Eritrea Province

This article is about the former Ethiopian province. For the modern country, see Eritrea. For the Greek town, see Eretria.

Location of Eritrea within the Ethiopian Empire

Eritrea (Ge'ez: ኤርትራ) was a historical region and province in the far-north part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Asmara.

History

The province formerly and historically was called Medri Bahri (Land of the Sea). Its name was changed to Eritrea following the Italian invasion into the region and the establishment of Italian Eritrea.

After colonial rule, Eritrea was an autonomous state in Abyssinia and in the later Democratic People's Republic of Ethiopia. However, autonomy was abolished between 1962 and the reign of Derg until 1987.

Eritrea, as a semi-independent province within Ethiopia, had its own democratically elected regional parliament, its own constitution, its own regional government, and Tigrinya and Arabic as its official language - as opposed to Amharic in the rest of Ethiopia. The capital of the province was Asmara.

The most influential foreign political parties in the regional Eritrean National Assembly were the Pro-Italian New Eritrea Party, the Nationalist Independent Muslim League and the Muslim League of the Western Province.