ABSTRACT
The long century of Oman's isolation came to an abrupt end with a palace coup d'état in the summer of 1970. Although the coup was dramatic in its sudden reversal of the Sultanate's outward appearance, it was not unexpected. Indeed, the need for a substantial change in Oman had been perceived for a number of years, as the traditional character of most of the Sultanate's neighbours was inexorably modified. The economic and social transformation occurring in the Gulf, wrought by the advent of oil revenues, gradually worked its way south towards Oman. Meanwhile, southern Yemen gained its independence to the accompaniment of radical rhetoric. Even the Imamate of the Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula's other mountainous bastion of traditional rule, was plunged into civil war in the e,arly 1960s and emerged years later considerably more affected by the outside world and its demands.
