Gwadar Port - History
For many centuries Gwadar was under the control of various regional and colonial states and science 1958 it has been under the administration of Pakistan. In pre Islamic era the inhibition of Gawdar and the most area of Baluchistan appear to b ancient. The area show the inhibition of Bronze Age people where settlements existed around some of the area’s oases. Later the name of area become Makran because the people of this area were known to Moka or Maka so by this way later the name become Makran. Then the Persian Empire conquered this area. The founder of Persian Empire in that time was Cyrus the Great who conquered this region. Then after the collapse of Alexander’s empire the area was ruled by Seleucus Nicator .The area come under their rule about 303 BCE.
Then in 711 CE Muhammad bin Qasim captured Gwadar and then the interval of time the area come under various powers ,including the Mughals from east and safavid from the west. The Arab Muslim Armay of Muhmmad bin Qasim captured the town of Gwadar in 1711 CE and over the intervening time the area was contested by various powers, including Mughals (from the east) and the Sfavids (from the west). In 1581 the Portuguese captured, sacked and burnt Gwadar.
Gwadar in this era was for centuries under local rule in by various Baloch tribes. In 1783 the khan of kalat defeated the ruler of Muscat and continued his rule in Gwadar by appointing a wali (governor) and the wali was ordered to subjugate the nearby coastal town. The Gwadar fort was built during Omani rule.
As of around 1900 Gwadar was a small village, and a bad port, but the sole one on the northern shore of the Persian Gulf. Although this port is located in the territory of the Khan of Beloutchistan, its revenues went into the treasury of the Sultan of Oman. The climate is very warm, humid, and very unhealthful. Its inhabitants were intrepid mariners. Gwadar, until around 1900 the principal town and port on the Makran coast, is situated on the sandy isthmus northward of Gwadar Head. At that time it was said to be a dirty place, and it was advisable for visitors to sleep on board their ships, as fever was prevalent among Europeans. Most of the dwellings were mat huts, but a number of mud and stone houses, among which the Khojah mosque is conspicuous, are clustered round a square fort with a high tower. There are a few date and banyan trees.
With a population of 4,350 persons (1903), the majority were fishermen. The Portuguese attacked and burnt the town in 1651 ; and at the end of the next century it was taken by the Khans of Kalat and was handed over by Nasir Khan I to Sultan Said, a brother of the ruler of Maskat, for his maintenance. It since remained, with about 300 square miles of the adjoining country, in the hands of Maskat, the ruler of which place was represented by an Arab governor, or wali, with an escort of twenty sepoys. The value of the trade, which was carried on by Hindus and by Khojas, locally known as Lotias, was estimated in 1903 at 5 lakhs of exports and 2 lakhs of imports. The contract for customs, which were generally levied at 5 percent. ad valorem, was leased for Rs. 40,000 in the same year. Gwadar was a fortnightly port of call of the British India Steam Navigation Company's steamers.
A few sheep were obtainable and also a small quantity of onions and potatoes. Rice, ghi, and other articles of native food could be procured; fish is abundant and good. Water of indifferent quality and in small quantity was obtainable from wells or by digging about 12 feet deep. There was no coal.
It had a telegraph. The second wire of the land-line in Persia had been more or less completed in June 1867. To strengthen the communications in that country, and meet the probable increase of traffic from the Russian side, a third wire was then further projected, extending from Tehran to Bushahr, but the proposal remained for some time under consideration. The land-line from Gwadar to Jask was completed on 15 August 1869, and the" successful accomplishment of the latest operation supplied a double line of communication for the whole way between Karachi to Bushahr ; from which port to London, and vice versa, were two grand alternative lines, one via Tehran and Russia, the other via Baghdad and Constantinople. The construction of the Makran coast land-lines was a matter involving mental anxiety and powers of organization, with physical labor and endurance of no common kind.
The Kalat State National Party or National Party was formed in 1920. It was influenced by the Bolshevik Revolution led by Lenin in Russia and the Afghan revolution of Amanullah. It remained underground and operated clandestinely for ten years before surfacing in 1931 in Kalat. The party definitely was against the British Raj. In 1939 it vehemently opposed British efforts to secure on lease the port of Jewani from the Khan of Kalat. The port is located in the Gwadar Bay right on the Iranian border and very close to the Gulf. It was considered the next best alternative to the port of Gwadar in that area.
It was important to British stretched lines of communication and also to British India's security, serving as the farthest forward post on the Makran Coast in the Arabian Sea. The British had been trying to obtain its lease as the Sultan of Muscat and Oman had withdrawn refueling facilities provided to the British at the port of Gwadar. Mainly due to opposition from the National Party, the British failed to acquire the lease of Jewan from Khan of Kalat. Not unnaturally, the British were antagonized.
Gwadar remained an Omani possession after independence of Pakistan, until Hajji Muhammad Iqbal Baluch and Liaqat Ali Khan asked for the annexation of Gwadar to Pakistan because of its vital geo-strategic importance. As a result, Gwadar was repurchased from the Sultan of Oman for 3 million dollars on 08 September 1958, and it became the part of Baluchistan Province of Pakistan on September 8th, 1957. Since then, the port remained an insignificant fishing village, till in 1997 when it suddenly gained world-wide attention as an alternate to Hong Kong after its annexation to the Communist China. Even though the plan didn't succeed, Gwadar became a subject of interest for the newly established Central Asian Republics for trans-Afghanistan trade, as well as China to connect its Zingkiang province by a port.
Until September 1958, Oman had exercised legal and actual suzerainty over the port of Gwadar, which was an alien enclave in Pakistan on the Makran Coast. It had an area of approximately 300 square miles. Some people thought that if the supposedly US supported coup had succeeded in Oman, the US government would probably have sought to build a military base in Gwadar. The United States has been trying to acquire certain rights to utilize Gwadar port facilities in lieu of military and economic assistance.
It is conjectured that the United States had, from time to time, needed base facilities in Pakistan to counter communist threat in the region in pursuance of its plohal policy based on the "Truman Doctrine", followed by "Eisenhower Doctrine" and the "Nixon Doctrine". To begin with, it seemed, the relationship between Pakistan and the USA was not particularly very happy, especially in view of a degree of cooling off of friendship between the USA and Britain. At one stage Malik Feroz Khan Noon, the Prime Minister of Pakistan criticised the US "for lack of sympathy and understanding".
The US Presidential candidate senator John F. Kennedy in his election compaign speech went as far as saying without reservation; "We want lndia". There is no doubt that India would have provided the best leverage to the US to circumvent China. At that time, China somehow bothered the United States more than, even its more powerful rival the USSR.
Pakistan's geographical location was important, though, apart from its north-western craggyland and massive desolate Baluchistan to retard Soviet's move towards the Arabian Sea, some of its territory provided vantage sites for electronic surviellance over the Soviet Union "core" areas. Badabare, near Peshawar suited the Americans to peep electronically through the Hindu Kush and monitor activities of the Soviet satellite launching and missile testing sites at Tyuratarn.
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