WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.140 Usually, you know, when we think about how nations 00:00:02.140 --> 00:00:04.919 are formed, we picture the dramatic stuff. They're 00:00:04.919 --> 00:00:08.160 a big cinematic moment. Exactly. We imagine like 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:10.839 generals pointing at massive maps or armies marching 00:00:10.839 --> 00:00:13.880 across endless plains, grand treaties being signed 00:00:13.880 --> 00:00:15.960 at the end of a bloody bayonet. Yeah, there is 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:19.920 this expectation of loud, forceful, sweeping 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:23.199 conquest. It is the classic narrative of military 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:25.820 history, really. It is. We tend to focus entirely 00:00:25.820 --> 00:00:28.339 on who had the biggest guns. Right. Who was willing 00:00:28.339 --> 00:00:31.429 to draw lines in the the sand by pure blunt force. 00:00:31.670 --> 00:00:34.490 And it feels so binary. You win the war, you 00:00:34.490 --> 00:00:37.649 draw the map. But what if I told you that one 00:00:37.649 --> 00:00:40.509 of the most dynamic, economically powerful regions 00:00:40.509 --> 00:00:43.369 in the modern world wasn't united by a conquering 00:00:43.369 --> 00:00:45.869 army at all? Which is pretty wild to think about. 00:00:45.950 --> 00:00:48.350 It really is. It was united by a 19th century 00:00:48.350 --> 00:00:50.369 British administrator who essentially looked 00:00:50.369 --> 00:00:53.049 at a calendar and said, hey, everyone just wants 00:00:53.049 --> 00:00:55.189 to go fishing, right? I mean, that is definitely 00:00:55.189 --> 00:00:58.579 one way to summarize it. So today we are opening 00:00:58.579 --> 00:01:01.320 up a really fascinating stack of sources for 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:04.280 you. We're centering this around a detailed Wikipedia 00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:07.299 article on the life and career of Colonel Samuel 00:01:07.299 --> 00:01:09.400 Hennell, a name a lot of people probably haven't 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:12.260 heard, honestly. Right. But our mission for this 00:01:12.260 --> 00:01:15.840 deep dive is to figure out how this British Indian 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:19.799 Army officer completely reshaped the geopolitical 00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:22.859 map of the Middle East. And in doing so. laid 00:01:22.859 --> 00:01:24.859 the foundation for what you and I now know is 00:01:24.859 --> 00:01:27.379 the United Arab Emirates. Exactly. And he didn't 00:01:27.379 --> 00:01:29.959 do it primarily through military force, which 00:01:29.959 --> 00:01:33.079 is the crazy part. He did it by cleverly leveraging 00:01:33.079 --> 00:01:36.239 a well, a highly specific economic season. Yeah, 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:39.040 he practically invented a new model for conflict 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:41.879 resolution in a region that had been plagued 00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:45.489 by. really complex maritime warfare for generations. 00:01:45.750 --> 00:01:47.950 Right. And it requires us to completely rethink 00:01:47.950 --> 00:01:50.269 how empires usually operated in that era. OK, 00:01:50.269 --> 00:01:52.450 let's unpack this. Because to understand what 00:01:52.450 --> 00:01:54.650 Hennel achieved, we have to understand the absolute 00:01:54.650 --> 00:01:56.510 powder keg he was walking into. Oh, absolutely. 00:01:56.609 --> 00:01:59.129 A total powder keg. We are going back to the 00:01:59.129 --> 00:02:03.049 Persian Gulf in the 1820s. And before we get 00:02:03.049 --> 00:02:06.049 to his brilliant truce, who exactly was Samuel 00:02:06.049 --> 00:02:08.389 Hennel? I mean, who was he working for? Well, 00:02:09.050 --> 00:02:12.030 before we ever saw the Gulf, Hennel was an Englishman. 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:15.020 He was tutored by a Mr. Williams of Edmonton. 00:02:15.479 --> 00:02:18.099 OK. But he doesn't enter the region working directly 00:02:18.099 --> 00:02:20.539 for the British Crown. He enters service with 00:02:20.539 --> 00:02:25.639 the East India Company. And that is a crucial 00:02:25.639 --> 00:02:27.419 distinction for you to keep in mind here. Right. 00:02:27.460 --> 00:02:29.539 I always hear about the East India Company in 00:02:29.539 --> 00:02:31.560 historical context. But what does that actually 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:34.159 mean for the power dynamics in the Gulf at this 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:36.400 time? So the East India Company was essentially 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:39.849 a massive multinational corporation. Just a corporation 00:02:39.849 --> 00:02:41.770 with an army. Yeah, a corporation that just happened 00:02:41.770 --> 00:02:44.729 to have its own private, heavily armed military. 00:02:45.389 --> 00:02:47.349 I mean, their primary goal wasn't planting flags 00:02:47.349 --> 00:02:49.750 for the king's glory. It was money. Exactly. 00:02:50.150 --> 00:02:52.509 Their primary goal was profit. They needed safe 00:02:52.509 --> 00:02:55.650 trade routes to move goods between India, the 00:02:55.650 --> 00:02:58.490 Middle East, and Europe. Makes sense. So when 00:02:58.490 --> 00:03:01.509 Hanel arrives in the Gulf in 1826 as an assistant 00:03:01.509 --> 00:03:03.810 resident stationed in the port city of Budasher, 00:03:04.389 --> 00:03:07.780 the company is already deeply, deeply frustrated. 00:03:08.060 --> 00:03:10.340 Frustrated because the trade routes weren't safe, 00:03:10.539 --> 00:03:13.000 right? Right. The atmosphere he steps into is 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:17.199 incredibly tense. Just six years prior, in 1819, 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:19.860 the British had launched this massive punitive 00:03:19.860 --> 00:03:22.740 expedition against the Al Qasimi fleet at Ras 00:03:22.740 --> 00:03:25.500 Al Qaima. Which was just a devastating show of 00:03:25.500 --> 00:03:28.139 naval force. Right. The British essentially bombarded 00:03:28.139 --> 00:03:30.159 the coastline. Wow. Yeah, they were trying to 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:33.330 eradicate what they viewed as piracy. threatening 00:03:33.330 --> 00:03:35.949 their corporate shipping lanes. They burned ships, 00:03:36.409 --> 00:03:38.770 destroyed local infrastructure. They severely 00:03:38.770 --> 00:03:41.110 disrupted the local economy. And that expedition 00:03:41.110 --> 00:03:43.310 was immediately followed by the General Maritime 00:03:43.310 --> 00:03:45.789 Treaty of 1820. Now, reading through the sources, 00:03:46.110 --> 00:03:49.349 this 1820 treaty feels to me like, well, like 00:03:49.349 --> 00:03:51.150 putting a bandaid on a bullet wound. That is 00:03:51.150 --> 00:03:52.969 a very good way to put it. Right, because they 00:03:52.969 --> 00:03:55.650 blew things up and forced a treaty that basically 00:03:55.650 --> 00:03:57.370 said, stop attacking our ships or we'll come 00:03:57.370 --> 00:03:59.810 back and do it again. Am I misreading that or 00:03:59.810 --> 00:04:02.169 was it really that short sighted? No, you're 00:04:02.169 --> 00:04:04.810 hitting on the exact flaw of the 1820 treaty. 00:04:05.490 --> 00:04:08.909 It was purely punitive. It temporarily stopped 00:04:08.909 --> 00:04:11.469 the violence out of sheer terror, basically, 00:04:11.830 --> 00:04:14.469 but it did absolutely nothing to solve the underlying 00:04:14.469 --> 00:04:17.259 regional tensions. Because it didn't change anything 00:04:17.259 --> 00:04:19.639 fundamentally. Exactly. It didn't address the 00:04:19.639 --> 00:04:22.120 economic desperation that caused local fleets 00:04:22.120 --> 00:04:24.420 to raid in the first place. I mean, you can't 00:04:24.420 --> 00:04:26.879 just burn someone's primary means of making a 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:29.500 living and then demand they act peacefully forever. 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:31.819 Right. Because punishing people into submission 00:04:31.819 --> 00:04:35.319 only goes so far. Eventually, you know, the fear 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:38.040 wears off or the desperation outweighs the fear 00:04:38.040 --> 00:04:40.910 and the fighting inevitably starts again. It 00:04:40.910 --> 00:04:43.230 always does. To actually achieve lasting peace, 00:04:43.389 --> 00:04:45.550 you need leverage. You have to offer them something 00:04:45.550 --> 00:04:48.110 better than what they get from fighting. What's 00:04:48.110 --> 00:04:50.529 fascinating here is the critical shift the British 00:04:50.529 --> 00:04:52.470 and the East India Company were beginning to 00:04:52.470 --> 00:04:56.129 make in this specific region. And Henel is the 00:04:56.129 --> 00:04:59.610 embodiment of that shift. How so? Well, he wasn't 00:04:59.610 --> 00:05:01.670 sent there just to be a soldier pointing a cannon. 00:05:02.050 --> 00:05:04.269 He was on the track to becoming a political resident. 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:07.220 And a political resident operates differently 00:05:07.220 --> 00:05:09.819 than a military commander, I assume. Completely 00:05:09.819 --> 00:05:12.379 differently. The company realized that constantly 00:05:12.379 --> 00:05:15.160 launching these massive naval bombardments was 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:17.579 incredibly expensive. Right. Bad for the bottom 00:05:17.579 --> 00:05:20.819 line. Yeah. And it ultimately ruined the trade 00:05:20.819 --> 00:05:22.220 environment they were trying to protect in the 00:05:22.220 --> 00:05:25.240 first place. So they needed to transition from 00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:28.819 merely punishing local fleets to actively trying 00:05:28.819 --> 00:05:30.759 to politically manage and mediate the region. 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:33.319 They needed an administrator who could understand 00:05:33.319 --> 00:05:36.420 the local dynamics, not just flatten them. Precisely. 00:05:36.579 --> 00:05:38.639 Which brings us to the pivot point of our story. 00:05:39.379 --> 00:05:42.939 We jump ahead to 1835. Hennell is now the acting 00:05:42.939 --> 00:05:45.459 political resident. He looks at the cycle of 00:05:45.459 --> 00:05:48.160 violence and retaliation, and he proposes a brand 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:50.680 new maritime ceasefire. Yes, and he bases it 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:53.600 on the underlying ideas of that old 1820 treaty, 00:05:53.800 --> 00:05:56.939 but he adds a really unique twist. Right, a highly 00:05:56.939 --> 00:05:59.740 specific time frame. He pitches a ceasefire that 00:05:59.740 --> 00:06:03.360 will only run from May to November. And this 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:04.759 is where I have to push back a bit, because when 00:06:04.759 --> 00:06:06.860 you first read this, it sounds completely bizarre. 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:09.519 It does seem weird at first glance. Wait, why? 00:06:10.359 --> 00:06:12.860 Just made in November. If you're an Imperial 00:06:12.860 --> 00:06:15.759 officer trying to secure the seas, why on earth 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:18.319 would you offer world peace, but just for the 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:20.959 summer? It makes no sense to let everyone go 00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:22.500 back to shooting at each other in the winter. 00:06:23.220 --> 00:06:25.959 It sounds totally absurd until you understand 00:06:25.959 --> 00:06:29.480 the local ecosystem. I want you, the listener, 00:06:29.819 --> 00:06:32.060 to think about what actually happens in the waters 00:06:32.060 --> 00:06:33.980 of the Persian Gulf between May and November. 00:06:34.300 --> 00:06:36.600 I'm drawing a blank. What is the significance 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:38.600 of those months? It was the pearling season. 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:41.420 The curl dive. Precisely. Hennel didn't just 00:06:41.420 --> 00:06:44.720 pick random dates out of a hat. He analyzed the 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:47.579 local economy, the entire coastal population, 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:50.199 all of these rival sheikdoms that were constantly 00:06:50.199 --> 00:06:52.480 warring with each other. They all relied on the 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:55.459 annual pearl dive to survive and generate wealth, 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:58.319 who is their absolute primary economic engine. 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:00.579 So paint a picture of this for us. What did the 00:07:00.579 --> 00:07:02.540 pearling season actually look like out on the 00:07:02.540 --> 00:07:04.720 water? Picture yourself as a resident of the 00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:08.129 Gulf in 1835. Every summer, thousands of men 00:07:08.129 --> 00:07:10.329 would leave their coastal towns in vast fleets 00:07:10.329 --> 00:07:12.910 of wooden dowels. That's a lot of boats. Oh, 00:07:13.250 --> 00:07:15.829 massive fleets. And they would spend months out 00:07:15.829 --> 00:07:18.149 on the water, free -diving to the ocean floor 00:07:18.149 --> 00:07:21.509 for oysters. It was grueling, highly dangerous 00:07:21.509 --> 00:07:24.009 work. You were dealing with the intense heat, 00:07:24.329 --> 00:07:26.709 the physical toll of holding your breath repeatedly, 00:07:27.170 --> 00:07:30.110 the risk of drowning. Sounds terrifying, honestly. 00:07:30.209 --> 00:07:32.790 It was. But it was the lifeblood of the region. 00:07:32.970 --> 00:07:35.370 The pearls they harvested paid for everything 00:07:35.370 --> 00:07:38.509 for the rest of the year. And obviously you can't 00:07:38.509 --> 00:07:41.050 exactly harvest pearls effectively if you are 00:07:41.050 --> 00:07:43.029 constantly looking over your shoulder to see 00:07:43.029 --> 00:07:45.810 if a rival fleet is coming to sink your boats 00:07:45.810 --> 00:07:48.629 and steal your catch. Exactly. That was the genius 00:07:48.629 --> 00:07:51.750 of Hennel's proposal. He stripped away the grand 00:07:51.750 --> 00:07:54.750 moralizing language about universal peace that 00:07:54.750 --> 00:07:56.870 usually accompanied European treaties of the 00:07:56.870 --> 00:07:59.029 era. Because nobody was going to buy that anyway. 00:07:59.110 --> 00:08:01.730 Right. He knew demanding permanent idealistic 00:08:01.730 --> 00:08:04.209 harmony among bitter rivals would be rejected 00:08:04.209 --> 00:08:07.930 immediately. Instead, he offered a highly practical, 00:08:08.350 --> 00:08:11.269 culturally attuned business proposition. He basically 00:08:11.269 --> 00:08:13.410 said, let's stop fighting for these six months 00:08:13.410 --> 00:08:15.889 so everyone can make money safely. He made peace 00:08:15.889 --> 00:08:18.740 more profitable than war. But how did he actually 00:08:18.740 --> 00:08:21.560 enforce this? Because, I mean, a piece of paper 00:08:21.560 --> 00:08:23.899 is just a piece of paper. If a skirmish breaks 00:08:23.899 --> 00:08:26.139 out on the water, how do you prevent it from 00:08:26.139 --> 00:08:28.839 escalating back into full -blown war? He established 00:08:28.839 --> 00:08:32.620 very clear mechanical rules for the truce. First, 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:35.600 all participated rulers had to agree to avoid 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:38.559 hostilities at sea entirely during those months. 00:08:38.759 --> 00:08:41.840 OK, standards ceasefire stuff. But the real innovation 00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:44.470 was the redress system. If someone broke the 00:08:44.470 --> 00:08:46.629 rules and attacked your ship, you were strictly 00:08:46.629 --> 00:08:49.090 forbidden from retaliating. That was the cycle 00:08:49.090 --> 00:08:52.389 he had to break. Wait, so if a rival attacks 00:08:52.389 --> 00:08:54.549 my pearling dow, I just have to take the loss? 00:08:54.870 --> 00:08:57.169 Not quite. You couldn't attack back, but you 00:08:57.169 --> 00:08:59.110 had to report the incident to the resident to 00:08:59.110 --> 00:09:02.059 handle. The British essentially insert themselves 00:09:02.059 --> 00:09:05.139 as the chief peace broker and the ultimate enforcer 00:09:05.139 --> 00:09:08.320 of reparations I see and all guaranteed that 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:11.000 if you were wronged you would receive full compensation 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:13.259 from the offending party backed by the threat 00:09:13.259 --> 00:09:16.340 of British enforcement and Furthermore if any 00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:18.299 ruler planned to resume fighting when the truce 00:09:18.299 --> 00:09:20.980 ended in November they had to formally declare 00:09:20.980 --> 00:09:23.919 their intent to do so It's an economic ceasefire 00:09:23.919 --> 00:09:26.860 with a built -in third party arbitration system. 00:09:27.080 --> 00:09:29.320 That is brilliant. It really was. And the sources 00:09:29.320 --> 00:09:31.320 say he actually takes this pitch on the road. 00:09:31.740 --> 00:09:34.179 He holds an enthusiastic meeting at Busidu on 00:09:34.179 --> 00:09:36.600 the island of Kesham. He does. And the diplomatic 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:39.139 maneuvering here is top tier. He didn't just 00:09:39.139 --> 00:09:41.580 blast a decree from his office in Bushehr. He 00:09:41.580 --> 00:09:44.980 sat down with the bitterest of rivals. Face to 00:09:44.980 --> 00:09:47.080 face. Face to face. He initially pitched this 00:09:47.080 --> 00:09:51.259 to Sultan bin Saq Al Qasimi, who ruled Ras al 00:09:51.259 --> 00:09:54.480 -Kaima and Sharjah and Shakhput bin Diab al -Nayyam, 00:09:54.620 --> 00:09:57.120 the ruler of Abu Dhabi, getting those specific 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:00.399 powers to agree to lay down their arms, even 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:03.179 temporarily, was a monumental achievement. Because 00:10:03.179 --> 00:10:05.360 they actually saw the financial upside? Yes. 00:10:05.879 --> 00:10:08.480 They liked the idea so much that Henel used that 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:10.759 momentum to expand the circle. He brought in 00:10:10.759 --> 00:10:13.370 the rulers of Dubai and Aijman. And on August 00:10:13.370 --> 00:10:17.009 21st, 1835, in Busher, the truce is formally 00:10:17.009 --> 00:10:21.549 signed. What about Al Quaym? Good question. Al 00:10:21.549 --> 00:10:23.230 Quaym was subject to Ross Al Quaym at the time, 00:10:23.250 --> 00:10:25.049 so they were bound by it as well without signing 00:10:25.049 --> 00:10:28.090 independently. OK, got it. The sources mention 00:10:28.090 --> 00:10:30.710 that Hennell reported back to his superiors about 00:10:30.710 --> 00:10:34.450 a widespread joy and satisfaction diffused amongst 00:10:34.450 --> 00:10:36.830 the inhabitants of the whole line of the Arabian 00:10:36.830 --> 00:10:39.620 coast. Which is a lovely quote. It is. And looking 00:10:39.620 --> 00:10:41.840 at the mechanics you just described, I understand 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:44.799 why. He effectively acted as the pressure valve. 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:47.480 The ordinary people, the divers, the merchants, 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:50.179 the families back on shore, they could finally 00:10:50.179 --> 00:10:53.080 have a season of guaranteed safety without the 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:56.019 looming threat of maritime warfare wiping out 00:10:56.019 --> 00:10:58.919 their livelihood. It served the immediate, tangible 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:01.539 interests of every single signatory. They didn't 00:11:01.539 --> 00:11:03.340 have to suddenly love each other. They just had 00:11:03.340 --> 00:11:05.559 to love their pearling profits more than they 00:11:05.559 --> 00:11:08.000 loved their vendettas for half the year. It's 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:11.279 a massive immediate success, but a six -month 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:13.279 pause in fighting is still just temporary. It's 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:16.399 a stopgap. So how does this seasonal summer truce 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:18.700 evolve into a permanent geopolitical identity? 00:11:19.179 --> 00:11:21.340 How do we get from protecting oyster divers to 00:11:21.340 --> 00:11:24.480 building a modern nation -state framework? That 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:26.879 evolution reveals Hennel's long -term vision. 00:11:27.480 --> 00:11:29.519 He didn't just pack up and consider his job done 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:32.529 after that first summer. The seasonal truce of 00:11:32.529 --> 00:11:36.070 1835 was so universally beloved by the local 00:11:36.070 --> 00:11:38.809 economies that it was renewed the next year and 00:11:38.809 --> 00:11:41.509 the year after that. Okay. It became a reliable 00:11:41.509 --> 00:11:43.340 annual tradition. You know, it's almost like 00:11:43.340 --> 00:11:46.320 a modern software subscription model. Hennell 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:48.399 started them on a free seasonal trial, like, 00:11:48.580 --> 00:11:50.399 just try the piece out for a few months, see 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:52.399 how it impacts your bottom line. Exactly. And 00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:54.919 the rulers realized that if peace is profitable 00:11:54.919 --> 00:11:57.039 during the pearling season, maybe it's actually 00:11:57.039 --> 00:11:59.340 just better for business in general. That is 00:11:59.340 --> 00:12:02.340 a remarkably accurate way to look at it. He scaled 00:12:02.340 --> 00:12:05.139 up the diplomacy gradually, building trust step 00:12:05.139 --> 00:12:08.120 by step. In 1838, which happens to be the year 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:10.919 Hennell officially gets promoted to political 00:12:10.919 --> 00:12:14.389 residences. They make a massive leap. They agreed 00:12:14.389 --> 00:12:16.750 to make the agreement year round. He upgraded 00:12:16.750 --> 00:12:19.649 them to an annual subscription. And then by 1843, 00:12:19.970 --> 00:12:21.710 they are ready for a much bigger commitment. 00:12:21.769 --> 00:12:23.909 So they sign a 10 -year treaty. He locked them 00:12:23.909 --> 00:12:27.070 into a 10 -year contract. Yes. Because of these 00:12:27.070 --> 00:12:30.269 ongoing cascading truces, the sheikdoms of the 00:12:30.269 --> 00:12:33.309 lower Gulf became known globally by a brand new 00:12:33.309 --> 00:12:36.629 name, the Trucial States. And that name stuck 00:12:36.629 --> 00:12:39.659 for over a century. It's incredible. But the 00:12:39.659 --> 00:12:41.759 sources also highlight that Hennell was quite 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:43.659 an innovator when it came to actual maritime 00:12:43.659 --> 00:12:46.080 law in the region. He didn't just rely on signed 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:48.399 papers. He created physical boundaries. Right. 00:12:48.539 --> 00:12:50.940 Can you explain the restrictive line he introduced 00:12:50.940 --> 00:12:53.879 in 1846? If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:12:54.480 --> 00:12:56.860 Hennell was essentially drawing a new geopolitical 00:12:56.860 --> 00:13:00.519 map based entirely on conflict mediation. The 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:03.259 restrictive line was a defined safe zone in the 00:13:03.259 --> 00:13:05.299 waters of the Gulf. Okay. If you look at a map, 00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:08.000 it stretched from the Persian coast down to the 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:10.700 islands of Syria and Abu Musa, and it was later 00:13:10.700 --> 00:13:13.259 extended to the Sharjah -owned island of Srebrenica. 00:13:13.460 --> 00:13:15.759 But how do you enforce an invisible line in the 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:18.960 ocean in 1846? That sounds impossible. By tying 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:22.639 it to absolute, uncompromising rules. The mandate 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:25.080 for this zone was that acts of war were strictly 00:13:25.080 --> 00:13:27.200 prohibited within its boundaries at all times, 00:13:27.639 --> 00:13:29.720 period. Whether there was a maritime truce in 00:13:29.720 --> 00:13:31.779 place or not, whether it was porling season or 00:13:31.779 --> 00:13:34.279 not, if you crossed that specific line in the 00:13:34.279 --> 00:13:36.779 water, you had to put your weapons down. Any 00:13:36.779 --> 00:13:39.299 violation within that zone would bring the immediate 00:13:39.299 --> 00:13:41.730 wrath of the British Navy. So he was creating 00:13:41.730 --> 00:13:44.610 a physical architecture for peace, a demilitarized 00:13:44.610 --> 00:13:47.149 zone designed specifically to protect commerce 00:13:47.149 --> 00:13:50.210 and safe passage. And he also attempted to expand 00:13:50.210 --> 00:13:53.029 his peacemaking beyond the trutial states themselves. 00:13:53.389 --> 00:13:57.350 In 1841, he concluded a one -year naval truce 00:13:57.350 --> 00:14:00.509 with Abdullah II of Kuwait. Oh, wow. I didn't 00:14:00.509 --> 00:14:02.830 know that. Yeah, it prohibited Kuwait from undertaking 00:14:02.830 --> 00:14:05.570 maritime offenses and handed mediation over to 00:14:05.570 --> 00:14:07.769 the British. Now, that specific truce expired 00:14:07.769 --> 00:14:10.129 and wasn't renewed, but it demonstrates the sheer 00:14:10.129 --> 00:14:12.570 scale of Hennell's ambition. He was actively 00:14:12.570 --> 00:14:15.570 trying to pacify the entire Gulf using this economic 00:14:15.570 --> 00:14:17.970 model. And all of this careful, methodical, year 00:14:17.970 --> 00:14:20.070 after year work eventually culminates in the 00:14:20.070 --> 00:14:23.460 ultimate agreement. On May 4, 1853, the rulers 00:14:23.460 --> 00:14:26.200 signed the perpetual maritime truce, the lifetime 00:14:26.200 --> 00:14:30.100 membership. Exactly. This final treaty prohibited 00:14:30.100 --> 00:14:33.259 any act of aggression at sea permanently. It 00:14:33.259 --> 00:14:36.539 was signed by the leaders from Um Al Quwain, 00:14:36.919 --> 00:14:39.919 Ajman, Dubai, the Baniyas, and the Koh Waseem. 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:42.919 Wow. Now, to be historically precise, Handel 00:14:42.919 --> 00:14:45.220 himself had just retired and returned to England. 00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:48.460 So this final document was actually signed by 00:14:48.460 --> 00:14:51.460 his former deputy and successor, Arnold Burroughs 00:14:51.460 --> 00:14:53.809 Campbell. But the sources make it explicitly 00:14:53.809 --> 00:14:57.070 clear that perpetual truce was built entirely 00:14:57.070 --> 00:14:59.529 on the foundation Hennel had meticulously laid 00:14:59.529 --> 00:15:02.129 over the previous 20 years. Historians praise 00:15:02.129 --> 00:15:04.389 him as, without doubt, the greatest political 00:15:04.389 --> 00:15:06.370 resident Britain has ever had in the Persian 00:15:06.370 --> 00:15:08.889 Gulf because he practically invented the concept 00:15:08.889 --> 00:15:11.809 of the Trucial States, which is the direct legal 00:15:11.809 --> 00:15:14.610 predecessor to today's UAE. He took a region 00:15:14.610 --> 00:15:17.269 defined by fractured, retaliatory maritime warfare 00:15:17.269 --> 00:15:20.789 and slowly using the lever of economics, forged 00:15:20.789 --> 00:15:22.909 it into a cohesive, peaceful economic block. 00:15:23.029 --> 00:15:25.649 It is a monumental professional legacy. But I 00:15:25.649 --> 00:15:27.110 want to pivot the narrative here for a moment. 00:15:27.289 --> 00:15:29.529 We've talked extensively about the administrator, 00:15:29.710 --> 00:15:32.149 the architect of these treaties. But who was 00:15:32.149 --> 00:15:35.230 the man behind the paperwork? What did his actual 00:15:35.230 --> 00:15:38.149 life look like? And what was the ultimate personal 00:15:38.149 --> 00:15:40.909 cost of his lifelong service to the British Empire? 00:15:41.639 --> 00:15:44.279 That's a heavy question. It is, because reading 00:15:44.279 --> 00:15:46.519 through the latter half of his biography and 00:15:46.519 --> 00:15:49.860 the sources, the final act of his life is incredibly 00:15:49.860 --> 00:15:53.019 sobering. It adds a deeply human and frankly 00:15:53.019 --> 00:15:55.299 tragic dimension to the history we've been discussing. 00:15:55.960 --> 00:15:58.200 You realize these figures aren't just names on 00:15:58.200 --> 00:16:00.559 treaties. They had families living alongside 00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:02.740 these historical events. Could you walk us through 00:16:02.740 --> 00:16:04.600 those personal details? What happens to Hennel 00:16:04.600 --> 00:16:07.240 outside of the negotiation room? During his time 00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:10.399 in the Gulf, Hennel builds a life. On November 00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:13.480 28, 1837, while he's still a captain, right as 00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:15.480 he's transitioning these seasonal truces into 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:18.539 year -round agreements, he marries Anne Inman 00:16:18.539 --> 00:16:22.120 Orton at Baikala in Bombay. She was the eldest 00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:24.440 daughter of James Orton, who was the surgeon 00:16:24.440 --> 00:16:26.340 and head of the East India Company's medical 00:16:26.340 --> 00:16:29.259 board there. So he marries deeply into the British 00:16:29.259 --> 00:16:31.879 colonial administrative family. He does. And 00:16:31.879 --> 00:16:35.259 they have two sons, James Bruce, born in 1843, 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:39.299 and William Frederick, born in 1850. Both boys 00:16:39.299 --> 00:16:41.460 are born right there in Busher, in the heart 00:16:41.460 --> 00:16:43.860 of the Gulf, while their father is mediating 00:16:43.860 --> 00:16:46.360 the restrictive lines and the 10 -year truces. 00:16:46.620 --> 00:16:48.460 Growing up right in the middle of it all. Exactly. 00:16:49.080 --> 00:16:51.899 Finally, in 1852, the family leaves the Middle 00:16:51.899 --> 00:16:54.799 East. Hennell retires as a colonel in the Grenadier 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:57.480 Regiment of the Bombay Native Infantry. They 00:16:57.480 --> 00:16:59.860 move back to England, taking up a quiet residence 00:16:59.860 --> 00:17:02.409 in Charlton Rings, Gloucestershire. You would 00:17:02.409 --> 00:17:04.549 think that's the end of the story. A peaceful 00:17:04.549 --> 00:17:07.309 retirement after decades of service in the intense 00:17:07.309 --> 00:17:09.450 political pressure cooker of the Gulf? You would 00:17:09.450 --> 00:17:11.470 think so. But the story doesn't end peacefully, 00:17:11.710 --> 00:17:14.680 does it? It doesn't. Both of his sons, James 00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:16.980 and William, follow in their father's footsteps. 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:19.200 They travel back east to serve in the Indian 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:22.240 Army. And in 1879, tragedy strikes the family. 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:24.700 Both of his sons are killed during the Afghan 00:17:24.700 --> 00:17:27.059 War. Both of them? Both of them. In the same 00:17:27.059 --> 00:17:30.180 year. And Samuel Hennell himself dies the very 00:17:30.180 --> 00:17:33.380 next year, in 1880, at the age of 80. I have 00:17:33.380 --> 00:17:36.279 to pause here because reading that specific sequence 00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:38.619 of events in the sources just stopped me in my 00:17:38.619 --> 00:17:42.069 tracks. The irony of this is devastating. This 00:17:42.069 --> 00:17:44.269 raises an important question, doesn't it? It 00:17:44.269 --> 00:17:47.150 forces us to look at the dual, often profoundly 00:17:47.150 --> 00:17:49.490 contradictory nature of British imperial service 00:17:49.490 --> 00:17:51.789 in the 19th century. Expand on that. What do 00:17:51.789 --> 00:17:55.049 you mean by the dual nature? Consider the contrast. 00:17:55.240 --> 00:17:57.700 On one hand, you have administrators like Hennel 00:17:57.700 --> 00:18:00.579 who dedicate their entire adult lives to building 00:18:00.579 --> 00:18:03.160 incredibly durable infrastructures of peace and 00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:05.980 commerce. The Trussell states were a masterpiece 00:18:05.980 --> 00:18:08.940 of conflict resolution. He proved that diplomacy, 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:11.680 patience, and economic alignment could achieve 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:14.380 a brutal naval bombardment simply couldn't. Right. 00:18:14.539 --> 00:18:16.900 He saved countless lives in the Gulf by ending 00:18:16.900 --> 00:18:18.980 the snickle of retaliation. He was the ultimate 00:18:18.980 --> 00:18:21.039 peacemaker in that theater. But on the other 00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:23.460 hand, the very same empire that empowered Hennel 00:18:23.460 --> 00:18:25.920 to make peace in the Gulf was simultaneously 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:28.480 running a massive machinery of war elsewhere 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:31.819 in India and Afghanistan across the globe. The 00:18:31.819 --> 00:18:34.759 empire required stability and peace in one region, 00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:37.460 specifically to secure its trade and military 00:18:37.460 --> 00:18:40.460 logistics to fight conflicts in another. And 00:18:40.460 --> 00:18:43.160 ultimately, that vast machinery of war demanded 00:18:43.160 --> 00:18:47.000 fuel. It fed on generations of young men, including 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:49.119 the sons of the very peacemakers who built the 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:52.000 empire's stable foundations. Hennell secured 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:54.779 the seas to protect life and commerce, but the 00:18:54.779 --> 00:18:57.339 empire's wars on the land claimed his own children. 00:18:57.559 --> 00:19:01.319 That puts the whole era into a very stark, very 00:19:01.319 --> 00:19:03.900 human perspective. You build lasting peace in 00:19:03.900 --> 00:19:06.619 one corner of the map, only to lose your entire 00:19:06.619 --> 00:19:09.359 family line to a war drawn on another corner. 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:12.039 It illustrates how individuals, even those who 00:19:12.039 --> 00:19:14.039 achieve extraordinary things through diplomacy, 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:17.039 are still caught within the larger sweeping currents 00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:19.420 of the era they live in. As we wrap up today's 00:19:19.420 --> 00:19:21.460 deep dive, I want to bring everything back to 00:19:21.460 --> 00:19:23.099 you listening right now. You might have started 00:19:23.099 --> 00:19:25.819 this wondering, why should I care about an obscure 00:19:25.819 --> 00:19:28.380 19th century British administrator named Samuel 00:19:28.380 --> 00:19:30.819 Hennell? But the next time you see a photo of 00:19:30.819 --> 00:19:33.480 the skyline of Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Or travel 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:35.849 there. Yeah, the next time you read about the 00:19:35.849 --> 00:19:38.269 modern economic powerhouse that is the United 00:19:38.269 --> 00:19:40.289 Arab Emirates, I want you to remember how it 00:19:40.289 --> 00:19:43.589 started. You are looking at a society whose earliest 00:19:43.589 --> 00:19:46.990 unified framework was not born from violent sweeping 00:19:46.990 --> 00:19:50.390 conquest. It was born from a highly pragmatic 00:19:50.390 --> 00:19:53.190 economics first agreement to protect the local 00:19:53.190 --> 00:19:55.809 pearling season. It was born because someone 00:19:55.809 --> 00:19:58.210 realized that people would rather fish in peace 00:19:58.210 --> 00:20:00.990 than fight in poverty. And that history leaves 00:20:00.990 --> 00:20:03.309 us with a fascinating final thought to mull over. 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:06.680 Consider Hennell's restrictive line of 1846 that 00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:08.940 completely demilitarized safe zone in the middle 00:20:08.940 --> 00:20:11.519 of the ocean, created simply to ensure local 00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:14.539 business could thrive. If a 19th century administrator 00:20:14.539 --> 00:20:17.200 could successfully convince bitter armed rival 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:20.160 powers to respect an invisible line in the water 00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:23.099 just for the sake of commerce, what modern seemingly 00:20:23.099 --> 00:20:25.960 intractable conflicts might benefit today from 00:20:26.419 --> 00:20:29.119 temporary, purely economic, polling season style 00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:31.339 ceasefires. That is a fantastic question to leave 00:20:31.339 --> 00:20:33.460 you with. Sometimes the path to peace doesn't 00:20:33.460 --> 00:20:35.299 start with changing hearts. Sometimes it just 00:20:35.299 --> 00:20:37.440 starts with aligning wallets. Thank you so much 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:39.099 for joining us on this deep dive. We'll see you 00:20:39.099 --> 00:20:39.500 next time.