Oman Historical Overview
Figure 16. Strait of Hormuz
According to archaeologists, warfare was a common
activity
5,000 years ago among the peoples of the area of the
Middle East
that in modern times became Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and
the
smaller gulf states. Intermittent hostilities, often based
on
rivalries between the Persians of the eastern coast of the
gulf
and the Arabs of the western coast, have occurred ever
since.
Sargon, Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar II, and Alexander the
Great
were among the best known kings who led warring armies in
the
2,500 years before the birth of Christ. During the
centuries of
Greek and Roman domination, the gulf region was of limited
interest to the major powers, but the area's importance as
a
strategic and trading center rose with the emergence of
Islam in
the seventh century A.D. The caliphate's military strength
was
concentrated at Hormuz. Strategically sited at the mouth
of the
gulf, its authority extended over ports and islands of the
Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf
(see
fig. 16).
The strategic importance of Hormuz, however, did not
survive
the appearance of Western powers, initially the Portuguese
who
came to the gulf in the late fifteenth century after Vasco
da
Gama's discovery of the route to India via the Cape of
Good Hope.
The Ottomans and the Iranians also tried to dominate the
gulf but
faced opposition from local tribes in Bahrain and Muscat,
reluctant to cede authority over their territories, which
by then
were the most important areas on the coast. Increasing
British
involvement in India beginning in the late eighteenth
century
quickened British interest in the gulf region as a means
of
protecting the sea routes to India. The principal
challenge to
Britain arose from the Qawasim tribal confederation
originating
in the area of the present-day United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The
Qawasim, who amassed a fleet of about 900 vessels,
demanded
tribute for the passage of merchant vessels and were
regarded as
pirates by the Europeans. Between 1809 and 1820, British
sea
power gradually brought about the destruction of the
Qawasim
fleet. This in turn led to the signing of agreements with
Britain
by the Qawasim and other shaykhs
(see Treaties with the British
, ch. 1). The amirates promised to have no direct dealings
with
other foreign states and to abstain from piracy. Britain
in turn
assumed responsibility for the foreign relations of the
amirates
and promised to protect them from all aggression by sea
and to
lend its support against any land attacks. Before the end
of the
century, Britain extended protection to Bahrain and
Kuwait; Qatar
entered the system after it repudiated Ottoman sovereignty
in
1916.
Although Muscat was traditionally a center of the slave
trade, its sultan agreed to abandon this activity in
return for
British help in building a navy. In the early nineteenth
century,
the sultan's efficient fleet of sloops, corvettes, and
frigates
enabled him to support a maritime empire extending from
East
Africa to the coast of present-day Pakistan. With the
eventual
decline of this empire, owing in part to its division into
two
states--Zanzibar and Oman--Britain's influence grew, and
it
signed a treaty in 1891 similar to those with the gulf
amirates.
The strategic importance of the Persian Gulf became
increasingly apparent as the oil industry developed in the
twentieth century. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran all
claimed some
of the territory of the gulf states during the years
between
World War I and World War II, but Britain's firm
resistance to
these claims enabled the amirates to maintain their
territorial
integrity without resort to arms. Except for a small force
of the
British Indian Navy to ensure observance of the treaty
conditions
and maintain maritime peace in the gulf, Britain abstained
from
direct military involvement. As the wealth of the gulf's
oil
resources became clear, the size of the British military
establishment expanded. By the end of the 1960s, Britain
had
about 9,000 men in Oman, Sharjah (an amirate of the UAE),
and
Bahrain, where British military headquarters was located.
The
Trucial Oman Scouts, a mobile force of mixed nationality
that
Britain supported and British officers commanded, became a
symbol
of public order in the UAE until Britain's withdrawal from
the
Persian Gulf in 1971.
Data as of January 1993
|