|
In 1837 a ship under British colors was wrecked near Aden, and the crew and passengers grievously maltreated by the Arabs. An explanation of the outrage being demanded by the Bombay government, the sultan undertook to make compensation for the plunder of the vessel, and also agreed to sell his town and port to the English. Captain Haines of the Indian navy was sent to complete these arrangements, but the sultan's son refused to fulfil the promises that his father had made, A combined naval and miltary force was thereupon despatched, and the place was captured and annexed to British India on the 16th of January 1839. The withdrawal of the trade between Europe and the East, caused by the discovery of the passage round'the Cape of Good Hope, and the misgovern-ment of the native rulers, had gradually reduced Aden to a state of comparative insignificance; but about the time of its capture by the British the Red Sea route to India was reopened, and commerce soon began to flow in its former channel, Aden was made a free port, and was chosen as one of the coaling stations of the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company. Its importance as a port of call for steamers and a coaling station grew immensely after the opening of the Suez Canal. It also conductsed a considerable trade with the interior of Arabia, and with the Somali coast of Africa on the opposite side of the Red Sea'. The submarine cables of the Eastern Telegraph Company here diverged on the one hand to India, the Far East and Australia, and on the other hand to Zanzibar and the Cape.
Aden became a seperate colony in 1936. In 1963 Aden joined the South Arabian Federation, and became independent as South Yemen in 1967.
|
