Ethiopia, with a population of 120 million, has been landlocked since 1993 in a sham referendum leading to the secession of Eritrea, a former district of Tigray Regional State, North Ethiopia. Ethiopians do not want Eritreans back to Ethiopia. They rather live with the population which has similar history. Ethiopia was not colonized whereas Eritrea was a colony of Italy which is negative to most Ethiopians. Eritreans are seen as ascari or banda because many of their parents were serving the Italian colonial army.
Land-locking Ethiopia was wrong and has no justification what soever. In fact the Red Sea was developed by Aksumite Ethiopia about 4000 years ago. Aksumite Ethiopia maintained a fleet of ships that affected the balance of trade of The Roman Empire and other powers of the time. The ships leaving Adulis were destined to Europe, Asia including China and India. This means Aksumite Ethiopia had its own ports which were in Western and Eastern parts of The Red sea.
As the following map shows Aksumite Ethiopia controlled Yemen and Southern Arabia, which lasted until 700 CE.
Aksumite Ethiopia had a large fleet of vessels and was an important trade partner with Roman Empire, Perssia, China and India. With the exchange of trade, new technologies were imported to Aksumite Ethiopia. The Army was modernized getting quite advanced weaponry used by The Roman Army.
Aksumite Ethiopia was in decline in 9th Century CE and a new capital was established in Lalibella, Agaw Medir or Wello. After 1 th Century new kings ruled the country with priority of pacifying and uniting the country. Ethiopia still used The Red sea for trade, but not as much as during The Aksumite Era. The Western Red Sea remained under Ethiopian control. There were some troops sporadically landing in Massawa and Asseb. But the local Tigrayan Feudal Lords acting in the name of the Sovereign evicted the troops. Practically The Western Red Sea has been under Ethiopia until 1889, where Menelik, king of Ethiopia signed a treaty with Italy giving Tigray's districts (Bogos, Hammassen and Akule Guzay) to Italy. This is the darkest day in Ethiopia's history, a king without any royal blood giving away sovereign land to Italy. This is known in history as the Wichale Treaty. We post the treaty below:
"Treaty of Wuchale (or, Treaty of Ucciale; in Italian, Trattato di Uccialli) was a treaty signed by King Menelik II of Shewa, later the Emperor of Ethiopia with Count Pietro Antonelli of Italy in the town of Wuchale, Ethiopia, on 2 May 1889. The treaty stated that the regions of Bogos, Hamasien, Akkele Guzay, and Serae were part of the Italian colony of Eritrea and is the origin of the Italian colony and modern state of Eritrea. Per the Treaty, Italy promised financial assistance and military supplies.The contents of Article 3 of the treaty state the following:[1
Art. 3. To remove any ambiguity about the limits of the territories over which the two Contracting Parties shall exercise the rights of sovereignty, a special committee composed of two Italian delegates and two Ethiopians will trace on the ground with appropriate signs a permanent boundary line whose benchmarks are established as follows:
a) The line of the plateau will mark the Italian-Ethiopian border;
b) Starting from the region Arafali, Halai, Saganeiti and Asmara are villages in the Italian border;
c) Adi Adi Nefas and Joannes will be on the side of Bogos in the Italian border;
d) From Adi Joannes a straight line extended from east to west will mark the border between Italy and Ethiopia.
Disputes over Article 17 regarding the conduct of foreign affairs led to the First Italo–Ethiopian War. The Italian version stated that Ethiopia was obliged to conduct all foreign affairs through Italian authorities, in effect making Ethiopia an Italian protectorate, while the Amharic version gave Ethiopia considerable autonomy, with the option of communicating with third powers through the Italians.[2] The misunderstanding, according to the Italians, was due to the mistranslation of a verb, which formed a permissive clause in Amharic and a mandatory one in Italian.[3]
According the illegal treaty between Menelik, a war lord in Shoa and Italy, The Mereb and Muna Rivers and their extension to The Red Sea is the boundary between Ethiopia and The Italian colony of Eritrea. Up to now the boundary between Ethiopia and Eritrea has not been delineated. We think it is time for the government of Ethiopia to delineate the boundary between Ethiopia and Eritrea. We believe the new boundary will give Ethiopia and Tigray (Ethiopia's northern province access to Red Sea) which means Ethiopia can exploit it for tourism, military and commerce.
