Countries of the World (Asia) - Bahrain
Ninth Asian country in my geography series.
Section I - Basic Info on Bahrain
Official Name: Kingdom of Bahrain
Population: 1,579,544 (151st largest in the world, 45th largest in Asia)
Area/Size: 293 square miles (about the size of New York City)
Capital: Manama (750,000 - sister city of Karachi, Pakistan)
Spoken Languages: Arabic (official), English, Farsi, Urdu
Religions: Shiite Muslim (44%), Sunni Muslim (34%), Christian (12%), Hindu (9%)
Life Expectancy: 80.6 years Internet Access Rate: 100.0%
Per Capita Income: $67,211 Unemployment: 1.1%
What do they Export?: Crude oil, natural gas, military weapons, gold, cotton
Export Partners: UAE (16%), Saudi Arabia (15%), South Africa (8%), U.S. (8%)
Import Partners: China (13%), Saudi Arabia (12%), UAE (11%), Brazil (8%)
Government Type: Constitutional monarchy (King controls most of the government and appoints prime minister - limited elections for lower house representatives)
Section II - Images of Bahrain
7 Key Dates/Periods in Bahraini History
I'm going to keep this one fairly simple, with the exception of a focus right at the beginning on the Dilmun civilization headquartered on Bahrain at the time of the Indus Valley and early Egyptian civilizations. Then a quick overview of history in the interim to focus on events of the past 50-60 years since independence.
c. 2500 BC - 600 BC - The Dilmun civilization was an important trading center from the late third millennium BC to 800 BC, headquartered in what is today Bahrain, Kuwait, and eastern Saudi Arabia. At the height of its power, Dilmun controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes It was located in the Persian Gulf, on a trade route between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley civilization, close to the sea and to artesian springs, and at the height of its power controlled the main Persian Gulf trading routes. The Dilmun civilization is mentioned first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the late third millennium BC, found in the temple of the goddess Inanna, in the city of Uruk. Some texts mention that Ur exported wool to Dilmun, and these texts indicate that merchants returned from Dilmun to Ur with abundant profits. Other texts mention commercial agreements and contracts between Dilmun and Ur, which shows that the connection between them was close. The merchants of Ur would send ships to Dilmun loaded with crops from Mesopotamia and foreign markets such as Persia, the Levant, and Asia Minor, and sell them to Dilmun merchants who, in turn, would export them to other places in India, Africa, or to the Arabian Peninsula. Among the things they would return with from Bahrain were metals such as copper, wood, perfumes, and expensive things such as pearls. Eventually Dilmun's commercial power began to decline between 1000 BC and 800 BC because piracy flourished in the Persian Gulf, and the threat of larger neighbors like the Assyrians and Babylonians.
600 BC - 600 AD - From the 6th to 3rd century BC, Bahrain was part of the Achaemenid Empire. By about 250 BC, Parthia brought the Persian Gulf under its control and extended its influence as far as Oman. The Parthians established garrisons along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf to control trade routes. During the classical era, Bahrain was referred to by the ancient Greeks as Tylos, the center of pearl trading, when the Greek admiral Nearchus (serving under Alexander the Great) landed on Bahrain and described "large plantations of cotton trees, from which are manufactured clothes of strongly differing degrees of value, some being costly, others less expensive. The use of these is not confined to India, but extends to Arabia." Alexander had planned to settle Greek colonists in Bahrain, and although it is not clear that this happened on the scale he envisaged, Bahrain became very much part of the Hellenized world: the language of the upper classes was Greek, with Aramaic in everyday use. For many centuries after Tylos, Bahrain was known as Awal. Bahrain's pre-Muslim population consisted of Christian Arabs, Persians (Zoroastrians), Jews, and Aramaic-speaking agriculturalists.
600 - 1500 - Muhammad's first interaction with the people of Bahrain was the Al Kudr Invasion. Muhammad ordered a surprise attack on the Banu Salim tribe for plotting to attack Medina. He had received news that some tribes were assembling an army in Bahrain and preparing to attack the mainland, but the tribesmen retreated when they learned Muhammad was leading an army to do battle with them. Traditional Muslim accounts state that Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami was sent as an envoy to the Bahrain region by Muhammad in AD 628 and that the local ruler responded to his mission and converted the entire area. In 899, the Qarmatians, an Ismaili Muslim sect, seized Bahrain seeking to create a utopian society based on reason and redistribution of property among initiates. Thereafter, the Qarmatians demanded tribute from the caliph in Baghdad, and in 930 sacked Mecca, bringing the sacred Black Stone back to their base in medieval Bahrain for ransom. According to historian Al-Juwayni, the stone was returned 22 years later in 951 under mysterious circumstances, and the theft and removal of the Black Stone caused it to break into seven pieces. The Qarmatians were then overthrown by the Arab Uyunid dynasty, who controlled the area until the mid-13th century. From that point a series of dynasties controlled the islands as a secondary possession of larger conquests.
1500 - 1900 - In 1521, the Portuguese allied with Hormuz and seized Bahrain. Portuguese rule lasted for around 80 years, during which time they depended mainly on Sunni Persian governors. The Portuguese were expelled from the islands in 1602 by Abbas I of the Safavid Iran, which gave impetus to Shia Islam. For the next two centuries, Persian rulers retained control of the archipelago, but during most of this period they resorted to governing Bahrain indirectly. In the early 19th century, Bahrain was invaded by both the Omanis and the Al Sauds. In 1816, the British political resident in the Persian Gulf, William Bruce, received a letter from the Sheikh of Bahrain who was concerned about a rumor that Britain would support an attack on the island by the Imam of Muscat. He sailed to Bahrain to reassure the Sheikh that this was not the case and drew up an informal agreement assuring the Sheikh that Britain would remain a neutral party. This changed in 1860 when British India overpowered Bahrain, then signed a new treaty promising to protect Bahrain from all aggression by sea and to lend support in case of land attack, as well as promsing to support the rule of the Al Khalifa in Bahrain, securing its unstable position as rulers of the country. Other agreements in 1880 and 1892 sealed the protectorate status of Bahrain to the British.
1900 - 1970 - Before the development of the petroleum industry, the island was largely devoted to pearl fisheries and, as late as the 19th century, was considered to be the finest in the world. In 1911, a group of Bahraini merchants demanded restrictions on the British influence in the country. The group's leaders were subsequently arrested and exiled to India. In the 1920s, the British placed Bahrain under the de facto rule of Charles Belgrave who operated as an adviser to the ruler until 1957. Belgrave brought a number of reforms such as establishment of the country's first modern school in 1919 and the abolition of slavery in 1937. In 1927, Rezā Shāh, then Shah of Iran, demanded sovereignty over Bahrain in a letter to the League of Nations, a move that prompted Belgrave to undertake harsh measures including encouraging conflicts between Shia and Sunni Muslims to limit Iranian influence. Oil exploration in the area also began during this time on a limited basis. Bahrain participated in the Second World War on the Allied side, and was bombed (alongside Dhahran oilfields in Saudi Arabia) by Italian aircraft in an effort to attack Allied-operated oil refineries. After World War II, increasing sentiments against British occupation spread throughout Arab countries and led to protests in Bahrain.
1970 - 2011 - In Aug 1971, though the Shah of Iran was claiming historical sovereignty over Bahrain, he accepted a referendum held by the United Nations and eventually Bahrain declared independence and signed a new treaty of friendship with Britain. Bahrain joined the United Nations and the Arab League later in the year. The oil boom of the 1970s benefited Bahrain greatly, although the subsequent downturn hurt the economy. The country had already begun diversification of its economy and benefited further from the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s and 1980s, when Bahrain replaced Beirut as the Middle East's financial hub after Lebanon's large banking sector was driven out of the country by the war. In 1981, following the 1979 revolution in Iran, the Bahraini Shia population orchestrated a failed coup attempt under the auspices of a front organization, the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain. A popular uprising occurred between 1994 and 2000 in which leftists, liberals and fundamentalists joined forces. The event resulted in approximately forty deaths and ended after Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa became the Emir of Bahrain in 1999. He instituted elections for parliament, gave women the right to vote, and released all political prisoners. A referendum on governmental changes two years later led to Bahrain changing its formal name from the State of Bahrain to the Kingdom of Bahrain. Bahrain opposed the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq and offered Saddam Hussein asylum in the days before the invasion.
2011 - present - Inspired by the regional Arab Spring, Bahrain's Shia population started large protests against its Sunni rulers in early 2011. The government initially allowed protests following a pre-dawn raid on protesters camped in Pearl Roundabout. A month later it requested security assistance from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries and declared a three-month state of emergency. The government then launched a crackdown on the opposition that included conducting thousands of arrests and systematic torture. The ruling Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa royal family has been criticized for violating the human rights of groups including dissidents, political opposition figures, and its Shia Muslim population. Bahrain is known as one of the first post-oil economies in the Persian Gulf, the result of decades of investing in the banking and tourism sectors. Many of the world's largest financial institutions have a presence in Manama, but oil revenues still constitute a significant part of its government budget. Bahrain remains militarily dependent on Saudi Arabia and the US, which has led to Iranian missile and drone strikes against Bahrain as a key US ally in the region.
Other Non-Political Issues
Section III - Issues of Bahrain
General Information on Bahrain:
“Bahrain", One World Nations Online, Jan 2025, https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/bahrain.htm
"Bahrain", Wikipedia, Jun 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain or https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain
“Bahrain - Economy", World Bank Group, Jan 2026, https://data360.worldbank.org/en/economy/BHR
"Visit Bahrain: An Unforgettable Journey" (official tourism site), Bahrain Tourism & Exhibitions Authority, 2026, https://www.bahrain.com/en/
History Links on Bahrain:
"Bahrain, its history and heritage: an overview", World Heritage Magazine (from UNESCO), Jun 2018, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000264627
“Bahrain Explained in 17 Minutes | History, Geography, Culture” (video), Opentiera, Oct 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfDlkl25xzA
"Dilmun: The Forgotten Civilization & Its Mysterious Sumerian Connections" (video), National History, Oct 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZBjSw54N2s&t=1595s
“The Sumerian Connection" (about the ancient trading center of Dilmun), ARAMCO World Magazine, Mar/Apr 1980, https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/198002/the.sumerian.connection.htm
Current Events Stories on Bahrain:
"Bahraini Uprising, 2011-2014", The Wilson Center, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/bahrain
"Formula 1 calls off April Grand Prix races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia due to Iran war", PBS NewsHour, Mar 2026, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/formula-1-calls-off-april-grand-prix-races-in-bahrain-and-saudi-arabia-due-to-iran-war
“Gulf kingdom of Bahrain cracks down on dissent as Iran war reignites internal unrest", AP News, Apr 2026, https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-war-bahrain-protests-dissent-952f20a5bafd31d91b2a83454e8f9985
"Their Country Revoked Their Citizenship, Then Tried to Expel Them to Iran", New York Times, Jun 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/world/middleeast/bahrain-iran-citizenship-expulsions.html
“Where do the 35 million foreigners living in the GCC come from?”, Al-Jazeera, Mar 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/9/where-do-the-35-million-foreigners-living-in-the-gcc-come-from
Other Interesting Links Related To Bahrain:
"Bahrain Culture and Traditions: The Heartbeat of the Arabian Gulf", Almatar Blog, Sep 2025, https://almatar.com/blog/bahrain-culture-and-traditions/
“Bahrain in One Day: 10 Experiences You Can’t Miss (A Practical Guide for Independent Travelers)", BucketListly Blog, May 2026, https://www.bucketlistly.blog/posts/bahrain-best-things-to-do
“Bahraini cuisine combines Arabic, Iranian, and Indian flavors", Good Food from KCRW radio, Jun 2025, https://www.kcrw.com/shows/good-food/stories/bahraini-food-cookbook
"A community that forms its culture", National Geographic Travel, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/slideshow/paid-content-a-community-that-forms-its-culture
"Shifting Tides: Environment, History, and Culture Shape the Work of Bahraini Artists”, Middle East Institute, Dec 2023, https://mei.edu/publication/shifting-tides-environment-history-and-culture-shape-work-bahraini-artists/
Section IV - Resources About Bahrain
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