As a country located in Middle East according to GLOBALSCIENCELLC.COM, the United Arab Emirates was formed from organized tribes of the Arabian Peninsula sheikhdoms along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf and the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Oman.
The rise of Islam
The arrival of the messengers of the Prophet Muhammad in 630 heralded the conversion of the residents of the region to Islam. In any case, the Prophet’s death in 632 was followed by a severely suppressed revolt by the first Caliph Abu Bakr. Already in 637 the Islamic army used the city of Julfar, in the current Emirate of Ra’s al-Khaimah, as an outpost in its conquest of Iran and then the entire region became a strategic area for the sovereigns of the caliphs. of Abasí and Ommeyad.
Later, part of the nation came under the direct influence of the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century.
Portuguese and English presence
For the Arab populations of the region the consequences of the landing of the Portuguese in the Gulf were atrocious. The conquerors, with the complicity of the local sheiks, directly exploited the country’s natural resources, particularly the fruitful fishing for large pearls. As the Portuguese explorer Pedro Teixeira recounted, every year a fleet of 50 boats left Julfar to reach the pearl banks throughout Europe. Faced with the growing exaltation of Europeans for the pearls of the Gulf, the great Venetian jeweler Gasparo Balbi personally went to Julfar in the year 1580 not to miss such a powerful source of wealth.
Starting in 1790, the city of Abu Dhabi thus became an important political center for all the Bani Yas groups. The Abu Falah Sheikh of the Al Nahyani family of Bani Yas, left Liwa to settle there. At the beginning of the 19th century, members of the Al Bu Falasah tribe, a branch of the Bani Yas, settled in the parts of Dubai and established the kingdom of the Maktoum. After the defeat of the powerful tribe of the Qawasim and the destruction of their fleet, the British concluded a series of agreements with the sheiks of each emirate, which consequently gave rise to the so-called States of Truce. The treaties with Great Britain prohibited the sheikhs from establishing independent relations with foreign powers and forced them to accept the advice of the great power in certain well-defined fields.
It was thus in these conditions of imposed peace that the Emirates began again to export pearls not only to India but also to Europe. The pearl industry continued to prosper between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, becoming the engine of development of the area and giving to live the populations of the Arabian Gulf coast.
On a political level, the government of Sheikh Zayed Bin Khalifa of Abu Dhabi, called Zayed the Great, was a period of great brilliance. In his more than 50 years of reign (from 1885 to 1905) he managed to guarantee and increase stability and progress for his people.
Hard times
The economic crisis of the late 1920s, exacerbated by the emergence of the Japanese cultured pearl trade, delivered the coup de grace to the pearl industry already hard hit by the dramatic consequences of the First World War.
In that period the local population had to face enormous difficulties, to which was added the increasing aridity of the climate, which made survival even more difficult. The instruction, for example, intended only for the privileged few, was limited to learning to read and write. Serious and unsustainable was also the absence of modern infrastructures, especially streets and highways, the media and hospitals.
The age of oil
Already in the early thirties the first explorers arrived in the territory to carry out preliminary geological studies aimed at the discovery of oil deposits. Almost 30 years later, in 1962, the first oil cargo left Abu Dhabi. With the progressive increase in oil revenues, Sheikh Zayed, elected governor of Abu Dhabi on August 6, 1966, launched a gigantic program of construction of schools, houses, hospitals, streets and highways.
Then when in 1968 the British officially announced their withdrawal from the Gulf area, Sheikh Zayed, with the help of Sheikh Rachid, proposed the creation of a Federation that would bring together the seven Emirates of the famous truce states. After a period of negotiation, the leader of the six emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharja, Umm al-Qaiwain, Fujairah and Ajman reached the historic agreement that led to the modern Federation, which on December 2, 1971 (National Holiday) took the name of the United Arab Emirates. Finally, the 10 of February of 1972 joined the Federation seventh emirate, Ra’s to the el-Khaimah.
The United Arab Emirates sent forces into Kuwait during the Gulf War (1990 – 1991).
Present
The UAE supports the military operations of the United States and other Coalition nations that participated in the invasions of Iraq (2003) and Afghanistan (2001), as well as the Global War on Terrorism in the Horn of Africa, said operations are conducted at the Al Dhafra Air Base located outside of Abu Dhabi.
The 2 of November of 2004, the first president of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Nahyan A’s, who died. His eldest son, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, succeeded him as ruler of Abu Dhabi.
