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| 1968–86 |
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| Expansion of the armed forces in South Yemen. The number of troops was raised from 10,000 to 27,500. To supplement the army, the National Liberation Front established a sizable militia of 15,000 (1973). Other units included a police force of 30,000 at the disposal of the ministry of the interior. In addition, the ministry of state security had its own special forces (1974). | 1 |
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| 1968–70 |
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| Antitribal laws in South Yemen. The Tribal Reconciliation Decree (1968) forbade tribal quarreling or any open expression of tribal rivalry. The next year, the government imposed a ban on the wearing of arms. The final step in the antitribal campaign was the abolition of tribal associations (1970). Though tribes were never as prominent in South Yemen as in North Yemen, tribal affiliations persisted and sometimes surfaced in the political struggles that wracked the country after independence. | 2 |
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| 1968, March |
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| Party congress for the National Liberation Front in South Yemen. Radicals overthrew the moderate leadership and pushed for a program of rapid change. | 3 |
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| 1969 |
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| Removal of the president, Qahtan al-Sha`bi, by the National Liberation Front, which then organized a purge of the army. All foreign property was nationalized, except the oil refinery owned by British Petroleum, which was seized in 1977. In 1970, the government implemented land reform. Peasants were forbidden to hold more than 8.5 hectares of irrigated land and 17 hectares of rain-fed land (the limit was doubled for family holdings). All farmers had to join cooperatives run by the government, which held exclusive management of the water supplies. The new law severely undermined the position of tribal sheiks and other rural notables. | 4 |
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| 1970–85 |
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| Expansion of the educational system in North Yemen. The number of schools climbed from about 700 to 5,000. Literacy rates, which had stood at under 3 percent in 1962, rose to 13 percent by 1985. | 5 |
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| 1970 |
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| South Yemen was renamed the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen to suit the leftist ideology of the new regime. Salim Rubayi Ali became president. | 6 |
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| 1971 |
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| Inauguration of the University of San`a. | 7 |
| Promulgation of a new constitution for North Yemen and elections for its consultative assembly. The government was controlled by the tribes, whose members occupied most of the important positions and formed the bulk of the army. The central government under Pres. Abd al-Rahman al-Iryani was weak and possessed few means to assert itself. | 8 |
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| 1972 |
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| The National Liberation Front in South Yemen acquired a politburo, secretariat, and central committee, and it effectively became a Communist-style party. It took the name Yemeni Socialist Party in 1978. Membership remained exclusive (about 26,000). | 9 |
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| Sept. 30 |
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| A border dispute between North and South Yemen escalated into a brief war, lasting through most of October. Incidents along the border continued into the following year. | 10 |
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