Cruising the UAE

This week, as President Bush completes his Mideast tour, we're cruising the Persian Gulf. Yesterday, we met Kuwait's sheikhs. Today, we're dropping in on the United Arab Emirates (UAE). So, what is the UAE? Traveling minds want to know.

The UAE is a union of seven small emirates (think principalities) stretched along the Arabian Peninsula's east coast. Geographically, it's 32,280 square miles (83,600 sq km) of desert, sprinkled with oases and coastal settlements, just south of the Strait of Hormuz--the waterway that links the Persian Gulf and its petrol-pumping ports to the world.

Two Plus Five

Economically and politically, two of the emirates--Abu Dhabi and Dubai--dwarf the others. Abu Dhabi is by far the largest of the seven, covering more than 75 percent of the UAE's total area. Roughly the size of West Virginia, Abu Dhabi sits on nearly a tenth of Earth's proven oil reserves.

Dubai is much smaller--about the size of Rhode Island--but hardly less prosperous. Practically all of its people live in the city of Dubai, the UAE's largest city and arguably the most important Persian Gulf port. (Historically, Dubai and the other emirates were pretty much city-states.)

The UAE is home to more than 4 million people, and it's growing quickly. Some 80 percent of its residents are foreign workers or other "non-nationals," who came in droves from South Asia--especially India and Pakistan--after all that oil was discovered in Abu Dhabi in the 1950s.

A History of Trade

Enterprising traders have been doing business at ports near the Strait of Hormuz since at least the 6th century BC. By the time Islam arrived 13 centuries later, local towns enjoyed well-established trading ties with India and China. Starting in the 16th century, Europeans came calling, too.

Over time, a local clan gained control of much of the lower Gulf's maritime trade. And kept it--until the British Navy intervened to stop the clan's attacks on British and Indian ships. In 1820, the sheikhs agreed to peace with the British. Three decades later, they agreed to a "perpetual maritime truce." By 1892, they had granted control over their foreign relations to the British, in exchange for external protection.

Trucial States

Thanks to all that truce-making, the future UAE emirates became known as the "Trucial States." In 1968, the British announced they would leave the Persian Gulf, and conferences on confederation began between Qatar, Bahrain, and the truce-making emirates. Ultimately, Qatar and Bahrain each decided to declare its own independence, while the Trucial States formed the UAE.

The emir of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, became president of the newly formed nation in 1971 and held the job until his death in 2004. His son, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, succeeded him as both Abu Dhabi's emir and the UAE's president. Still, the rulers of the individual emirates retain many of their traditional princely powers.