Eritrea is a small country in the Horn of Africa that stretches for more than 1,000 kilometers along the Red Sea, bordered by Sudan, Ethiopia, and Djibouti, and facing Yemen across the sea. It has a temperate mountain zone with an average temperature of 63°F and much warmer western and coastal zones. Asmara, the capital, lies more than 2,300 meters above sea level and has a relatively mild climate, while Massawa and Assab on the coast experience some of the world’s highest temperatures.

Historically, the area was home to the empire of Aksum, which flourished between 100 and 940 CE and was a major trading power between Europe and Asia. Its ports linked the African interior with Egypt, Arabia, India, and the Mediterranean, and served as an important route for trade in gold, coffee, and slaves. After Aksum’s decline, the region was divided among highland Christian communities, pastoral peoples, local rulers, and coastal authorities. In the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire occupied Massawa, although its control rarely extended far into the highlands. Egyptian forces expanded along the coast in the nineteenth century, while local rulers, Ethiopian emperors, Sudanese powers, and European merchants competed for influence.

In the late nineteenth century, Italy obtained the port of Assab and subsequently expanded northward. In 1890 it formally proclaimed the Colony of Eritrea, which became the first Italian colonial holding in Africa and transformed Eritrea’s economy and physical landscape. The Italians built roads, ports, railways, factories, schools, and administrative centers. Asmara was developed rapidly and its modernist cinemas, shops, apartment buildings, factories, and service stations made it one of Africa’s most architecturally distinctive cities. Italian influence has survived in its architecture, sometimes reminiscent of Florence and Milan, as well as in Italian cars, shops serving excellent gelato, and an older generation that still speaks Italian.

During World War II, British forces defeated the Italians, and a British military administration governed Eritrea for about eleven years. In 1952, the United Nations decided to federate Eritrea with Ethiopia. Eritrea was supposed to retain its own elected assembly, courts, flag, and authority over domestic affairs, while Ethiopia controlled defense and foreign policy. The arrangement did not work out, as Emperor Haile Selassie’s government progressively restricted Eritrean autonomy. Political parties were suppressed, the Eritrean flag was removed, and Amharic replaced Tigrinya and Arabic in many official functions. In 1962, Ethiopia dissolved the federation and annexed Eritrea. This annexation triggered a 30-year armed independence struggle, intertwined with Ethiopia’s own revolutionary upheavals, including the fall of Haile Selassie in 1974, and the rise of the Marxist Derg regime. Eritrean fighters constructed a remarkably organized wartime society, including underground hospitals, workshops, schools, and administrative institutions, as described in Thomas Keneally’s Asmara, a book of war, famine, and suffering.

With extensive Soviet assistance, the military government that overthrew Haile Selassie in 1974 continued the war. In 1991 it captured Asmara. After a 1993 referendum, Eritrea became an independent state. But conflict with Ethiopia continued until 2000, followed by a war over the independence of Ethiopia’s Tigray province. The political situation remains uncertain. It has left Eritrea a dictatorship with a population of three million, limited opportunities for its people, and a high emigration rate.

Of these people, Tigrinya and Tigre form the majority. Tigrinya, Arabic, and English are used as working languages, but Italian has survived in some areas. Asmara is by far the largest city, and religion is divided broadly between Christianity and Islam, with churches, mosques, and even synagogues. The city center sports a statue of Pushkin. Hospitals and trained personnel are concentrated in Asmara, and rural inhabitants have little access to modern care. Childhood vaccination has expanded; child mortality has declined. Malaria cases and deaths have fallen sharply; women now receive prenatal care; female genital mutilation is prohibited and reportedly declining. Shortages of medicines, laboratory equipment, transport, electricity, and trained specialists still restrict the quality of care. The country’s future depends on peace, education, food security, economic opportunity, and its ability to retain young, professionally trained citizens.