The United Arab Emirates Federation Is Founded
- Date
- 1971
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Middle East (United Arab Emirates)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
A durable Arab federation was created on 2 December 1971 when the rulers of six Gulf sheikhdoms signed a union at Dubai's Union House, forming the United Arab Emirates as Britain ended its treaty protection over the Trucial States.
Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Umm al-Quwain, Fujairah and Ajman joined under the leadership of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, who became the founding president; Ras Al Khaimah completed the seven-emirate union in February 1972. The federation bound together small, tribally governed territories that had lived on pearling and trade into a single sovereign state just as vast oil revenues began to pour in. That combination of political unity and petroleum wealth would transform a sparse desert coast into one of the world's most modernised and globally connected economies within a few decades, with Abu Dhabi and Dubai becoming financial, aviation and tourism hubs. The UAE's creation reshaped the political map of the Persian Gulf and produced a rare example of a stable, lasting Arab federation.
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Empires active in 1971
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
- Dutch Empire1581 CE – 1975 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Iranian RevolutionJanuary–February 1979
- Construction of the Berlin Wall13 August 1961
- Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika1985–1991 (from 11 March 1985)
- Fall of the Berlin Wall9 November 1989
- Revolutions of 1989 across Eastern Europe1989 (Autumn of Nations)
- German reunification3 October 1990
Further reading
The wider story
A History of the Modern Middle East
The go-to survey of the region from the late Ottoman era to the present.
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