page_title: History of the United Arab Emirates
section_title: Declaration of the union 1971–1972
hierarchical_section_title: History of the United Arab Emirates / Independence and union: 1960 - 1972 / Declaration of the union 1971–1972
caption_attribution_description: English: Room where the unification treaty was signed between the initial 6 Emirates of United Arab Emirates, Dubai - UAE.
context_page_description: The United Arab Emirates is a country in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula located on the southeastern coast of the Persian Gulf and the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Oman. The UAE consists of seven emirates and was founded on 2 December 1971 as a federation. Six of the seven emirates combined on that date. The seventh, Ras al Khaimah, joined the federation on 10 February 1972. The seven sheikdoms were formerly known as the Trucial States, in reference to the treaty relations established with the British in the 19th Century.
  Artifacts uncovered in the UAE show a history of human habitation and transmigration spanning back 125,000 years. The area was previously home to the Magan people known to the Sumerians, who traded with both coastal towns and bronze miners and smelters from the interior. A rich history of trade with the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley is also evidenced by finds of jewelry and other items and there is also extensive early evidence of trade with Afghanistan and Bactria as well as the Levant.
  Through the three defined Iron Ages and the subsequent Hellenistic Mlieiha period, the area remained an important coastal trading entrepôt.
context_section_description: On 29 and 30 November 1971, a contingent of the Iranian army supported by the naval forces occupied the islands of Abu Musa and the Lesser and Greater Tunbs. In the Greater Tunb, 6 policemen clashed with approximately 2,000 Iranian troops and on the ensuing skirmish 4 Ras Al Khaimah policemen and 3 Iranian soldiers were killed. The Iranian troops then demolished the police station, the school, and number houses, and forced the natives to leave the Island. The body of the deceased were buried in the island and the residents were put on fishing boats and expelled to Ras Al Khaimah. The Imperial Iranian Navy seized the islands under small resistance of the tiny Arab police force stationed in there. The population of the Greater Tunb in 1971 was 150. The first soldier that was killed on the Greater Tunb was Salem Suhail bin Khamis who refused to lower the Ras Al Khaimah flag and was shot and killed. The death of the 20 year-old Bin Khamis marks as the date of the first martyr in the United Arab Emirates and November 30 is celebrated as the Commemoration Day in the United Arab Emirates. The ruler of Sharjah was forced to agree to negotiate for Iranian troops to occupy Abu Musa since he had no other feasible option. He either had to negotiate in order to save part of the territory or forego the restoration of the remaining part of the island for good.
  When the British-Trucial Sheikhdoms treaty expired on December 1, 1971, the Trucial States became fully independent sheikhdoms. Four more of the Trucial states (Ajman, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah), had decided to join Abu Dhabi and Dubai in signing the UAE's founding treaty, with a draft constitution in place drafted in record time to meet the December 2, 1971 deadline. On that date, at the Dubai Guesthouse (now known as Union House), the emirates agreed to enter into a union to be called the United Arab Emirates. Ras al-Khaimah joined later in February 1972.
  A little more than six weeks after the declaration of the union on 24 January 1972, the former deposed ruler of Sharjah Sheikh Saqr bin Sultan Al Qasimi with an armed group supported by Ras Al Khaimah forced his way into the palace of Sharjah's ruler Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, occupied it, and demanded to be recognized as the sole ruler of Sharjah. Sheikh Saqr was deposed in 1965 by the British because he supported and received assistance from the Arab League, which Britain wasn't too happy about at that time. He saw the opportunity to make a comeback as the British have terminated their commitments to the Truical States. This incident caused for the federal defence force to mobilize for the first time. In a joint action the federal defence force and the Abu Dhabi defence force, together with popular resistance in Sharjah, managed to bring the situation under control and to cut the lines of supplies from Ras Al-Khaimah. After the palace was besieged, Sheikh Ṣaqr surrendered along with his group to the federal authorities. However, Sharjah's ruler Sheikh Khalid was already killed in the palace. The incident was a direct attack on the authority of a member emirate of the union and the murder of a ruler and Supreme Council member and it constituted a test for the new state at a time when the wound caused by the occupation of the three islands had not yet healed. On 25 January 1972, the ruling family in Sharjah met to choose a new ruler for the emirate, and Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, the brother of the late ruler, was unanimously chosen to be ruler. The Supreme Council met in emergency session to consider the situation, and besides issuing an obituary of Sheikh Khālid, officially proclaimed the accession of Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi.
  The move to form a union took place at a time of unprecedented instability in the region, with a border dispute killing 22 in Kalba, and a coup in Sharjah in January 1972. The then emir of Qatar was deposed by his cousin in February 1972.
caption: The meeting room where the first constitution was signed on 2 December 1971 in Dubai. Today it is part of the Etihad Museum.
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