Economic crisis and state-building in Hadhramaut, 1360-1368/1941-1949: the impact of the decline of Southeast Asian remittances

Abstract

According to one historian, '(f)ew historical events in the history of Southeast Asia appear so definitive as the Japanese invasion in December 1941." It will be argued in this paper that World War II had likewise a watershed character for Hadhramaut. Even though it was geographically distant to Southeast Asia, Hadhramaut's emphasis on labour migration made it a part of that region rather than of the Middle East. It was only as result of the war-sponsored political and economic transformation of Southeast Asia in the 1360s/1940s that Hadhramaut became more closely integrated into the Middle East. To put this case study into a broader context, the theoretical apparatus of the sociologist Anthony Giddens will be used.