ABSTRACT
Throughout the greater part of the nineteenth century, Britain enjoyed in the Persian Gulf a position of unchallenged political paramountcy. Although in theory the Gulf was an. international waterway, in practice it was a ' British Lake '. 1 In an area and a period where a great seapower could exercise a predominant role, Britain reigned supreme. As will be seen, it was not until the last decade of the nineteenth century that her position in the Persian Gulf came to be contested. In the 1890s Britain suffered successive challenges from France, Russia and Germany. These intrusions by the Great Powers were complemented by Turkish efforts, which were a manifestation of a general policy of consolidation in the Ottoman Empire, to assert their shadowy authority in Kuwait and along the northern part of the Arabian littoral. 2
