A Brief History of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates

A “brief” history of a country is an accessible way to learn about its origins and the major milestones in its development —to understand how it came into being, what its constituent elements are (both in terms of human geography and culture), and what socioeconomic characteristics shape it—without getting lost in lengthy narratives whose details may seem superfluous if what we’re looking for is a quick overview or a knowledge schematic knowledge .

As nations that have only recently gained independence and have played a very limited role in history thus far, the smaller countries of the Persian Gulf are often perceived in a vague way—without clear contours and with an indistinguishable identity—so that those of us living outside the Middle East tend to conflate and confuse them. Quick reads like the ones offered by these two books—one on the history of Qatar and the other on that of the United Arab Emirates—allow readers to fill that gap with little effort and with sufficient accuracy.

Although these are self-published works on Amazon, with no information about their authors or project publishing house, it is reasonable to conclude that they are part of the same initiative: they are similar editions, with identical typography and nearly identical page layouts. Even though the two countries are very close and share a common regional history, both books strive to avoid repetition and seek to limit their narrative to what is specific to Qatar or the United Arab Emirates. Some aspects are repeated, such as the traditional pearl trade, around which traditional life in both places revolved until, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Great Depression cut off demand and the subsequent emergence of cultured pearls rendered the industry unviable. Beyond finding a common lifeline in hydrocarbons (first for survival and then for opulence), the histories of Qatar and the Emirates converged only during the process of gaining independence from Great Britain in the late 1960s. London proposed the creation of a single state comprising Bahrain, Qatar, and the seven emirates known as the “Trucial States” (so named for the agreement submission they had once signed with the British). Everything came to a head in early 1971, however, with the separate independence of the island of Bahrain, which was followed by that of the Qatar Peninsula after it failed to reach agreement its negotiations with the other territories, led by Abu Dhabi and Dubai. In addition to these two emirates, the UAE also brought together those of Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, and Fujairah. The seventh, Ras Al Khaimah, eventually joined a year later.

These are two books aimed at knowledge dissemination, with no footnotes or bibliography, and they are sympathetic to the political systems governing both countries. Although they echo some criticisms of various government actions or certain leaders, these are generally the same criticisms expressed by the current rulers themselves regarding some of their predecessors, in agreement the power struggles that have occurred in the succession of leadership or policy direction within the Al Thani family of Qatar and the Al Nahyan family of Abu Dhabi.

In any case, the description of the subject and foreign policy decisions made during the two countries’ fifty years of independence—from Qatar’s focus on natural gas and its influence through the Al Jazeera television network to Dubai’s emphasis on trade and finance—is undoubtedly valuable content that provides a better understanding of the present and the aspirations of Qataris and Emiratis.