Records of the Emirates 1966-1971

The period 1966-1971 witnessed important changes in the history of the United Arab Emirates. As Great Britain moved to extricate itself from a sustained presence of 150 years' duration, through which it had been responsible for the various emirates' external affairs, numerous controls were gradually transferred. The theory that the city states could resist regional absorption only if they banded together had become a platform of the British withdrawal policy. As the plans for the British withdrawal from the Gulf and intensive and detailed negotiations for unification proceed there tends to be less reportage on more local matters, such as education and development projects. In the face of a great deal of material pertaining to British and other Arab States' interest in the Emirates this collection concentrates on the central development of the Emirates infrastructure and government including extensive coverage of the process of achieving a union of the separate emirates.