Before the town
There has been occupation around this coast for millennia — the Jumeirah archaeological site has Abbasid-period material from the ninth century, and there was pre-Islamic settlement. Dubai appears in a Venetian record of 1580 as a pearling centre.
The modern town dates from 1833, when around 800 people of the Al Bu Falasah, a section of the Bani Yas tribe, left Abu Dhabi under Maktoum bin Butti and settled at the mouth of the Creek. His family has ruled since.
The Trucial Coast
Britain, concerned for the route to India, imposed a General Maritime Treaty in 1820 and a Perpetual Maritime Truce in 1853, and an exclusive agreement in 1892. The sheikhdoms became the Trucial States — self-governing internally, with foreign relations in British hands — and remained so until 1971.
Pearls, and their collapse
The economy was pearling: divers descending on a single breath, weighted with a stone, forty or fifty times a day through a four-month season, paid in shares against advances that kept most permanently in debt.
The Japanese cultured pearl in the 1920s and the Great Depression destroyed the trade within a decade. Dubai in the 1930s was very poor.
1901: the decision
Sheikh Maktoum bin Hasher abolished trade tariffs and offered land and security to foreign merchants. Persian traders from Lingah crossed the Gulf and settled in Al Fahidi and Al Shindagha, and Dubai became a free port and re-export hub.
Everything since is a continuation of that decision.
The Creek dredging
In the 1950s the Creek silted badly. Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed borrowed from Kuwait to dredge it, against advice, and repaid the loan quickly. He went on to build Port Rashid, then Jebel Ali — the largest man-made harbour in the world — the World Trade Centre in 1979, and the airport. Each was called excessive; each filled.
Oil
Found offshore at Fateh in 1966, exported from 1969. Dubai’s reserves were modest and are nearly exhausted; hydrocarbons are now a very small share of the emirate’s GDP. The oil paid for the infrastructure but was never the economy.
Federation
Britain announced withdrawal in 1968. On 2 December 1971, six emirates signed the union at Union House in Dubai; Ras Al Khaimah joined in 1972.
The modern boom
Free zones from the 1980s, Emirates airline in 1985, Internet and Media Cities, freehold property for foreigners from 2002, and the tower boom. The Burj Al Arab opened in 1999, Palm Jumeirah from 2006, the Burj Khalifa in 2010.
The 2008 financial crisis hit hard — Dubai World nearly defaulted and Abu Dhabi provided a $10 billion rescue in 2009. The tower that opened weeks later was renamed Burj Khalifa for the ruler of Abu Dhabi.
Expo 2020, delayed to 2021–22 by the pandemic, was the most recent set-piece. The site is now Expo City.
The building was done overwhelmingly by migrant labour under the kafala system, and conditions have drawn long-standing criticism. See From Pearls to Towers.