History of Dubai

Dubai is known to be one of the urban

miracles of the modern world a

futuristic city rising in the middle of

a desert is something our ancestors 100

years ago could only imagine a sci-fi

film it's hard to imagine that this

the fascinating location used to be just a

tiny fishing village it seems almost a

logical that a small town in a very

inconvenient climate zone could become

one of the world's biggest businesses and

financial hubs how did this happen to

answer this question let's have a look

at the history of Dubai located at the

Persian Gulf right in the middle of the

Eurasian continent Dubai was destined to

be a crossing point between east and

west

at the same time the climate here is

almost inhumane the temperature in

summer reaches 50 degrees Celsius and

that is the reason why for centuries the

urban development here was quite slow

the Persian Gulf however was still an

Ian important area for the British Empire

being a strategic route connecting

London to Bombay royal fleet needed to

secure this area from Pirates in the

19th century British East India

The company signed an agreement with local

sheiks particularly with the Al Maktoum

family of the ruling dynasty of Abu Dhabi

and Dubai to secure peace in the area of Al

The Maktoum dynasty rules Dubai until the

present-day despite these agreements the

British Empire never really tried to

develop the area while the crown was

heavily investing in developing Bombay

the southern capital of the Empire by

building infrastructures railway and a

university there was hardly any interest

in developing Dubai as a city for the

British Empire Dubai was just a junior

partner a crossing point for the Royal

Fleet nothing more despite the lack of

interest from the Empire Dubai was

becoming more and more significant for

the region in 1900 the current ruler

announced that no taxes will be charged

from the traders and soon Persian and

Indian merchants started moving in the

the city was convenient for trading also

thanks to Dubai Creek a saltwater canal

that was allowing trading ships to sail

from the Gulf right into the city

shortly Dubai became the biggest trading

hub on the Persian Gulf in

early 20th century the city also became

a big center of pearl diving which

attracted even more merchants every year

the pearl industry became so big that

soon nose forming 95% of the Persian

Gulf economy Dubai however was still a

big village rather than a city the urban

development started with the reign of

sheikh rashid in 1959 went touring

around Europe and was greatly inspired

by European capitals particularly London

walking around the city and traveling

on the tube, he was fascinated by the

urban design transport system and

overall comfort and convenience that

London had to offer after his trip

sheik Rashid started implementing his

the great plan of turning to buy into an

international city in 1961 he instructed

to artificially deepen the Dubai creek

so that bigger trading ships could sail

under his guidance the city was being

rebuilt with stone and cement having a

dream of a great city in his mind sheik

Rashid started building an international

airport although his investors thought

he is being too romantic and these urban

projects are simply unnecessary and it

was becoming challenging to fund all

With these ambitious projects sheikh Rashid

x' plans of creating an international

capital would probably stall at this

stage but in 1966 they found oil and

Dubai despite the common belief that

Dubai became the city that it is today

mainly thanks to oil the oil reserves

found in 1966 were quite modest by

middle-eastern standards for reference

neighboring abu dhabi had ten times

more oil than Dubai however the limited

the resource was a blessing for the city

instead of considering oil as a

a limitless source of wealth sheik Rashid

started investing the generated profit

in urban development his vision was to

build a city that wouldn't depend on oil

money he was inviting the most talented

architects engineers and entrepreneurs

to Dubai

since Sheik Rashid biggest inspiration

was London

he hired a team of British experts who

were consulting him on further steps one

of Sheik Rashid's main goals was to make

Dubai attractive for all nationalities

despite being a Muslim city he made sure

people of other religions and beliefs

could feel comfortable living there

like most of the other newly developing

cities Dubai needed a grand project that

could attract international attention so

Sheikh Rashid instructed to build a

skyscraper in 1979 the 39 storey

building named Dubai World Trade Center

was officially open for business being

an unprecedented urban project for Dubai

it was insignificant for the world where

100 storey buildings already existed in

fact international media was ridiculing

the city's grand investments but Sheikh

Rashid was convinced that Dubai will

soon be taken seriously by the

international community unfortunately he

never saw the city reach its full glory

tragically dying in 1981 at a