Perpetual Maritime Truce

The Perpetual Maritime Truce of 1853 was a treaty signed between the British and the Rulers of the Sheikhdoms of the Lower Gulf, later to become known as the Trucial States and today known as the United Arab Emirates.

The treaty followed the effective subjugation of the Qawasim (singular Al Qasimi) maritime federation and other coastal settlements of the Lower Gulf by British forces following the Persian Gulf campaign of 1819, a punitive expedition mounted from Bombay which sailed against Ras Al Khaimah, and which resulted in the signing of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820.

The Perpetual Maritime Truce was conceived by the British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf Colonel Samuel Hennell following a series of seasonal treaties intended to preserve peace at sea between the coastal communities of the region during the annual pearling season and was signed in August 1853 by the Rulers of the area during meetings at Basidu on the island of Qeshm and at Bushire.

Following the breakdown of that arrangement in 1815 and a number of maritime incidents, in November 1819, the British embarked on a further punitive expedition against the Qawasim, led by Major-General William Keir Grant, sailing to Ras Al Khaimah with a force of 3,000 soldiers.

They went on to bombard and destroy the fortifications and larger vessels of the coastal communities of Umm Al Quwain, Ajman, Fasht, Sharjah, Abu Hail, and Dubai.

[6] In 1829, a series of long-running conflicts broke out between Abu Dhabi and its northern neighbours, principally involving Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah and later the newly secessionist town of Dubai.

Although signed in August, the Treaty bound its signatories from May 1835 to November 1835,[9] so ensuring peace at sea during the economically important annual pearling season.