Aden Protectorate
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- This article is about the Aden Protectorate, a former territory in what is now Yemen. For the port city, see Aden, and for other uses, see Aden (disambiguation).
Aden Protectorate (Arabic: حمايةعدن [Ḥimāyah ʿAdan]) (ca. 285,000 km²) was a British protectorate in southern Arabia in the early and middle 20th century. Together with Aden Colony, it subsequently became known as South Arabia and later South Yemen. Today the territory forms part of the Republic of Yemen.
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[edit] History
[edit] Informal beginnings
What became known as the Aden Protectorate was initially informal arrangements of protection with nine tribes in the immediate hinterland of the port city of Aden:
British expansion into the area was designed to secure the important port that was, at the time, governed from British India. From 1874, these protection arrangements existed with the tacit acceptance of the Ottoman Empire that maintained suzerainty over Yemen to the north and the polities became known collectively as the "Nine Tribes" or the "Nine Cantons."
[edit] Formal treaties of protection
Beginning with a formal treaty of protection with the Hadhrami Mahra Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra in 1886, Britain embarked on a slow formalization of protection arrangements that included over 30 major treaties of protection with the last signed only in 1954. These treaties, together with a number of other minor agreements, created the Aden Protectorate that extended well east of Aden to Hadhramaut and included all of the territory that would become South Yemen except for the immediate environs and port of the British colonial capital, Aden city known as Aden Colony, the only part where no Arab ruler retained jurisdiction since the Sultan of Lahej ceded 194 km² of South Yemen in 1838 to the British who occupied it on 19/1/1839; it was enlarged in 1857 by the 13 km² Island of Perim, in 1915 by the 22 km² Island of Kamaran and later by the 28 km² Islands of Kuria Muria. In exchange for British protection, the rulers of the constituent territories agreed not to enter into agreement with or cede territory to any other foreign power.
In 1937, control of Aden Protectorate was transferred from the Government of India, which had inherited the British East India Company's interests in various princely states on the strategically important naval route from Europe to India, to the British Foreign Office. For administrative purposes, the protectorate was informally divided into the Eastern Protectorate (with its own Political Officer, a British advisor, stationed at Mukalla in the al-Qu'aiti sultanate 1937 - ca.1967; his territorial competence also included several smaller divisions west of the sultanate of Muscat and Oman) and the Western Protectorate (with its own Political Officer, stationed at Lahej 1 April 1937 - 1967), for some separation of administration.
The Eastern Protectorate (ca. 230,000 km²) ) came to include the following entities (mostly in Hadhramaut):
- Sheikhdom of Al-Haura =al-Hawra, 1890 under British protectorate* Kathiri Sultanate of Say´un (Hadramaut), 1888 under British protectorate
- Mahra
- the al-Qu'aiti sultanate in Hadhramaut, now the largest province of present-day Yemen, came to incorporate other states: Both Shihr and Mukalla are important ports on the South Arabian littoral and the Sultanate, of which these ports formed the capitals of two of its six provinces, better known since the 1940s as the Quaiti State in Hadhramaut with Shihr and Mukalla constituting two of the state's six provinces, the others being the former sultanate of Shibam, Doan, the Western Province (Hawra) and Hajr. Shihr and Mukalla, recognized as Sultanate by the British in 1902, formed the most important Sultanate in the Eastern Aden protectorate and did not join the Federation of Arab Amirates of the South, later Federation of South Arabia in 1959.
- Sultanate of Shabwa, 19.. incorporated into Say'un sultanate
- Tarim was capital of banu'l-Yamani Emirs of Hadramaut, XVIth century under the Kathiri Sultans at Shibam and Seiyun, later a Sultanate of Tarim, in the XXth century incorporated into Say'un
- The original Wahidi Sultanate was split into four sultanates in the 1870s: Balhaf, Azzan, Bir Ali and Habban. In May 1881, Balhaf and Azzan were reunited, to be renamed Wahidi in 1962. The Sultanate joined the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South on 1/4/1962 and the Federation of South Arabia on 4/4/1962.
- Wahidi Balhaf
- Wahidi Bir Ali
- Wahidi Haban ? Wahidi sultanate of Hazzan
- Sultanate of Barhut (no details)
- Sheikhdom of Al-Irqa= al-`Irqa, 1890 under British protectorate
- Mahri Sultanate of Qishn and Suqutra =Quisn and Scotra (The Banu Afrar Sultan of Kishn and Socotra have been the leaders of the Mahri tribes since 1549), in 1866 accepted Qishn a British protectorate, 30 Oct 1886 Soctra and dependencies a British protectorate
- Sultanate of Qasm (al-Tamimi dynasty; no further details)
- ash-Shihr (ruler's title Wali 1842? - 1866 `Ali ibn Naji`,
1866 - 10 Nov 1881 Hakim and (possibly from the British colonial era army rank Jemadar in the army of the Indian Nizam of Hyderabad where the conquering dynast's father had served; such use of lower qualification as a dynastic peculiarity was not so rare in India) Jama`dar `Abd Allah ibn `Umar ibn `Awad + `Awad ibn `Umar ibn `Awad ) and al-Mukalla (ruler's title Naqib; seat of the British political officer since 1937) states were joined 10 Nov 1881 as ash-Shihr wa'l Mukalla, ruler's titles Hakim and Jama'dar; 1888 ash-Shihr and al-Mukalla British protectorates, 1902 restyled Sultanate of ash-Shihr and al-Mukalla; 1959 chooses not to join Federation of South Arabia
- State of Ghayl Ba Wazir (ruler's title Hakim and Jama`dar; 19.. incorporated into ash-Shihr wa'l Mukalla)
The Western Protectorate (ca. 55,000 km²) included these Yemeni states (near the colony; all abolished in 1867):
- The (Al) Alawi Sheikhdom of Al Qasha, 1895 under British protectorate
- The Bir Ahmad Sheikdom of `Aqrabi, 1888 under British protectorate
- Sheikdom of `Awdali=Audhali of Zara, 1888 under British protectorate
- The Al Habieli (Hashimi) Emirate of Beihan, descended from Holy Prophet Muhammad and from the Imams of Sanaa (later Kings of Yemen), no treaty date(?)
- State of Dathina, under a Chairmen of the Council of State, no treaty date?
- The Al Amiri Emirate of Dhala=Dali`, signed a British protectorate agreement in 1904
- Qutaibi, a dependency of Dhala
- The (Al-)Fadhli sultanate of Zinjibar, 1890 under British protectorate
- The Hawshabi= Al-Haushabi dynasty's Sultanate of Musaymir), signed a British protectorate agreement in 1904
- Sultanate of Lahej=Lahj (today spelled Lahij; Abdali dynasty), 1918 Liberated from Ottoman Empire suzerainty by UK, also the British Political Officer's seat
- Sultanate of Ahwar =Lower Al-Aulaqi= Lower Aulaqi=Lower `Awlaqi, 1890 under British protectorate
- Lower Yafa` =Lower Yafa (Arabic Yafa` Bani `Afif -literally Yafa` of the Banu `Afif; referred to as "Yafa") Sultanate of Jaar (Al Afifi dynasty), 1895 under British protectorate
- The as Saqladi dynasty's Sheikhdom of Shaib =Sha'ib =Shaibi, no treaty date(?)
- Upper Aulaqi Sheikhdom of Said made itself gradually independent from the Upper Aulaqi Sultans of Ahwar in the 18th century, 1890 under British protectorate
- Upper Aulaqi Sultanate of Ahwar, 1890 under British protectorate
- The five Upper Yafa sheikhdoms of:
- Busi
- Dubi =Dhubi
- (Al-) Hadrami
- Maflahi
- The Al Askar Ali dynasty's Shaikdom of the Naqib of Mausatta =Mausata =Mawsata
- Sultanate of Upper Yafa (Arabic Yafa` al-Sufla - literally Lower Yafa`!) Sultanate (Harharah dynasty) of Mahjalah=Mahjaba, 1895 under British protectorate
The boundaries between these polities and even their number fluctuated over time. Some such as the Mahra Sultanate barely had any functioning administration at all. Not included in the protectorate were Aden Colony or the insular areas of Perim, Kamaran, and Khuriya Muriya that accrued to it.
[edit] Advisory treaties
In 1938, Britain signed an advisory treaty with the Qu'aiti sultan and, throughout the 1940s and 1950s, signed similar treaties with twelve other protectorate states. The following were the states with advisory treaties:
Eastern Protectorate States
- Kathiri
- Mahra
- Qu'aiti
- Wahidi Balhaf
Western Protectorate States
- Audhali
- Beihan
- Dhala
- Haushabi
- Fadhli
- Lahej
- Lower Aulaqi
- Lower Yafa
- Upper Aulaqi Sheikhdom
These agreements allowed for the stationing of a Resident Advisor in the signatory states which gave the British a greater degree of control over their domestic affairs. This rationalized and stabilized the rulers’ status and laws of succession but had the effect of ossifying the leadership and encouraging official corruption. Aerial bombardment and collective punishment were sometimes used against wayward tribes to enforce the rule of Britain’s clients. British protection came to be seen as an impediment to progress, a view reinforced by the arrival of news of Arab nationalism from the outside world on newly available transistor radios.
[edit] Challenges to the status quo
British control was also challenged by King Ahmad bin Yahya of Yemen to the north who did not recognize British suzerainty in South Arabia and had ambitions of creating a unified Greater Yemen. In the late 1940s and the early 1950s, Yemen was involved in a series of border skirmishes along the disputed Violet Line, a 1914 Anglo-Ottoman demarcation that served to separate Yemen from the Aden Protectorate.
In 1950, Kennedy Trevaskis, the Advisor for the Western Protectorate drew up a plan for the protectorate states to form two federations, corresponding to the two halves of the protectorate. Although little progress was made in bringing the plan to fruition, it was considered a provocation by Ahmad bin Yahya. In addition to his role as king, he also served as the imam of the ruling Zaidi branch of Shi'a Islam. He feared that a successful federation in the Shafi'i Sunnite protectorates would serve as a beacon for discontented Shafi'ites who inhabited the coastal regions of Yemen. To counter the threat, Ahmad stepped up Yemeni efforts to undermine British control and, in the mid-1950s, Yemen supported a number of revolts by disgruntled tribes against protectorate states. The appeal of Yemen was limited initially in the protectorate but a growing intimacy between Yemen and the popular Arab nationalist president of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser and the formation of United Arab States increased its attraction.
[edit] Federation and the end of the Protectorate
Nationalist pressure prodded the threatened rulers of the Aden Protectorate states to revive efforts at forming a federation and, on 11 February 1959, six of them signed an accord forming the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South. In the next three years, they were joined by nine others and, on 18 January 1963, Aden Colony was merged with the federation creating the new Federation of South Arabia. At the same time, the (mostly eastern) states that had not joined the federation became the Protectorate of South Arabia, thus ending the existence of the Aden Protectorate.
[edit] Spurces, references and further reading
- Almanach de Bruxelles
- Paul Dresch. A History of Modern Yemen.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- R.J. Gavin. Aden Under British Rule: 1839-1967. London: C. Hurst & Company, 1975.
- Tom Little. South Arabia: Arena of Conflict. London: Pall Mall Press, 1968.
- WorldStatesmen - Yemen-States of the Aden Protectorates
