East Africa has some of the oldest records of human habitation. The Aksum civilization developed in Ethiopia around AD 100 and became a powerful trading empire connected to Arabia, India, and the African coast. When European colonialism began in the late 19th century, Africa was divided among the European powers. This grouping of different ethnic groups within political boundaries has contributed to ongoing conflicts in the region such as the 1994 Rwandan genocide which resulted in the deaths of over 1 million Tutsi and Hutu people in just 3 months.
