Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Qawasim felt that Al Busaid had betrayed the region and launched attacks on Brit-
ish ships to show that they weren't going to be as compliant. As a result, the British
dubbed the area the 'Pirate Coast' and launched raids against the Qawasim in 1805, 1809
and 1811. In 1820 a British fleet destroyed or captured every Qawasim ship it could find,
imposed a peace treaty on nine Arab sheikhdoms in the area and installed a garrison.
This was the forerunner of another treaty, the 1835 Maritime Truce, which greatly in-
creased British influence in the region. In 1853 the treaty was modified yet again and re-
named the Treaty of Peace in Perpetuity. It was at this time that the region became known
as the Trucial States. In subsequent decades, the sheikhs of each tribal confederation
signed agreements with the British under which they accepted formal British protection.
Throughout this period, the main power among the Bedouin tribes of the interior was
the Bani Yas tribal confederation, made up of the ancestors of the ruling families of mod-
ern Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The Bani Yas were originally based in Liwa, an oasis deep in
the desert, but moved their base to Abu Dhabi in 1793. In the early 19th century, the Bani
Yas divided into two main branches when Dubai split from Abu Dhabi.
Black Gold
Until the discovery of oil the region remained a backwater, with the sheikhdoms nothing
more than tiny enclaves of fishers, pearl divers and Bedu. Rivalries between the various
rulers occasionally erupted into conflict, which the British tried to thwart. During this time
the British also protected the federation from being annexed by Saudi Arabia.
After the collapse of the world pearl market in the early 20th century, the Gulf coast
sank into poverty. However, the sheikhs of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah had already
discussed oil exploration in the area, with Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Shakhbut granting the first
of several oil concessions in 1939 to the Anglo-Iraqi company Petroleum Concessions
Limited. The first cargo of crude left Abu Dhabi in 1962 and Dubai, which even back then
had been busy cementing its reputation as the region's trading hub, exported its first barrel
in 1969.
The Road to Unification
In 1951, the British set up the Trucial States Council (the forerunner to today's Supreme
Council) with the initial goal being to form a federation including Bahrain, Qatar and the
Trucial States. With the British hinting at an exit from the Gulf in 1971, Abu Dhabi's ruler
Sheikh Zayed set about negotiating with the other sheikhdoms in the Trucial States to cre-
ate one nation: the United Arab Emirates was born on 2 December 1971. Six emirates
signed up immediately, Ras Al Khaimah joined the following year and Bahrain and Qatar
