Britain's informal empire in the Gulf : 1820-1971

Abstract EN

What was the nature of Britain's interests in the gulf Arab states before their independence from Britain, and how did Britain protect those interests ? These are question has taken place completely outside of a wider debate about British imperialism that has occupied historians of Africa, India, Latin America , and china.

Historians of the middle east, and the gulf in particular, have largely overlooked the theories about the nature of imperialism that these other historians have developed.

Peter sluglett suggest one explanation for this .

middle east historians of part of the British empire .

nevertheless, middle east historians could gain new insights from a consideration of the contemporary debate in imperial historiography.

What follows is an attempt to link an attempt to link gulf history with that debate.