SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to show how and explain why the relationship between Britain and the Shaikhdom of Bahrain changed between 1869 and 1915 and how this changing relationship was expressed in legal form. The period from 1869 to 1915 was the formative period of the growth of British protection over Bahrain. 1869 was the year in which there began the long reign of Shaikh Isa b. Ali Al Khalifa. In 1915 the promulgation by the British Government of an Order in Council completed a series of pre-war diplomatic and legal arrangements which defined Britain's relationship with the shaikhdom. Chapter 1 of this thesis is introductory. It describes Bahrain and its political system, and shows the involvement of the Anglo-Indian diplomatic structure in the Gulf with Bahrain up to the accession of Shaikh Isa. Chapters 2 and 3 deal with Anglo-Bahraini relations in the period from 1869 to 1895, during which the Turkish presence on the Arabian mainland near Bahrain was a predominant factor affecting those relations. Chapter 2 deals with the period up to and including the signing of the Anglo-Bahraini Agreement of December 1880, and Chapter 3 with the period from 1881 to 1895. Chapter 4 is concerned with the period from 1896 to 1904, when various European Powers were showing a greatly increased interest in the Gulf, and when the British were searching for a way of putting their relationship with Bahrain on a different basis. Chapter 5 discusses certain disturbances which occurred in Bahrain in late 1904 and how the British reacted to them whilst Chapter 6 deals with the various British proposals for reform in Bahrain which were a sequel to the disturbances. Chapter 7 shows the evolution of the various diplomatic arrangements through which the British brought about changes which they desired in their relationship with Bahrain in the years preceding the First World War. It also discusses the practical operation of the British system of protection over Bahrain in the context of events in the Gulf region during the same years. Chapter 8 forms the conclusion.