In 1839 Britain established a territory in Aden (now part of Yemen), a small area in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, to provide a base for ships heading to India. In 1931 Aden was made a Crown Colony in defiance of neighbouring warlords who sought to reclaim old territories. By the 1960s, Britain sought to create a federation between Aden colony and the surrounding protectorates in order to stabilise the region, which had been dogged by years of unrest. In 1962 the British government announced that Aden would be maintained as a permanent British garrison East of Suez. Yet, by 1967, the British were forced to withdraw from the colony. By 1963 the new Federation of South Arabia faced twin threats – internally from the National Liberation Front (NLF) and tribes in the Radfan area of the country, and externally from Egyptian-backed Yemen.