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Kingdom of Yemen
Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1918–1970 | |||||||||||||
| Anthem: "Royal Salute" (تحية ملكية) | |||||||||||||
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| Status | Member of the United Arab States (1958–1961) | ||||||||||||
| Capital | Sanaa (1918–1948) Taiz (1948–1962) | ||||||||||||
| Common languages | Arabic | ||||||||||||
| Religion | Zaydi Shia Islam (official) | ||||||||||||
| Government | Islamic theocratic absolute monarchy | ||||||||||||
| King-Imam | |||||||||||||
• 1918–1948 | Yahya Hamid ed-Din | ||||||||||||
• 1948–1962 | Ahmad bin Yahya | ||||||||||||
• 1962–1970 | Muhammad al-Badr | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
• Independence from the Ottoman Empire | 30 October 1918 | ||||||||||||
• Admitted to the United Nations | 30 September 1947 | ||||||||||||
| 26 September 1962 | |||||||||||||
• Monarchy abolished | 1 December 1970 | ||||||||||||
| Currency | North Yemeni rial | ||||||||||||
| Time zone | UTC+3 | ||||||||||||
| Calling code | 967 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Today part of | Yemen | ||||||||||||
The Kingdom of Yemen (Arabic: المملكة اليمنية, romanized: al-Mamlakah al-Yamanīyah), officially the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (Arabic: المملكة المتوكلية اليمنية, romanized: al-Mamlakah al-Mutawakkilīyah al-Yamanīyah) and also known simply as Yemen or, retrospectively, as North Yemen, was a state that existed between 1918 and 1970 in the northwestern part of the modern country of Yemen. Located in the Middle East, the Kingdom of Yemen had an area of 195,000 km2. The country was bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Aden Protectorate to the south, and the Red Sea to the west. Its capital was Sanaa from 1918 to 1948, then Taiz from 1948 to 1962.[1] Yemen was admitted to the United Nations on 30 September 1947.[2] A republican coup was launched against the government in 1962, leading to the North Yemen Civil War. The royalist government only controlled the northern portions of the country from 1962 to 1970, until a peace deal in 1970 saw it largely dissolved.
Three days after the Ottoman Empire's decision to withdraw from Yemen following the 1918 Armistice of Mudros, Imam Yahya, the religious leader of the region, entered Sana'a and declared himself the ruler of Yemen. After declaring his rule, he launched attacks on Aden, which was under the auspices of the British Empire, but the British repelled the attacks. After these attacks, he suppressed the rebellions of the tribes in Southern Tihama and advanced towards the Emirate of Asir. It increased its legitimacy by making agreements with the Kingdom of Italy and the Soviet Union. Then, in 1927, he again attacked the countries under the auspices of the British Empire, and these attacks also failed. In 1934, he signed a friendship treaty with the United Kingdom, promising not to attack Aden in exchange for border negotiations. The Saudi-Yemeni war broke out because he did not accept to surrender the Emir of Asir, who was loyal to Saudi Arabia at that time and rebelled. Four months later, Yemen made peace by giving Jizan, Najran, and Asir to Saudi Arabia. After this war, the Kingdom of Yemen began to pursue an isolationist policy. While Imam Yahya enjoyed legitimacy among the Zaydi tribes in the northern areas, the Sunni population in the coastal and southern regions were less inclined to accept his rule. To maintain power, he maintained authoritarian rule and appointed his sons to rule various provinces. Therefore, as a result of the growing discontent, Imam Yahya was assassinated in 1948 by revolutionaries who wanted to establish a constitutional government, but his son Ahmad bin Yahya, who was the crown prince at the time, seized power with the help of loyal Zaydi tribes. In 1958, Ahmed bin Yahya joined the United Arab States under pressure from Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. However, when Syria left the union in 1961, Yemen also left the union. After the death of Ahmed bin Yahya, one week after his son Muhammad al-Badr came to power, the soldiers under the leadership of Abdullah al-Sallal, supported by Egypt, staged a coup and established the Yemen Arab Republic. Al-Badr fled to the mountains and started a civil war with the help of Zaydi tribes. Saudi Arabia supported al-Badr, while Egypt sent troops to support al-Sallal. After Egypt's defeat by Israel in 1967, negotiations began between royalists and republicans for a ceasefire, and in 1970, the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was officially dissolved in exchange for royalists having influence in the government.
The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was an autocratic, theocratic kingdom governed under an absolute monarchy. The country did not have an official language, although the majority of the population spoke Arabic, with a minority speaking Yemenite Hebrew. Of the country, 90% were Arabs, ~10% were Afro-Arabs, and a small portion were Yemeni Jews before Operation Magic Carpet (1949–1950) evacuated most of the Yemeni Jews to the new state of Israel. The population was ~55% Zaydi Muslim, ~45% Sunni Muslim, and a small portion was historically Jewish.
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