ABSTRACT
The contemporary history of Yemen can be divided into three distinct stages. The first stage that of the absolutist Imamate in the north and British colonialism in the south, extended over the periods 1918–62 and 1839–67. The second stage was characterized by the 1962 revolution in the north and the 1964–67 revolution in the south. The third stage was the consolidation of that unification from 1990 onwards, the evolution of the multi-party system and modem political institutions as a precursor for the development of a democratic political system. The political change of 1962 constituted a revolution only in the limited sense of replacing the institutions of the Imamate with largely ill-conceived and hastily executed institutions. The new regime of Abd al-Rahman al-Iryani was made up of moderate republicans who had resisted Egypt's domination of the revolution. Massive support from Egypt for the republicans and from Saudi Arabia for the royalists served to prolong and to regionalize the conflict.
