When did the Arab Emirates appear?

When children are preparing for a history lesson or tourists want to discover a new Arab country, they ask themselves the question: in what year was the United Arab Emirates formed and what day is considered to be the starting point in the birth of the state?

You can get confused in the chronology of events, since there are several such serious dates in the history of the state. If today almost every person wants to have an apartment in the UAE, then forty years ago the emptiness, sands and desert showed no signs of life.

The first foundation stone of history is considered to be the episode of the mother-of-pearl industry, which rose and fell in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was part of the main economy of the coastal communities of Eastern Arabia, and by 1907 more than 4000 pearl boats were operating from the ports of the Persian Gulf.

Thanks to a huge increase in demand from India and Europe, during this time, pearls became quite profitable, and thousands of local ships were loaded with provisions to stay up to three months at sea. A new era began in the UAE when competition emerged and Japanese cultured pearls began to be produced commercially in the late 1920s. The influx of inexpensive high-quality pearls made ex-UAE pearl fans turn their preference to the Japanese mineral, which led to the downfall of the mother-of-pearl industry.

UAE as we know it today

Of course, the most luxurious skyscrapers, the giant Ferris wheel, the best real estate agency in Dubai and beautiful beaches were far from always there. The modern history of the UAE dates back to the moment when Bahrain and Qatar decided to be independent and autonomous, leaving the seven Emirates to form their own country. The official birth of the UAE was a big step taken by the individual emirates, as the Arab world had never seen the successful unification of the disparate parts, but Sheikh Zayed, along with Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, met in February 1968 and proposed to become one.

In July 1971, plans were made to form a union between the (then six) emirates, and the Council secured the recognition of the country as an independent sovereign state that is part of the Arab world. An interim constitution was adopted and Abu Dhabi became the capital. Sheikh Zayed, Ruler of Abu Dhabi, was appointed as the first President, while Sheikh Rashid, Ruler of Dubai, was elected Vice President.