THE Eritrean TIGRE FRONTIER SPACE IN THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY
Posted: 28 Jan 2026, 21:16
CONSTRUCTING AND DECONSTRUCTING THE TIGRE FRONTIER SPACE
IN THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY
by JONATHAN MIRAN
(Western Washington University)
This essay proposes a tentative interpretive analysis of the complex his-
torical evolution of the congeries of territories, or regions, inhabited by
Tigre-speaking societies from around the second half of the eighteenth by
century to the early twentieth.
It is an examination of the historical con-struction of the space inhabited by so-called Tigre societies in pre-colonial
and early Italian Eritrea in a period of sweeping transformation in multiple
frames of reference.
My overarching approach is inscribed within a broad
multi-focal regional and inter-regional analytical perspective loosely inspired
by the historical vision espoused by the French Annales School
tradition. It goes without saying that the formation of Tigre societies and
the region they inhabit involves long and convoluted processes of migra-
tion, conflict, the pursuit of security, the adaptation to challenging envi-
ronments, and the exploitation and management of economic resources,
among other variants. Yet, inspired by Annales historical scholarship – in
particular as exemplified by Fernand Braudel’s magisterial study of the
Mediterranean – which has famously divided historical time into the
longue durée, ‘conjuncture’ and ‘event’, I would suggest that an interre-
lated set of economic, religious, political and social historical processes
which have operated on and within the Tigre area between the mid-
eighteenth century and the early twentieth, might represent several over-
lapping meaningful conjunctures
to read the full article: https://www.speaktigre.com/_files/ugd/7 ... index=true
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IN THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY
by JONATHAN MIRAN
(Western Washington University)
This essay proposes a tentative interpretive analysis of the complex his-
torical evolution of the congeries of territories, or regions, inhabited by
Tigre-speaking societies from around the second half of the eighteenth by
century to the early twentieth.
It is an examination of the historical con-struction of the space inhabited by so-called Tigre societies in pre-colonial
and early Italian Eritrea in a period of sweeping transformation in multiple
frames of reference.
My overarching approach is inscribed within a broad
multi-focal regional and inter-regional analytical perspective loosely inspired
by the historical vision espoused by the French Annales School
tradition. It goes without saying that the formation of Tigre societies and
the region they inhabit involves long and convoluted processes of migra-
tion, conflict, the pursuit of security, the adaptation to challenging envi-
ronments, and the exploitation and management of economic resources,
among other variants. Yet, inspired by Annales historical scholarship – in
particular as exemplified by Fernand Braudel’s magisterial study of the
Mediterranean – which has famously divided historical time into the
longue durée, ‘conjuncture’ and ‘event’, I would suggest that an interre-
lated set of economic, religious, political and social historical processes
which have operated on and within the Tigre area between the mid-
eighteenth century and the early twentieth, might represent several over-
lapping meaningful conjunctures
to read the full article: https://www.speaktigre.com/_files/ugd/7 ... index=true
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