Remains that were found by archaeologists to the Northeast of Dubai, in Al-Qusais, are evidence that long before the sparkling city came to be the architectural wonder that it is today, long before the tourists started traveling to this city-state to enjoy the many five star Dubai hotels,there had been settlers in the region. These artifacts date back to approximately eight thousand B.C. Not much is known about those early inhabitants, nothing at all is known about the development of Dubai until the Portuguese were occupying the region in the 1600′s. Dubai was subsequently occupied throughout the years by France, then the Netherlands, and finally by Great Britain. Trade and commerce with India provided the local people with their living, as well as the famous pearls. Divers still dive for pearls of the coasts of Dubai today. The rest of the United Arab Emirates enjoyed the prosperity and the power in the region, but not yet Dubai. In the first half of the 1800′s, eight hundred tribe members of Bani Yas moved into Dubai, and turned this small fishing and pearl diving town into a village.
Then, just at the end of the nineteenth century, Sheikh Maktoum bin Hasher al-Maktoum removed the taxation on the port, and began the first step in the transformation of modern phenomenal economics that would set in course, Dubai becoming the mecca that it is today. The pearling industry collapsed but due to the port, being one of the major ports in the region, Dubai continued to prosper. The waters of the Dubai Creek were dredged so as to provide room for bigger ships to dock, and throughout the 1900′s two men secured the city’s reputation, Sheikh Saeed and Sheikh Rashid, as the hub for trading in the entire region of the Gulf. Sheikh Rashid was the leader of Dubai, serving as well as Prime Minister until his death in 1990. Now the country’s leader is Sheikh Mo, and the plans for future developments continue to become more outrageous and grand.