The Empire of Ethiopia and Eritrea, historically known as Abyssinia, was in what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea. At its height the empire also included Southern Egypt, Eastern Sudan, Yemen and Western Saudi Arabia and existed in various forms from 980 B.C. until 1974 when the monarchy was overthrown in a coup d'etat. It was in its time the oldest continuously existing state in the world , and the only African nation to successfully resist the Scramble for Africa by the colonial powers during the 19th century.