MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Eritrea

ONE LAND · 3 ATLASES

Eritrea, on the map of history

What was Eritrea before it was Eritrea? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Eritrea · The Great War, 1914–1918

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Eritrea · The Cold War, 1945–1991

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Eritrea · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

Italian Eritrea passed to British administration in 1941 and was federated to Ethiopia by UN decision in 1952 — a federation Addis Ababa hollowed out and then abolished outright in 1962. The result was Africa’s longest war of independence: thirty years, from Hamid Idris Awate’s first shots in September 1961 to the EPLF’s capture of Asmara in May 1991, fought from mountain trenches largely without a superpower patron. Formal independence came by referendum on 24 May 1993 — the map’s last new flag before South Africa completed it, and the rare exception to the frozen-border rule: a colonial border restored, not redrawn.

OPEN THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA ON THE LIVING MAP →