Yemen Fact Sheet

About the Country

Population: 16.9 million

Area: 205,908 square miles (about the size of California and Pennsylvania combined).

Climate: Hot, arid, except in mountainous west. Humid coast.

Literacy rate: 38%

Trading partners: United States, Western Europe, South Korea, Saudi Arabia.

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1839

British seize Aden to satisfy need for coaling station between Egypt and India

1903-1905

Boundary set between Yemen (then part of Ottoman Empire) and British protectorate of Aden

1918

Turkish forces withdraw

1918

British extend authority in Aden hinterlands

1934

Treaty sets stage for future existence of two independent nations in southwest Arabia

1946

U.S. recognizes Yemen

1948

Imam Yahya assassinated, succeeded by son Ahmad who repeatedly presses claim to British colony and protectorate of Aden

1954

British Petroleum constructs refinery at Little Aden

1959

Federation of Arab Amirates of the South created as an autonomous territory under British protection

1962

Imam Ahmad dies. Eight-year civil war begins between Egyptian-backed republicans and Saudi-backed royalists

1963

Aden joins the federation

1967

Last Egyptian troops depart by year’s end

1979

Border clashes with South Yemen escalate into war

1983

Normalization of relations with Oman ends nearly 15 years of confrontation

1984

Discovery of oil near Marib by American oil company

1986

Factional fighting breaks out in Aden . . . government ousted by January 1987

1988

Open border economic talks between North and South

1990

Pro-Western North Yemen and Marxist South Yemen merge into Republic of Yemen

1991

Soviet-financed pipeline completed to Gulf of Aden