Contested Modernity by Omar H. AlShehabi;

Author:Omar H. AlShehabi; [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC
Published: 2019-02-25T20:00:00+00:00

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Contesting Divided Rule, 1900–1920

PAX BRITANNICA BEFORE DIVIDED RULE, 1800–1900

British presence in the Gulf dates back to at least 1763, when the East India Company opened branches in Basra and Bushehr, installing a Resident in the latter on the eastern side of the Gulf. As British and French imperial rivalry intensified with Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798, threatening French inroads into the Arabian Sea and the Gulf, the British quickly moved to cement their hegemony over these maritime routes to India. The East India Company’s Resident signed a treaty with the Sultan of Muscat in that same year, in which he promised not to permit French presence on his lands. This was followed by the 1800 treaty, which allowed the British to post an Agent in Muscat. British officials then moved to sign treaties with the Qajar ruler of Persia that also excluded the presence of French troops. Thus, imperial and military intrigues with other European powers over the maritime routes to India, rather than any direct trade interests in the Gulf, formed the background for the expansion of the British presence in the region at the turn of the nineteenth century.1

In order to cement their influence in the region, however, the British had to contend with the rising force of al-Qawasem from Ras al-Khaimah (in modern-day United Arab Emirates), back then the strongest local force in the Gulf. Their repeated clashes with British ships constituted a real threat to the latter’s hegemony over the region’s maritime routes.2 Under the pretext of fighting piracy, a large naval expedition was sent to lay siege and attack the fleet of al-Qawasem at their base in 1809, causing significant damage but failing to wipe them out completely. As skirmishes continued to simmer over the next few years, the British sent another expedition in 1819 which this time destroyed al-Qawasem’s fleet and base in Ras al-Khaimah.3

This was quickly followed by imposing the signing of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820 on local powers. The treaty specified the cessation of hostilities between the British and the subjects of the different signatory rulers, with ships of the respective parties able to use each other’s ports. The vessels under the jurisdiction of the local rulers were required to carry flags recognizable by the British government. The ruler of Bahrain was a signatory to the treaty, constituting the first official legal manifestation of British relations with the al-Khalifa.4 Hence, using the banner of eradicating piracy, British imperial forces domesticated the local powers and cemented their ultimate control over the waters of the Gulf and the Arabian Sea, mainly as a means of monopolizing the Western maritime routes to India. Pax Britannica was to rule supreme for the next hundred years. In return, the rulers on the western shores of the Gulf received official recognition from the British Empire, helping them to avoid the fate of the rulers of other small Arab emirates in the Gulf, who would eventually be gobbled up by larger powers in the region.5

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