Highlights of Eritrean History
Ethiopia shall soon stretch out
her hands unto God

Psalm 68:31

Eritrea, as a geographical and political entity, is a scant eighty years old, yet the history of the tribesmen who populated the northern highlands antedates the erection of Stonehenge in England. Owing to the geographical location astride pilgrimage and trade routes, Eritrean history is suffused with foreign influences ranging from Syrian Christianity to the culture of Arabian immigrants. Even the name is foreign and is probably a derivative of the ancient Greek cartographical designation, Mare Erythraean (Red Sea). But foreign influence played a somewhat less beneficient role in Abyssinian development. Historically, Eritrea was victimized by an endless succession of invaders serving various causes. Pillage and barbarity were commonplace. Moreover, social upheaval was the leit motif of Eritrean life for 3,000 years--a chronicle of invasion, religious contention, internecine war and repeated instances of cultural assimilation. It was a society that pivoted on military balances where only the strongest survived to dictate policy.

Present day Eritrea comprises an area roughly equivalent to the state of New York. It is a land of fascinating topographical extremes. Mountainous highlands bisect the area with elevations up to 8,000 feet, broad ambas of rocky grassland and a pleasantly temperate climate. To the west, the sparsely vegetated lowlands marry the Sudanese deserts, and on the east, the coastal plains merge with the Great Rift Valley in the Danakil Depression, reputed to be the hottest place on earth. The geography, particularly the precipitous escarpments, has also been a contributing factor in Eritrean history. The ascents from the peripheral lowlands have historically provided a formidable barrier. For much of its 3,000 year history, the security of the highlands allowed the Abyssinian culture to metamorphose with minimal foreign infringement. Even though Europe had been aware of Abyssinia's existence since before the birth of Christ, the first Europeans didn't arrive until well into the Middle Ages.

The question of the exact origins of the Eritrean people is still an academic one although it is likely that early migrations into the Eritrean highlands originated from the Kingdom of Cush. Cushitic kings dominated portions of present day Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda about 700 B.C. The Cushitic people who migrated into Eritrea during the first millennium B.C. were primitive animists. At roughly the same time, the Semitic tribes of southwestern Arabia had gained preeminence in the Near East, mostly as a result of their successes in irrigated agriculture. When the Semites sought to increase their demesne, the natural move was across the short expanse of the Mare Erythraean in to Eritrea.

The initial Semitic migrants found the arid coastal regions inhospitable and gradually moved into the highlands and a terrain and climate akin to their own. It was in the highlands that they first encountered the Cushitic tribes. After a few hundred years of cultural interface, the Cushites were either absorbed or driven south into the Danakil. The superior culture carried by the Arabian Semites not only quickly assimilated the Cushites, but provided the foundation on which the Axumite Empire was built. The early Semitic settlements became important centers of trade by maintaining ties with Arabia and by taking advantage of the bustling Red Sea commerce.

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