Maps Source: CIA World Fact Book
The Eritrea and Ethiopian War People tend to be selfish in their thinking when it comes to wars. If a war seems that it will never effect them, or it is in a far away place, they usually don't care about what is going on. It makes no difference that there may be hundreds of thousands or millions of people killed in the conflict. Some of the Wars in Africa fall into this category. If I were to ask the average American to name several wars that happened in Africa in the last twenty years, I bet that aside from anything to do with Egypt and the middle east conflict, almost nobody could name who was fighting one conflict. I am even willing to bet there are some people that don't know that Egypt is in Africa. One example of these little known wars is the battle between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Most of us don't even know where Eritrea is located, including myself, but I have the advantage of having been able to look up it's location for the article.
Eritrea is right above Ethiopia In 1880 the Italians colonized Eritrea and stayed until 1941. When Italy lost the second world war, the allies decided to let Great Britain govern Eritrea as a protectorate. It was considered former enemy territory. In the late 1940s Ethiopia had decided that it should control Eritrea. The reinstated emperor of Ethiopia began to exert influence over Eritrea. The United Nations decided to make a decision on the fate of Eritrea. In 1950 the U.N. passed a resolution Federating the country to Ethiopia The Ethiopians now ran the country. By 1961 the Eritreans began to revolt against Ethiopian rule and a few years later, in 1965, an organization was formed named, the ELF (Eritrean Liberation Front). The purpose of this organization was to organize the revolt and provide leadership for the fighting. A second organization called the EPLF (Eritrean People's Liberation Front) was formed in 1976 and soon became the most powerful of the two organizations and took over all the fighting. The Soviets poured over sixteen billion dollars into the fight to defeat the Eritreans but in over eight battles where it is estimated that the Ethiopians outnumbered the Eritreans by over ten to one, the Eritreans won. By 1990 over 90 percent of Eritrea was back in the hands of the Eritreans. On May 24, 1993 the Eritrean people were able to vote on their future. The war had ended in 1991 and they were victorious. This is a war that went on for 30 years and the two countries that were involved still have much rivalry between them. The U.S. Grenada War
The island of Grenada If ever there was a one sided conflict this was it. On one side we had the U.S. with it allies in Central America and the Caribbean against Cuba, the Sandinista's of Nicaragua and some remnants of Marxist rebel groups. On October 13, 1983 Grenadan Marxists from the Grenada Army seized control of the government in a bloody coup. They began to build a military airport using Cuban soldiers. President Regan saw this as an opportunity to eliminate a Marxist government from the Caribbean and at the same time hurt Castro. On October 25, 1983 the U.S. invaded. We sent in about 1200 troops who were met by the Grenada army and Cuban military units. The fighting was heavy for several days and the invasion force grew to over 7000 men. By mid December the island was controlled by a pro U.S. government and the troops went home. The Chinese Vietnam War
Vietnam and China By 1979 there had been many weeks of tension on the border between China and Vietnam. The Chinese had sent hundreds of troops into the border region of Vietnam. The Chinese had called the Vietnamese aggressors, but stated that they had a willingness to negotiate The Vietnamese had a sort of ace up their sleeve. They had just signed a non aggression pact with the Soviet Union and they were deciding if they should call on them for help. In three weeks the Chinese had sent 150,000 troops and 300 planes into the area. The Vietnamese army was spread out in Cambodia and Laos. The Chinese stated that the Vietnamese Army had made over 700 armed incursions into China and had killed over 300 military and civilians. The Chinese had threatened the Vietnamese with punishment for it's actions in Cambodia. The Chinese invasion continued to March 1980, with several major towns falling. The Vietnamese stayed in Cambodia. and left most of the fighting up to local militias. The Vietnamese appealed to the U.N. but the Chinese withdrew on March 16, 1980. Thus ended the Chinese invasion of Vietnam. Ecuador Peru War
Ecuador and Peru Ecuador and Peru had a border conflict in 1941. Ecuador had no access to the Amazon or any other major inland waterway. Ecuador tried to assert a claim it had to an area near Rio Maranon River by sending in troops to occupy the town of Zarumilla. The town was along the border with Peru. Peru did not take kindly to this action. The Peruvian army performed a fast attack and was victorious. Peru's border was affirmed in peace negotiations and the Peruvian Army developed the first paratrooper unit in the region. It had been used to capture Puerto Bolivar from Ecuador. Peru captured El Oro and much of the eastern jungle territory. When the war ended, Peru had managed to capture almost all of the disputed territory and it was granted to them in the Rio Protocol in February, 1942. If one looks hard enough, he or she will unfortunately find that somewhere on this planet there is a war going on. It's amazing when you think about it, the people's of earth at been at war with each other almost constantly since the dawn of time. Waging war is part of our animal side. If you watch animals many of them will attack other animals that may wander onto what they believe is their territory. So many of these disputes could be settled in other ways. For example looking at the Ecuador Peru War, one would think that Ecuador would have asked for a negotiations with Peru and asked them what they would want in return for access to the Amazon River. You would have thought that it would have also been in the best interest of Peru to have a satisfied neighbor who in turn might become a strong ally. |
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