Aden Colony

Aden Colony was a British crown colony on the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, existing from 1937 until 1963. The port of Aden had been captured by the British in 1839 and governed as part of British India, first under the Bombay Presidency and later as a chief commissioner's province. On 1 April 1937 it was separated from India and became a crown colony, consisting of the town of Aden and the outlying islands of Perim, Kamaran and the Khuria Muria group, with a total area of about 192 square kilometres. Its position at the entrance to the Red Sea made it a vital coaling station and naval base after the Suez Canal opened in 1869. The hinterland was administered separately as the Aden Protectorate. Rising Arab nationalism and labour unrest led to the Aden Emergency, and in 1963 the colony was reconstituted as the State of Aden within the Federation of South Arabia; British forces withdrew in 1967, and the territory became part of South Yemen.