History of Eritrea
8th Millenium BC – evidence of human presence begins in the 8th millennium B.C., beginning with Pygmoid, Nilotic, Cushitic (the Afar) and Semitic (Tigrinya) peoples.
10 century BC - Dʿmt, the earliest known kingdom of the region spanning Eritrea and northern Ethiopia was a contemporary Ancient Egypt and the Kingdom of Nubia (now modern Sudan) that existed during the 10th to 5th centuries BC. Few inscriptions by or about this kingdom survive and very little archaeological work has taken place.
6th century B.C. - Arabs spread to the coast of present day Eritrea, in search of ivory and slaves for trade with Persia and India. Their language evolved into Ge'ez, which branched into the languages of Tigrinya (spoken in Eritrea and Northern Ethiopia) and Amharic (spoken in Ethiopia).
3rd - 4th century AD - Eritrea forms part of the kingdom of Axum which spread from Meroe in Sudan right across the Red Sea to Yemen. The capital of Axum was in the highlands of Tigray (northern province in Ethiopia), and the main port was at Adulis in Eritrea..
6th century AD - Persian Empire takes control of the Red Sea and most of the Nile, pushing Aksum into economic isolation. Kingdom of Aksum then retreated to the South.
10th century AD - After the Aksumite empire, the land stretching from the Eritrean highlands to the Red Sea became Medri Bahri (or the Land of the Sea) was in the highlands of Eritrea ruled by various rulers over the centuries.
16th century – The Ottomans invaded the Kingdom of Medri Bahri now modern day Eritrea, in 1557 taking over the old port city of Massawa in the East. The southern region became part of the Abyssinian Kingdom covering the Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands populated predominantly by Christian Tigrinyans.
Early 19th century - Abyssinia was subject to the expansionism of the Egyptians and some European powers (French, Italian and British). Ali Pasha invaded Sudan, gradually encroaching on the Western Lowlands of present-day Eritrea. By mid-century, the British had a consulate in Massawa, the French already had a presence and Italian missionaries were established in Keren.
Late 19th century - With Italian colonisation arrived an influx of tens of thousands of Italians, bringing with them modern skills and a new lifestyle. Despite the brutal rule, Asmara grew into a charming modernist city, making it a UNESCO heritage site.
20th century – Italians driven out by British in WW2 and subsequently federated Eritrea into Ethiopia. In the 1960s, Eritrea began a 30 year struggle for freedom, eventually achieving freedom from Ethiopian rule in 1993.