Shifting the focus from Borneo to the Persian Gulf, this chapter explains why Qatar and Bahrain – but not the other administrative units in the lower Gulf – achieved separate independence. Britain had been involved in the Persian Gulf for centuries until its withdrawal in 1971. Through treaties signed by the British and local rulers, there had been nine separate sheikhdoms in the lower Gulf with the same colonial status of a British protected state: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Bahrain, Dubai, Fujairah, Qatar, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. They had similar social, cultural, political, and historical backgrounds, but they varied in their decolonization outcomes. All of them participated in negotiations under Abu Dhabi’s initiative between 1968 and 1971 to form a federation. Among the other eight, six eventually joined the newly established United Arab Emirates. The other two, Qatar and Bahrain, however, chose to achieve independence on their own. This chapter analyzes the sheikhdoms in depth using within-case and comparative analyses to reveal that Qatar and Bahrain achieved separate independence because of their early oil development and the protectorate system, while the lack of these two factors resulted in the incorporation of the others into the UAE.

This chapter examines the intersection between Trucial States, Iran, and the British during the interwar years with a particular emphasis on the crises of 1926‒1929. The events surrounding Iran's reoccupation of Hengam in 1928 and capture of an Arab dhow off the coast of Greater Tunb Island can serve as an apt example of how the Arab rulers and merchants of the Gulf perceived Iran and the British during the interwar years. The chapter concludes with an examination of the shifting power distribution within the shaykhdoms in the 1930s, due to the collapse of the pearl industry and the rise of revenues from air and oil agreements, with particular attention to the position of the Iranian immigrant communities in the Trucial States