The British East India Company lands Royal…
January 1839 CE
The British have been looking for a coal depot to service their steamers en route to India.
It takes seven hundred tons of coal for a round-trip from Suez to Bombay.
East India Company officials had decided on Aden.
The British Empire had tried to reach an agreement with the Zaydi imam of Sana'a, permitting them a foothold in Mocha, and when unable to secure their position, they had extracted a similar agreement from the Sultan of Lahej, enabling them to consolidate a position in Aden.
An incident had played into British hands when, while passing Aden for trading purposes, one of their sailing ships sank and Arab tribesmen boarded it and plundered its contents.
The British India government had dispatched a warship under the command of Captain Stafford Bettesworth Haines to demand compensation.
Haines bombards Aden from his warship in January 1839.
The ruler of Lahej, who is in Aden at the time, orders his guards to defend the port, but they fail in the face of overwhelming military and naval power.
The British manage to occupy Aden and agree to compensate the sultan with an annual payment of six thousand riyals.
The British evict the Sultan of Lahej from Aden and force him to accept their "protection."
Locations
Groups
Arab people
View →
Zaidiyyah
View →
Ottoman Empire
View →
Yemen, Ottoman eyalet of
View →
Lahej, Sultanate of
View →
East India Company, British (United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies)
View →
India, East India Company rule in
View →
Britain (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
View →
Aden, Settlement of
View →