ABSTRACT
Eritrea’s ethnic and religious makeup is complex, which made the road to independence a winding one. The original inhabitants of Eritrea were a mixed group of Cushitic and Semitic peoples who had moved into the region some 3,000 years ago. In the fourth century c.e., the coastal areas were converted to Christianity, which then spread to the inland hills and from there to the Ethiopian Empire beyond. In the seventh century, Muslim invaders and merchants brought Islam to the coastal regions of Eritrea. By the twentieth century, Eritrea was approximately evenly divided between the Muslims of the coastal towns and the plains and the Christians who lived in the highlands closer to Ethiopia.
