¹ In the ensuing discussion, sections of direct quotations which are placed in italics indicate my emphasis, unless otherwise stated.

² See for example Iyob, Ruth, The Eritrean Struggle for Independence: Domination, Resistance, Nationalism, 1941-1993 (Cambridge, 1995).Google Scholar

³ For example, Haile, Semere, “Historical Background to the Ethiopia-Eritrea Conflict” in Davidson, Basil and Cliffe, Lionel, eds., The Long Struggle of Eritrea for Independence and Constructive Peace (Trenton, 1988), 11.Google Scholar

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⁸ Plowden, W.C., Travels in Abyssinia and the Galla Country: With an Account of a Mission to Ras Ali in 1848 (London, 1868), 39.Google Scholar

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¹⁰ Salt, Henry, A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels into the Interior of that Country (London, 1814), 299–300.Google Scholar

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¹² Gobat, S., ed. Clark, S.D., Journal of Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia (London, 1851), 21.Google Scholar

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¹⁴ Marcus, H.G., A History of Ethiopia (Berkeley, 1994), xiii.Google Scholar

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¹⁶ Only Alemseged Abbay, who supports the idea of the “trans-Mereb” identity and to whom we will return below, is happy to give Axum jointly to Eritreans and Tigrayans: see Abbay, Alemseged, Identity Jilted or Re-imagining Identity? The Divergent Paths of the Eritrean and Tigrayan Nationalist Struggles (Lawrenceville, 1998), 2.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Tamrat, Taddesse, Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270-1527 (Oxford, 1972), 259–61.Google Scholar

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¹⁹ The Zagwe dynasty controlled the “Abyssinian” heartland from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, when it was overthrown by the first ruler to claim the Solomonic heritage.

²⁰ Taddesse, , Church and State, 79–80.Google Scholar

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³² Rubenson, Sven, The Survival of Ethiopian Independence (London, 1976), 31.Google Scholar

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³⁴ Marcus, , Life and Times, 37.Google Scholar

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³⁶ Ibid., 79. In a later work, Marcus reiterates this general point, suggesting in addition that the province of Tigray “then included Eritrea,” which is dubious to say the least: Marcus, , History of Ethiopia, 73.Google Scholar

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³⁹ Ibid., 142. Walter Plowden, writing of the “Taltals” in the 1840s, explained how “[t]he Abyssinians that need salt there, cut it under the protection of a large armed force,” which hardly suggests political control: Plowden, , Travels in Abyssinia, 25.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Erlich, H., Ras Alula and the Scramble for Africa: a Political Biography, Ethiopia and Eritrea, 1875-1897 (Lawrenceville, 1996), xii.Google Scholar

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⁴² Ibid., x-xi.

⁴³ Ibid., xii.

⁴⁴ Ibid., xiii.

⁴⁵ Ibid.

⁴⁶ Ibid., xv.

⁴⁷ Ibid., xi, 4, 6, 7.

⁴⁸ Marcus, , Life and Times, 40, 42.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Erlich, , Ras Alula, 10–13.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Marcus, , Life and Times, 77.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Erlich, , Ras Alula, 17.Google Scholar A similar remark ran thus: “I have come to retake Massawa from the Egyptians, I will not go away until my horse has drunk from the Red Sea.” Yohannes was also credited with some memorable one-liners, including his remark that “I do not want a consul at Massawa. I want Massawa.” See ibid., 24.

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⁵⁴ Markakis, John, Ethiopia: Anatomy of a Traditional Polity (Addis Ababa, 1974), 25.Google Scholar

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⁵⁷ Zewde, Bahru, A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855-1974 (London, 1991), 76–77.Google Scholar

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⁵⁹ Bahru, , Modern Ethiopia, 84–85.Google Scholar

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⁶¹ Marcus, , History of Ethiopia, 95.Google Scholar

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⁶⁵ Ibid., 94. “Mereb Melash” refers to “the land beyond the Mereb river,” and was the precolonial Abyssinian name for much of modern Eritrea.

⁶⁶ ibid., p.181.

⁶⁷ ibid., p. 107.

⁶⁸ Negash, Tekeste, Italian Colonialism in Eritrea, 1882-1941 Policies, Praxis, and Impact (Uppsala, 1987), 127.Google Scholar

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⁷⁰ Ibid., 50.

⁷¹ Ibid., 131.

⁷² Ibid., 136-37.

⁷³ Ibid., 132, 134.

⁷⁴ Ibid., 134.

⁷⁵ Ibid., 161, 163-64.

⁷⁶ Ibid., 181.

⁷⁷ Ibid.

⁷⁸ Negash, Tekeste, Eritrea and Ethiopia: the Federal Experience (Uppsala, 1997).Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Ibid., 57, 58.

⁸⁰ Ibid., 49, 54-56, 78, 133.

⁸¹ Marcus, , History of Ethiopia, 175.Google Scholar

⁸² See Pateman, , Even the Stones, 68ff.Google Scholar

⁸³ For example, see Clapham, C., Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia (Cambridge, 1988).Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Alemseged, , Identity Jilted, 1.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Ibid.

⁸⁶ Ibid., 5; also ibid., 22, 28.

⁸⁷ Ibid., 12.

⁸⁸ Ibid., 29.

⁸⁹ Ibid., 40.

⁹⁰ Ibid., 37, 69.

⁹¹ Ibid., 72ff.

⁹² Markakis, , Anatomy, 48, 57.Google Scholar

⁹³ Ibid., 289.

⁹⁴ Ibid., 361.

⁹⁵ Ibid., 362.

⁹⁶ Ibid.

⁹⁷ Ullendorff, E., The Ethiopians: an Introduction to Country and People (London, 1973), 35.Google Scholar It might be wondered why, if Eritrea was wholly artificial in creation, the “ancient Abyssinians” should give it a separate name—“Mereb Melash”—in the precolonial period.

⁹⁸ Ibid., 90.

⁹⁹ Ibid., 192-93.

¹⁰⁰ Ibid., 194.

¹⁰¹ Schwab, P., Ethiopia: Politics, Economics and Society (London, 1985), 42.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Ibid., 67.

¹⁰³ Ibid., 70.

¹⁰⁴ Ibid., 116-17.

¹⁰⁵ Marcus, , History of Ethiopia, 217–18.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Ibid., 219. See as well Negash, Tekeste, Federal Experience, 176–77.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Ibid., 220.

¹⁰⁸ Iyob, Eritrean Struggle for Independence.

¹⁰⁹ Pateman, Even the Stones.

¹¹⁰ Connell, D., Against All Odds: a Chronicle of the Eritrean Revolution (Lawrenceville, 1993).Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Lionel Cliffe and Basil Davidson, The Long Struggle of Eritrea for Independence; Medhanie, Tesfatsion, Eritrea: Dynamics of a National Question (Amsterdam, 1986)Google Scholar; Sherman, R., Eritrea: the Unfinished Revolution (New York, 1980).Google Scholar