Aden Protectorate

Aden Protectorate
محمية عدن
1872–1963
Location of the Aden Protectorate on the Arabian Peninsula.
Location of the Aden Protectorate on the Arabian Peninsula.
StatusSelf-ruling sultanates, emirates and sheikdoms under British protection
CapitalVarious
Common languagesArabic
Persian
English
Ottoman Turkish
Religion
Islam
Judaism
Christianity
Demonym(s)Adeni
History 
• Initial treaty
1872
11 February 1959
• Disestablished
18 January 1963
CurrencyThaler, Rupee
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Kathiri
Mahra Sultanate
Quaiti
Yemen Vilayet
Independent Tribes
Federation of the Emirates of the South
Protectorate of South Arabia
Today part ofYemen

The Aden Protectorate (Arabic: محمية عدن Maḥmiyyat ‘Adan) was a British protectorate in southern Arabia. The protectorate evolved in the hinterland of the port of Aden and in the Hadhramaut after the conquest of Aden by the Bombay Presidency of British India in January 1839, and which continued until the 1960s. In 1940, it was divided for administrative purposes into the Western Protectorate and the Eastern Protectorate.[1] The territory now forms part of the Republic of Yemen.

The rulers of the Aden Protectorate, as generally with the other British protectorates and protected states, retained a large degree of autonomy: their flags still flew over their government buildings, government was still performed by them or in their names, and their states maintained a distinct 'international personality' in terms of international law, in contrast to states possessed directly by the British Empire, such as Colony of Aden, where the British monarch was the sovereign.[2]

  1. ^ Records of the British Administration in Aden, 1839-1967 (http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/7d807f72-ee39-43db-86ed-2812db614c35)
  2. ^ James Onley, The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj, Oxford University Press, 2007.