Arabia

Peninsula between the Gulf and the Red Sea, in southwest Asia; area 2,600,000 sq km/1,000,000 sq mi. The length from north to south is about 2,400 km/1,490 mi and the greatest width about 1,600 km/994 mi. The peninsula contains the world's richest gas reserves and half the world's oil reserves. It comprises the states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

History
Conquered in part by the Romans, the Christian Abyssinians, and the Persians, the Arabian civilization was revived by Muhammad during the 7th century, but in the new empire created by militant Islam, Arabia became a subordinate state, and its cities were eclipsed by Damascus, Baghdad, and Cairo. The British established protectorates in the Gulf from the end of the 18th century: Muscat in 1798; the Trucial States and Bahrain in 1820; Aden in 1839; Kuwait in 1899; and Saudia Arabia in 1915. The British finally left the peninsula in 1971.

Nominally part of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century to 1919, until the 20th century the interior was unknown to Europeans. Nationalism began actively to emerge at the period of World War I (1914–18), and the oil discoveries from 1953 gave the peninsula significant economic power.