The Genesis of the Modern Eritrean Struggle (1942–1961)

Abstract

This article shows how the intra-ethnic, elite-level competition for leadership over the Eritrean ethnic mobilization drive interacted with the economic policies that the Amhara imposed on the Eritreans in the imperial era of the Ethiopian state to generate the potential for violent ethnic conflict. The Eritrean ethnic mobilization drive turned violent when economically dependent Eritreans prodded their ethnic group leaders into a series of bidding wars with each other that made peaceful accommodation with the Amhara leaders of Ethiopia infeasible. To illustrate this argument, this article presents the history of the incorporation of Eritrea into Ethiopia after Eritrea's decolonization, examines intra-Eritrean divisions and their relationship to the Ethiopian imperial centers, shows how the economic policies that the Ethiopians imposed upon Eritrea impacted the Eritrean ethnic mobilization drive, and then shows how economically dependent Eritreans incentivized rival Eritrean political leaders to engage in bidding wars with respect to the Ethiopian authorities.