Persian Gulf Residency
The Persian Gulf Residency was a subdivision of the British Empire from 1822 until 1971, whereby the United Kingdom maintained varying degrees of political and economic control over several states in the Persian Gulf, including what is today known as the United Arab Emirates (formerly called the "Trucial States") and at various times southern portions of Iran, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar. == Historical background until 1900 == British interest in the Persian Gulf originated in the sixteenth century and steadily increased as British India's importance rose in the imperial and economic system of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.