View source for Aden Protectorate

{{Short description|Former British protectorate in Arabia}}
{{About|the protectorate in the Yemeni hinterland|the former Province of India during the Raj|Chief Commissioner's Province of Aden}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2010}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = {{lang|ar|محمية عدن}}
| conventional_long_name = Aden Protectorate
| common_name            = Aden Protectorate
| status                 = Self-ruling sultanates, emirates and sheikdoms under British protection
| empire                 = United Kingdom
| event_start            = Initial treaty
| year_start             = 1872
| date_start             = 
| event1                 = [[Federation of the Emirates of the South|Federation formed]]
| date_event1            = 11 February 1959
| event_end              = 
| year_end               = 1963
| date_end               = 18 January
| p1                     = Kathiri
| flag_p1                = Kathiri flag.svg
| p2                     = Mahra Sultanate
| flag_p2                = Flag of the Mahra Sultanate.svg
| p3                     = Quaiti
| flag_p3                = Flag of Quaiti Hadramaut.svg
| flag_p4                = Ottoman flag alternative 2.svg
| p4                     = Yemen Vilayet
| p5                     = Tribes of Yemen{{!}}Independent Tribes
| s1                     = Federation of the Emirates of the South
| flag_s1                = Flag of the Federation of South Arabia.svg
| s2                     = Protectorate of South Arabia
| flag_s2                = Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
| flag_alt               = Flag of Yemen
| image_map              = Aden Colony dependencies.png
| map_width              = 250px
| image_map_caption      = Location of the Aden Protectorate on the [[Arabian Peninsula]].
| capital                = Various
| common_languages       = [[Arabic]]<br>[[Persian language|Persian]]<br>[[English language|English]]<br>[[Ottoman Turkish]]
| religion               = [[Islam]]<br>[[Yemenite Jews|Judaism]]<br>[[Christianity]]
| currency               = [[Maria Theresa thaler|Thaler]],
[[Indian rupee|Rupee]]
| stat_year1             = 
| stat_area1             = 
| stat_pop1              = 
| today                  = [[Yemen]]
| demonym                = Adeni
| government_type        = [[British protectorate|Protectorate]]
| area_km2               = 
| area_rank              = 
| GDP_PPP                = 
| GDP_PPP_year           = 
| HDI                    = 
| HDI_year               = 
| image_flag             = 
| flag_caption           = 
}}
{{Coord missing|Yemen}}

The '''Aden Protectorate''' ({{langx|ar|محمية عدن}} ''{{Transliteration|ar|Maḥmiyyat ‘Adan}}'') was a [[British protectorate]] in [[South Arabia|southern Arabia]]. The protectorate evolved in the [[hinterland]] of the port of [[Aden Colony|Aden]] and in the [[Hadhramaut]] after the conquest of Aden by the [[Bombay Presidency]] of British India in January 1839,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Willis |first=John M. |date=2009 |title=Making Yemen Indian: Rewriting the Boundaries of Imperial Arabia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40206055 |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=23–38 |issn=0020-7438}}</ref> and which continued until the 1960s. In 1940, it was divided for administrative purposes into the Western Protectorate and the Eastern Protectorate.<ref>Records of the British Administration in Aden, 1839-1967 (http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/7d807f72-ee39-43db-86ed-2812db614c35)</ref> The territory now forms part of the [[Yemen|Republic of Yemen]].

The rulers of the Aden Protectorate, as generally with the other British protectorates and protected states, retained a large degree of autonomy: their flags still flew over their government buildings, government was still performed by them or in their names, and their states maintained a distinct 'international personality' in terms of international law, in contrast to states possessed directly by the British Empire, such as [[Aden Colony|Colony of Aden]], where the British monarch was the sovereign.<ref>James Onley, [https://books.google.com/books?id=1vUckJbC8JIC&q=their+flag&pg=PP40 The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj], Oxford University Press, 2007.</ref>

==History== <!-- This section is linked from [[Nine Cantons]] (redirect page). Please retarget the page if you retitle this section -->

===Informal beginnings===
What became known as the Aden Protectorate was begun by informal arrangements of protection with nine states in the immediate hinterland of the port city of [[Aden]]:

* [[Sultanate of Lahej|Abdali]] (Lahej)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ali Al-Karim, Sultan of Lahej - National Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp75243/ali-al-karim-sultan-of-lahej |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=www.npg.org.uk |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Alawi Sheikhdom|Alawi]]
* [[Emirate of Dhala|Amiri]] (Dhala)
* [[Aqrabi]]
* [[Upper Aulaqi Sultanate|Aulaqi]]
* [[Fadhli Sultanate|Fadhli]]
* [[Haushabi]]
* [[Subeihi]]
* [[Lower Yafa|Yafa]]

British expansion into the area was designed to secure the important port that was, at the time, governed from [[British Raj|British India]]. From 1874, these protection arrangements existed with the tacit acceptance of the [[Ottoman Empire]] that maintained [[suzerainty]] of Yemen to the north, and the [[Polity|polities]] became known collectively as the "Nine Tribes" or the "Nine Cantons."

===Formal treaties of protection===
[[File:Aden map War Office 1948.jpg|thumb|Official map of the Aden Protectorate, 1948.]]
Beginning with a formal treaty of protection with the [[Mahra Sultanate|Mahra Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra]] in 1886, the British began a slow formalisation of protection arrangements that included more than 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 colonial capital, Aden.

Aden with its harbour was the only area in full British sovereignty and, together with some offshore islands, was known as [[Aden Settlement]] (1839–1932), [[Aden Province]] (1932–1937), the [[Aden Colony|Colony of Aden]] (1937–1963) and finally [[State of Aden]] (1963–1967).

In exchange for British protection, the rulers of the constituent territories of the Protectorate agreed not to make treaties with or cede territory to any other foreign power.
In 1917, control of Aden Protectorate was transferred from the [[British Raj|Government of India]], which had inherited the [[British East India Company]]'s interests in various [[princely state]]s on the strategically important naval route from Europe to India, to the British [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]]. For administrative purposes, the protectorate was divided into the '''Eastern Aden Protectorate''' (with its own Political Officer, a British advisor, stationed at [[Mukalla]] in [[Qu'aiti]] from 1937 to {{Circa|1967}}) and the '''Western Aden Protectorate''' (with its own Political Officer, stationed at Lahej from 1 April 1937 to 1967), for some separation of administration.

In 1928, the British established Aden Command, directed by the [[Royal Air Force]], to preserve the security of the Protectorate.  It was renamed [[British Forces Aden]] in 1936 and was known later as British Forces Arabian Peninsula and then Middle East Command (Aden).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rafweb.org/Cmd_O2.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910204110/http://www.rafweb.org/Cmd_O2.htm|url-status=dead |title=Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – Overseas Commands – Middle East and Mediterranean|archivedate=10 September 2014}}</ref>

===Polities===
The boundaries between the polities and even their number fluctuated over time. Some such as the Mahra Sultanate barely had any functioning administration.

Not included in the protectorate were [[Aden Colony]] and the insular areas of [[Perim]], [[Kamaran]], and [[Khuriya Muriya Islands|Khuriya Muriya]] that were administered by it.

====Eastern Protectorate====
[[File:Lahej market circa 1910.jpg|thumb|280 px|Lahej, Western Protectorate c. 1910]]
[[Image:Stamp Aden Kathiri Seiyun 1942 2.5a.jpg|thumb|180 px|Postage stamp of the Kathiri state of Sai'yun with portrait of Sultan Jafar bin Mansur]]
[[File:Mukalla. Aerial View, 1932.jpg|thumb|280 px|Aerial view of Mukalla, Eastern Protectorate, 1932]]
The Eastern Protectorate (c. 230,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) came to include the following entities (mostly in [[Hadhramaut]]):

* [[Kathiri]]
* [[Mahra Sultanate|Mahra]]
* [[Qu'aiti]]
* [[Wahidi Balhaf]]
* [[Wahidi Bir Ali]]
* [[Wahidi Haban]]

====Western Protectorate====
The Western Protectorate (c. 55,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) included:

* [[Alawi (sheikhdom)|Alawi]]
* [[Aqrabi]]
* [[Audhali]]
* [[Emirate of Beihan|Beihan]]
* [[Dathina]]
* [[Emirate of Dhala|Dhala]]
** [[Qutaibi]] Dependence of Dhala
* [[Fadhli Sultanate|Fadhli]]
* [[Haushabi]]
* [[Sultanate of Lahej|Lahej]]
* [[Lower Aulaqi]]
* [[Lower Yafa]]
* [[Shaib]]
* [[Upper Aulaqi Sheikhdom]]
* [[Upper Aulaqi Sultanate]]
* [[Upper Yafa|Upper Yafa Sultanate]] and the five Upper Yafa sheikhdoms of:
** [[Al-Busi]]
** [[Al-Dhubi]]
** [[Hadrami Sheikhdom|Hadrami]]
** [[Maflahi]]
** [[Mawsata]]

===Advisory treaties===
[[Image:Stamp Aden Quaiti Shihr Mukalla 1942 2a.jpg|thumb|180 px|Postage stamp from the Qu'aiti state of Shihr and Mukalla with portrait of Sultan Salib bin Ghalib.]]
[[File:1940 Aden.jpg|thumb|180 px|1940 cover of British controlled Aden protectorate passport.]]
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 [[British Resident|Resident Advisor]] in the signatory states which gave the British a greater degree of control of their domestic affairs.  This [[rationality|rationalised]] and stabilised the rulers' status and [[Order of succession|laws of succession]] but had the effect of 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 considered by some to be an impediment to progress, especially by promoters of [[Arab nationalism]] as reinforced by news from the outside received by newly available [[transistor radio]]s.

===Challenges to the status quo===
British control was also challenged by [[King of Yemen|King]] [[Ahmad bin Yahya]] of the [[Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen]] to the north who did not recognise British suzerainty in South Arabia and had ambitions of creating a unified [[Greater Yemen]].  During the late 1940s and the early 1950s, Yemen was involved with a series of border skirmishes along the disputed [[Violet Line (1914)|Violet Line]], a [[Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913|1914 Anglo-Ottoman demarcation]] that served to separate Yemen from the Aden Protectorate.

In 1950, [[Kennedy Trevaskis]], the Advisor for the Western Protectorate developed a plan for the protectorate states to form two federations, corresponding to the two halves of the protectorate.  Although little progress was made with the plan, 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 [[Zaiddiyah|Zaidi]] branch of [[Shi'a Islam]]. He feared that a successful federation in the [[Shafi'i]] [[Sunni]]te protectorates would serve to encourage discontented Shafi'ites who inhabited the coastal regions of Yemen. To counter the threat, Ahmad increased Yemeni efforts to decrease British control and, during the mid-1950s, Yemen assisted a [[Yemeni-Adenese clan violence|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.

===Federation and the end of the Protectorate===
Aden had been of interest to Britain as a link to [[British India]] and then, after the loss of most of Britain's colonies from 1945 and the disastrous [[Suez Crisis]] in 1956, as a valuable port for accessing crucial Middle Eastern oil. It had also been chosen as the new location for [[Middle East Command]].

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]]''.  During 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 Protectorate of Aden.

===Aden Emergency===
{{main|Aden Emergency}}
On 10 December 1963, a [[state of emergency]] was declared in the former protectorate and the newly created [[State of Aden]].

The Emergency was caused largely by [[Arab nationalism]] spreading to the Arabian Peninsula, encouraged especially by the Socialist and [[pan-Arabist]] doctrines of the Egyptian president [[Gamel Abdel Nasser]]. The British, French, and Israeli invasion forces that [[operation Musketeer (1956)|had invaded Egypt]] after Nasser's [[nationalisation]] of the [[Suez Canal]] in 1956 had been forced to withdraw after intervention from both the United States and the [[Soviet Union|USSR]].

Nasser had only limited success in spreading his pan-Arabist doctrines through the Arab world, with his 1958 attempt to unify Egypt and [[Syria]] as the [[United Arab Republic]] ending in failure only 3 years later. An anti-colonial uprising in Aden in 1963 provided another potential opportunity for his doctrines, though it is not clear whether the revolt among the Arabs in Aden had the Yemeni guerrilla groups drawing inspiration from Nasser's pan-Arabist ideas or acting independently themselves.

By 1963 and during the ensuing years, anti-British guerrilla groups with varying political objectives began to coalesce into two larger, rival organisations: first the Egyptian-supported [[National Liberation Front (Yemen)|National Liberation Front]] (NLF) and then the [[Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen]] (FLOSY), who attacked each other as well as the British.

[[File:Aden-1965-2.jpg|thumb|A scene in Aden in 1965.]]

By 1965, the [[RAF station]] ([[RAF Khormaksar]]) was operating nine squadrons. These included transport units with helicopters and a number of [[Hawker Hunter]] ground attack aircraft. They were called in by the army for strikes against positions using [[RP-3|"60 lb" high explosive rockets]] and [[30 mm Aden]] cannon.

The [[Battle of the Crater (Aden)|Battle of Crater]] brought Lt-Col [[Colin Campbell Mitchell]] (AKA "Mad Mitch") to prominence. On 20 June 1967 there was a mutiny in the Army of South Arabian Federation, which spread to the police. Order was restored by the British, due mainly to the efforts of the 1st Battalion [[Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders]], commanded by Lt-Col Mitchell.

Nevertheless, deadly guerrilla attacks particularly by the NLF resumed soon against British forces, with the British leaving Aden by the end of November 1967, earlier than had been planned by British Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]] and without an agreement for the succeeding governance. The NLF then seized power.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* 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.

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.alquaiti.com/ Official website of the Al-Quaiti Royal Family of Hadhramaut]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120716193110/http://www.terra.es/personal7/jqvaraderey/190523ar.gif Map of Arabia (1905–1923) including the states of Aden Protectorate]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050729114517/http://www.al-bab.com/bys/ British-Yemeni Society]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050923233707/http://www.britains-smallwars.com/AVA/ Aden Veterans Association]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150908052205/http://www.allstates-flag.com/fotw/flags/ye-index.html#his Historical Flags of Yemen]
* [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Yemen_protectorate.html WorldStatesmen – Yemen-States of the Aden Protectorates]

{{South Arabia}}

[[Category:Aden Protectorate| ]]
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[[Category:1886 establishments in the British Empire]]
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[[Category:Aden in World War II]]
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