According to linguistic evidences, the original inhabitants of the present-day Eritrea were Nilotic people who eventually intermingled with the Hamitic tribes of North Africa that were expanding southwards. By the 1200 B.C., Semetic people from the South Arabia began to trade along the Eritrean coast gradually settling on the Eritrean highlands.

The Semetic then mixed with the existing tribe- Kushitic- giving birth to a distinct civilization that arose into a new political and economic power. The Axumite kingdom that ranked third of those powerful empires that existed at that time, flourished in the 4th B.C. It expanded as far as South Arabian Peninsula until it began to decline ending in breakup in the seventh century.

In the 16th century, the region was divided into different political entities. The highland called the Medri Bahri (The Land of Sea) was under the nominal rule of Abyssinia, Massawa and the coastal areas under the Ottoman Turks and the western lowlands under the Funj Empire of Sudan. In the early eighteenth century, the Abyssinian domination of the highlands was challenged by the rise of two Christian Tigrigna speaking clans. This takeover was short-lived as it came to an end when lords from the northern Abyssinia reestablished their control over the highlands; while the western lowlands and the coastal area that were under loose control of Turks and Funj Empire came under the Egyptian occupation (1820-85).

In the scramble for Africa, there was a conflict between the two great powers- the French and Britain over this increasingly strategic Red Sea coast. Because of this the British, in order to block the French, supported the Egyptians and later the Italians to have possessions. The Italians for the first time set their foot on Assab (Eritrea’s second port) in 1882. They gradually occupied the highlands and the lowlands by driving out the Egyptians and the Abyssinians. By the first January of 1890, Italy officially declared Eritrea as its colony; subsequently defined its territory by signing peace treaties with Menelik II (King of Ethiopia) and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Since Italy’s primary target in possessing a colony was to get a settlement land to it’s unemployed population, unlike the other African colonies, the Italians built ports, railroads, roads, telecommunications and administrative centers. In the 1930s, the Fascist Italy planed to invade Ethiopia using Eritrea as a stepping-stone. As a matter of fact, so many Italian military personals were deployed and Eritrea was converted into a military supply base. The Italian colony collapsed in 1941 when the British defeated Italy at Keren and as Asmara, the capital city, was taken over.

Since it was acting only as a protectorate, the British Military Administration (BMA) retained the Italian administration- an act that discouraged Eritreans who were expecting to gain autonomy. During the Second World War, Eritrea being far from the battlefield was used as a military base. Consequently, Eritreans experienced economic boom until the end of the Great War. The period of British Military Administration (BMA) was also marked by the rise of nationalist movements.

In the discussion for the disposal of the Italian colonies, the winners of the war failed to agree on what to do with Eritrea and subsequently the issue was brought to the newly formed organization the United Nations which decided to federally link Eritrea with Ethiopia. Nonetheless, Ethiopia started to violate the terms of the federation from the outset, totally annexing Eritrea in 1962. As repeated Eritrean appeals to the international community about Ethiopia’s violations did not bear fruit, armed struggle became the only option left to them. After the abolition of the federation, the armed struggle in 1961 was launched by the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF).