Vanishing Act: Britain's abandonment of Arabia and Retreat from the Gulf

TY - CHAP

T1 - Vanishing Act

T2 - Britain's abandonment of Arabia and Retreat from the Gulf

AU - Kelly, Saul Mark Barrett

PY - 2014/12/11

Y1 - 2014/12/11

N2 - With few exceptions, Britain's abandonment of Arabia and retreat from the Gulf has been presented by contemporary commentators and later historians as a seemingly inevitable result of the retreat of the British Empire in the face of the inexorable march of nationalism. They present a picture of the British having 'done the right thing' by leaving the inhabitants of southern and eastern Arabia to attend to their own affairs. It is intended to still any qualms about the manner of Britain leaving South Arabia and the Gulf. For, far from being an orderly 'transfer of power', or 'transition' from Britain to the successor states, the British fled Arabia in a mood of panic and confusion, as this chapter will show.

AB - With few exceptions, Britain's abandonment of Arabia and retreat from the Gulf has been presented by contemporary commentators and later historians as a seemingly inevitable result of the retreat of the British Empire in the face of the inexorable march of nationalism. They present a picture of the British having 'done the right thing' by leaving the inhabitants of southern and eastern Arabia to attend to their own affairs. It is intended to still any qualms about the manner of Britain leaving South Arabia and the Gulf. For, far from being an orderly 'transfer of power', or 'transition' from Britain to the successor states, the British fled Arabia in a mood of panic and confusion, as this chapter will show.

KW - Persian Gulf Region -- Foreign relations

KW - ADEN

KW - British Empire

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9780198725015

SP - 169

EP - 195

BT - At the End of Military Intervention

A2 - Johnson, Robert

A2 - Clack, Timothy

PB - Oxford Univerity Press; Oxford

CY - Oxford

ER -