Saracen Armored vehicle on patrol in Aden in 1966

The State of Aden ( ar, ولاية عدن ''Wilāyat ʿAdan'') was a state constituted in Aden within the

Federation of South Arabia The Federation of South Arabia ( ar, اتحاد الجنوب العربي ') was a federal state under British protection in what would become South Yemen. Its capital was Aden. It was formed on 4 April 1962 from the 15 protected states of ...

. Following its establishment on 18 January 1963, Sir Charles Johnston stepped down as the last

Governor of Aden This is a list of British Empire, British colonial administrators of Aden from the 1839 Aden Expedition to the 1967 withdrawal from Aden. They were appointed from British Raj, British India until 1937 when the Chief Commissioner's Province of ...

. In spite of the hopes placed in the Federation, the insurgency in Aden escalated and hastened the end of British presence in the territory with the British leaving Aden by the end of November 1967. The State of Aden finally became part of the independent People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, also known as South Yemen, on 30 November 1967.

History

To solve many of the problems the

Colony of Aden Aden Colony ( ar, مستعمرة عدن, ), also the Colony of Aden, was a British Crown colony from 1937 to 1963 located in the south of contemporary Yemen. It consisted of the port of Aden and its immediate surroundings (an area of ). Prio ...

faced, as well as continuing the process of self-determination that was accompanying the dismantling of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

, it was proposed that the Colony of Aden should form a

federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

with the

protectorates A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over most of its inter ...

of East and West Aden. Under this scheme it was hoped that the conditions would be created to lessen Arab calls for complete independence, while still allowing British control of foreign affairs and the BP refinery at Little Aden to continue. Federalism was first proposed by ministers from both the colony and protectorates: the suggested amalgamation would be beneficial, they argued, in terms of economics, race, religion and languages. However the step was illogical in terms of

Arab Nationalism Arab nationalism ( ar, القومية العربية, al-Qawmīya al-ʿArabīya) is a nationalist ideology that asserts the Arabs are a nation and promotes the unity of Arab people, celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language a ...

, for it was taken just prior to some impending elections, and was against the wishes of Aden Arabs, notably many of the trade unions. An additional problem was the huge disparity in political development, as at the time Aden colony was some way down the road to self-government and in the opinion of some dissidents, political fusion with the autocratic and backward Sultanates was a step in the wrong direction. In the federation, the former Aden Colony was to have 24 seats on the new council, while each of the eleven sultanates of the former

Aden Protectorate The Aden Protectorate ( ar, محمية عدن ') was a British protectorate in South Arabia which evolved in the hinterland of the port of Aden and in the Hadhramaut following the conquest of Aden by the Bombay Presidency of British India ...

was to have six. The federation as a whole would have financial and military aid from Britain.

Aden Emergency

Many of the problems that Aden had suffered in its time as a colony did not improve as a federated state. In the new federation the

Aden Trade Union Congress The Aden Trade Union Congress (ATUC or TUC) was a trade union in the Aden Colony, a British protectorate in Yemen. History The ATUC was founded in 1956 during serious labour unrest in the area. Its organ was Al-'Amal (1957). The Secretary Gen ...

(ATUC) had a large influence in the new assembly and to prevent it seizing control of the federation in 1962 the former Colony of Aden had joined the Federation of South Arabia so that Aden's pro-British assembly members could counter the ATUC's influence.Kitchen, Martin (1994). ''Empire and after: a short history of the British Empire and Commonwealth ''(1994 ed.) Centre for Distance Education, Simon Fraser University. p. 126-27 However, the day after State of Aden joined the federation the Muhammad al-Badr of the Yemenese monarchy was overthrown and civil war ensued between forces backed by Gamal Abdel Nasser such as the National Liberation Front (NLF) and monarchist forces backed by the

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

and the United Kingdom. Internal disturbances continued and intensified, leading on 10 December 1963 to the

Aden Emergency The Aden Emergency, also known as the Radfan Uprising (), was an armed rebellion by NLF and FLOSY during the Cold War against the Federation of South Arabia, a protectorate of the United Kingdom, which now forms part of Yemen. Partly inspire ...

, when a state of emergency was declared in the largely dysfunctional Aden State. Other events of the conflict that kept spreading throughout the region include the Battle of the Crater which brought Lt-Col

Colin Campbell Mitchell Colin Campbell Mitchell (17 November 1925 – 20 July 1996) was a British Army soldier and politician. He became a public figure in 1967 as the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Forces under his ...

(AKA. "Mad Mitch") to prominence. On June 20, 1967 there was a mutiny in the South Arabian Federation Army, which also spread to the police. Order was restored by the British, mainly owing to the efforts of the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, under the command of Lt-Col Mitchell. Nevertheless, deadly guerrilla attacks against British forces, particularly by the Egyptian-supported National Liberation Front (NLF), soon resumed in all their intensity. British presence finally ended with the final departure of British troops. The withdrawal was undertaken earlier than had been planned by British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and left the future state without an agreement on the succeeding governance. Finally the enemies of the State of Aden and the Federation, the NLF, managed to seize power. On 30 November 1967 Aden State, together with the federation, became the

People's Republic of South Yemen South Yemen ( ar, اليمن الجنوبي, al-Yaman al-Janubiyy), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (, ), also referred to as Democratic Yemen (, ) or Yemen (Aden) (, ), was a communist state that existed from 1967 to 19 ...

. In line with other formerly British Arab territories in the Middle East, the independent state did not join the

British Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

. The South Arabian dinar, however, continued at the one to one parity with sterling until 1972.

References

External links

* {{coord, 12, 48, N, 45, 02, E, region:IN_type:landmark_source:kolossus-svwiki, display=title Federation of South Arabia Colony of Aden 20th century in Yemen Aden South Yemen

History

Aden Emergency

See also

References

Further reading

External links