People's Democratic Republic of Yemen

The only avowedly Marxist state in the Arab world, built on a British naval base and dissolved after twenty-three years. Britain took Aden in 1839 as a coaling station on the route to India, and it became one of the busiest ports in the world, administered separately from the tribal hinterland Britain governed through protectorate treaties. An armed independence struggle from 1963 ended with British withdrawal in 1967 and the victory of the National Liberation Front, which within two years had moved to the radical left and established the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. It nationalised almost everything, curtailed the power of tribes and religious authorities, introduced a family law unusually favourable to women by regional standards, and aligned itself with Moscow, which used Aden as a naval facility. It supported insurgencies in Oman and in the north, and relations with its neighbours were correspondingly poor. The closure of the Suez Canal from 1967 to 1975 removed most of Aden's traffic and with it the economy. The regime's factional politics were exceptionally violent, culminating in January 1986 when a politburo meeting turned into a shootout and a twelve-day civil war killed thousands. That collapse and the loss of Soviet support made unification attractive. The two Yemens merged in 1990. The south attempted to secede in 1994 and was defeated. Southern separatism remains active today. The republic existed from 1967 to 1990 with Aden as its capital. It covered around 330 thousand square kilometres, more than the north, with far fewer people. Its population was around 2.5 million. The island of Socotra belonged to it and is now a World Heritage site.

MyHistorian
A causal knowledge graph of history