Establishment of the Air-Route

Almost immediately after World War I, the British Government recognised the need for an organised civil and military air-route linking Egypt, Iraq and India. As the air-route began to take shape, the Arabian shores of the Gulf — Bahrain, the Trucial Coast and Muscat, in particular — assumed a new and fundamental importance as the essential link for British air communications. We have already noted the many discussions in London and Delhi on the possibility of extending British rule in the Gulf in order to establish the air-route and safeguard its security; we have also noted the repeated decisions that the maintenance of the status quo was sufficient. In the case of the Trucial Coast, the British presence was remarkably limited, and yet within a short period of time the region was drawn into a series of agreements that provided the British Government with all it wanted for the new route to India. Although the role played by certain individuals, such as the Political Residents and the Residency Agent in Sharjah, was central to the fulfilment of imperial interests, the individuals themselves ultimately relied on British political supremacy in the Gulf. This was constantly reinforced by the British making it impossible for any other power to establish itself in the area, and by the control that Indian merchants exercised over trade, shipping and ports.

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