This study addresses the context of Eritrean nationalism of the pre-independence period (1962-1991). Special attention is given to contrasting as well as corresponding features Eritrean liberation struggle shared with Oromo and Somali national movements of that period. Since relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia still provoke controversies, it is worthy to depict the development of major nationalist movements of the Horn of Africa.
The study is focused on Ethiopia and its relationship with several parts of the world, including Western Europe, the former Czechoslovakia, the United States of America and the League of Nations before the Italian invasion. Based on analytical-synthetical methodology, I have examined the real position of Ethiopia i.e. how Ethiopia was perceived or imagined in different parts of the world. In addition I have examined whether Haile Sellassie could have prevented the Italian army from invading. This was the point at which the myth of Ethiopia as the last independent country of Africa was destroyed. Some important materials, which deal with the substance of out subject, are analyzed, including primary sources written by travelers, diplomats, journalists or scholars. The main argument is that the image of Ethiopia gradually shifted from a negative one to a positive one as the war became increasingly inevitable. Without the Italian invasion, Ethiopia would have probably remained, for the most ot the world, as simply a country where slavery prevailed or where barbarians had lived since this was the major image of Ethiopia which was held in Europe at that time.