 On 1 January 1890, Italy set the boundaries of Eritrea and ruled it as a colony until 1941, when the British defeated the Italians in Africa and took over the administration. After the Italian defeat in World War II, Britain administered Eritrea. Following a decision by the United Nations, Eritrea was federated to Ethiopia in 1952, with a certain amount of autonomy. However, during the federation with Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie's government systematically violated the rights granted by the UN. The oppression culminated with the dissolution of the Eritrean parliament and the annexation of Eritrea as Ethiopia's fourteenth province in 1962. In 1961, an armed struggle for independence began. The thirty years of fighting ended in May 1991, when the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) liberated Asmara and established the Provisional Government of Eritrea (PGE). In an internationally supervised referendum in April 1993, 99.8% of Eritreans voted for independence, which was officially declared on 24 May 1993. |
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