British interests in the area which would later become South Yemen, began to grow when in 1839, British East India Company forces captured the port of Aden, to provide a coaling station for ships en route to India. The British designs in protecting the route to India led to their establishing the Aden Settlement, subordinated to the Bombay Presidency,[23] over the town of Aden and its harbor in 1839.[24][25] The colony gained much political and strategic importance after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the increased traffic on the Red Sea route to India The Ottomans and the British eventually established a de facto border between north and south Yemen, which was formalized in a treaty in 1904. However the interior boundaries were never clearly established. However the presence of the Ottomans, and to a lesser extent the British, allowed the Zaydi Imamate to rebuild against a common enemy. Guerrilla warfare and banditry erupted into the rebellion of the Zaydi tribes in 1905. Starting in the latter decades of the 19th century and continuing into the 20th century, Britain signed agreements with local rulers of traditional polities that, together, became known as the Aden Protectorate. The area was divided into numerous sultanates, emirates, and sheikhdoms, and was divided for administrative purposes into the East Aden Protectorate and the West Aden Protectorate. The eastern protectorate consisted of the three Hadhramaut states (Quaiti State of Shihr and Mukalla, Kathiri State of Seiyun, Mahra State of Qishn and Socotra) with the remaining states comprising the west. Ottoman suzerainty was reestablished in northern Yemen in the late 19th century but its control was largely confined to cities, and the Zaidi imams rule over Upper Yemen was formally recognized. Turkish forces withdrew in 1918, and Imam Yahya Muhammad strengthened his control over northern Yemen creating the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen. The Aden Settlement became Aden Province in 1932. Finally in 1937 Aden was separated from British India and was transferred to the Colonial Office as a Crown Colony, a status that it retained until 1963.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 21:15:05 +0000