History of Qatar

Qatar has become one of the newer emirates in the Arabian Peninsula. After domination by Persians for thousands of years and more recently by Bahrain, by the Ottoman Turks, and by the British, Qatar became an independent state on September 3, 1971. Unlike most nearby emirates, Qatar declined to become part of either the United Arab Emirates or of Saudi Arabia.

Although the peninsular land mass that makes up Qatar has sustained humans for thousands of years, for the bulk of its history the arid climate fostered only short-term settlements by nomadic tribes. Clans such as the Al Khalifa and the Al Said (which would later ascend the thrones of Bahrain and of Saudi Arabia respectively) swept through the Arabian peninsula and camped on the coasts within small fishing and pearling villages. The clans battled each other for lucrative oyster beds and lands, frequently forming and breaking coalitions with one another in their attempts to establish territorial supremacy.

The British initially sought out Qatar and the Persian Gulf as an intermediary vantage point en route to their colonial interests in India, although the discovery of oil and hydrocarbons in the early 20th century would reinvigorate their interest. During the 19th century, the time of Britain’s formative ventures into the region, the Al Khalifa clan reigned over the Qatari peninsula from the off-shore island of Bahrain to the west. Although Qatar legally had the status of a dependency, resentment festered against the Bahraini Al Khalifas along the eastern seaboard in the fishing villages of Doha and Wakrah. In 1867 the Al Khalifas launched a successful effort to quash the Qatari rebels by sending a massive naval force to Wakrah. Bahraini aggression however violated an 1820 Anglo-Bahraini Treaty, and the diplomatic response of the British Protectorate set into motion the political forces that would eventuate in the founding of the state of Qatar. In addition to censuring Bahrain for its breach of agreement, the British Protectorate (per Colonel Lewis Pelly) asked to negotiate with a representative from Qatar. The request carried with it a tacit recognition of Qatar’s status as distinct from Bahrain. To negotiate with Colonel Pelly the Qataris chose a respected entrepreneur and long-time resident of Doha, Muhammed bin Thani. His clan, the Al Thanis, had taken relatively little part in Gulf politics, but the diplomatic foray ensured their future participation and dominion as the ruling family, a dynasty that continues to this day. The negotiation results left Qatar with a new-found sense of political selfhood, although it did not gain official standing as a British protectorate until 1916.

The imperial reach of the British Empire diminished during the Second World War, and it diminished even more when India became independent in 1947. Momentum for a British withdrawal from the Gulf emirates increased during the 1950s, and the British welcomed Kuwait’s declaration of independence in 1961. Seven years later, when Britain officially announced that it would disengage (politically, not economically) from the Gulf in three years time, Qatar joined Bahrain and seven other Trucial States in a federation. Regional disputes however quickly compelled Qatar to resign and declare independence from the coalition that would evolve into the seven-imarat United Arab Emirates. Thus 1971 marked the inauguration of Qatar as an independent sovereign state.

Since 1995, Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani has ruled Qatar: he seized control of the country from his father Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani while the old Emir holidayed in Switzerland. Under Emir Hamad, Qatar has experienced a notable amount of sociopolitical liberalisation, including the enfranchisement of women, a new constitution and the launch of Al Jazeera, the controversial Arabic satellite television news channel.