address some of the issues you've mentioned -- Gyrofrog (talk) 17:08, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
 * P.S. Please remember that this page is for discussing the History of Eritrea article, and not the History of Eritrea in general. While all of the preceding comments address valid concerns, please frame them in such a way so that they contribute to the improvement of the article itself. Thank you, -- Gyrofrog (talk) 17:17, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Early History
Early History really should be expanded. Right now it's less than 1/3 of the entire article, when the span of time covered is 20-30 times longer. For this reason I have added the template.

Yom 06:55, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Oh my gosh Kandes Beyn (talk) 01:15, 29 January 2022 (UTC)

Medieval history
I made a couple changes including removing POV and correcting some false information. The Adal sultanate never stretched as far north as the Eritrean coastline. It wasn't until its fall, actually, in the mid-late 16th century, that the Afar Sultanate/Awsa Sultanate was founded in eastern Ethiopia, and came to dominate the Afar coastline in what is now Eritrea. Moreover, Aksum did not disintegrate into many kingdoms. Rulers remembered as Aksumite ruled as late as the first half of the 12th century (see Knud Tage Anderson's "The Queen of the Habasha in Ethiopian history, tradition and chronology"), and the Zagwe was not just a political, but also a cultural direct continuation of Aksum (see Tekeste Negash's "The Zagwe period re-interpreted: post-Aksumite Ethiopian urban culture," and David W. Phillipson's work on the Lalibela Churches, which shows that they were built over a long period from the 9-10th centuries up to King Lalibela's time, some of which began as Aksumite fortresses.). Moreover, I corrected some info on the naming of the region. &mdash; ዮም  |  (Yom)  |  Talk  • contribs • Ethiopia 21:04, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
 * What is medieval in the context of Eritrean history? The term medieval, at least as far as it is defined in wikipedia is as a term related to European History. Should this heading be corrected? Merhawie (talk) 04:54, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

Eritrea?
Reading the article, it is very hard to get an understanding of Eritrea's history. There seems to be a conflation of the modern state with the history of past states that happened to occupy the same territory, a regrettable feature of much modern nationalist history. What I wanted was an understanding of when "Eritrea" actually became a coherent or distinctive entity. From the article, it appears that Eritrea meant nothing until it was created by the Italians in the modern era. Before that, "Eritrean history" appears to be nothing more than a concatenation of the histories of states that were in the general area. That is, a reading back into history of the modern state. It would be useful if the situation could be outlined a bit more coherently. From what the article seems to be saying, it should begin with the straightforward statement that 'Eritrea is a state created by the Italians in the colonial era. The area occupied by modern Eritrea was since ancient times......' This would relieve the reader of the need to try and figure out whether the ancient states mentioned are lineal ancestors of the modern state, or merely states that happened to cover part of the soil of the modern country.

211.31.251.226 (talk) 10:26, 12 December 2010 (UTC)


 * The took the exact same borders of Medri Bahri and renamed it Eritrea, that fact is often suppressed. Medri Bahri was a separate entity and there is plenty of material on it and the history of What we now know as Eritrea. 2A02:C7C:36FF:3600:4550:EFE1:F5BB:5170 (talk) 22:54, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

Prehistory
In the final sentence under the section titled Prehistory the term "discovered" is italicized. Is this meant to suggest that the discovery was a fraud or manufactured or to say that there were special circumstances related to the event? I'm curious because it seems unclear as to why this particular word would be formatted this way. Without any explanation, should this not be cleaned-up to avoid any further questions similar to mine? Xerobane 16:43, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

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Negative Bias Against Eritrea in this Article
First off, this label of "North Korea of Africa"...can anyone provide a Legitimate and Official designation of this label? Because all I can find are articles that were Heavily Biased against Eritrea. Authorityofwiki (talk) 01:14, 9 December 2017 (UTC)

A very Inaccurate article that should be corrected in its entirety.
1) The present day Eritrea was part of Ethiopia since the Italians,in the 19th century, landed at the shore of the Red Sea and gradually expanded to eventually carve out this region from the rest of Ethiopia. This land has been known as Bahre Negash and it has been administered from the kings in Ethiopia

2) the land of Eritrea existed in the expanse of the Aksumite Empire. However, the heart of the Empire was in North Ethiopia which is presently known as the Tigray region. This article has exaggerated and misrepresented the role of Eritrea during the Aksumite period.

3) It also looks that this article is politically tainted. I see the hands of those living in the present day Eritrea who want to craft a glorious part for their newly founded independent nation.

4) The Series on the Ethiopian history should be the place where all these Aksum-related discussions should emphasize because Ethiopia is the base the the root of the Aksumite empire — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.49.105.5 (talk) 13:59, 5 May 2018 (UTC)


 * Medri Bahri was a separate entity with its own political process which was later controlled by Ethiopia to state it was always part of Ethiopia is false and historically inaccurate 2A02:C7C:36FF:3600:4550:EFE1:F5BB:5170 (talk) 22:55, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

An Effort to Conjure a Glorious Past for a New Country in Africa
It seems that the author wants to obscure the fact that, before Italians, the land was under the crown of the Ethiopian Empire. The Italians managed to encroach the area from the shores of the red sea because the seat of the empire was moved southwards to Addis Ababa. That made it logistically to liberate that land which was occupied by the Italians. The Italians moved southwards to increase the size of their new colony. That time they were defeated at the battle of Adwa. However, the Ethiopian emperor of the time failed to get rid them off the northern region. The Italians then christened their new colony as Eritrea and stayed there for 50 years. For me, this article is politically tainted perhaps with the desire of conjuring a glorious past for the newly independent country Eritrea. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.49.105.5 (talk) 14:09, 5 May 2018 (UTC)


 * No that is revionist the state of Medri Bahri was an Eritrean kingdom with its own political process. Constantly at war with is neighbours until the takeover trying to suppress that history does not work 2A02:C7C:36FF:3600:4550:EFE1:F5BB:5170 (talk) 22:57, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

Standard Ethiopianist vs Eritrean revisionist views: Journal of Eastern African Studies
Here's what seems to be a good academic reference that covers key periods of Eritrean history since the 17th century, and distinguishes what the author sees as well-established facts and the 'standard Ethiopianist' versus the 'Eritrean revisionist' interpretations and views of the history: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17531050701452523, Richard Reid 2007 Journal of Eastern African Studies, (open access). In other words, the author claims that the overview is NPOVed. A proper use of this source may help deal with some of the NPOV concerns mentioned above on this talk page. Boud (talk) 23:10, 5 December 2021 (UTC)