State of Bahawalpur was a state in the Punjab region of South Asia that existed as a sovereign polity from 1748 to 1833 and as a princely state, under subsidiary alliance with British India and later Dominion of Pakistan, from 1833 to 1955. It was a part of the Punjab States Agency; and covered an area of 45,911 km (17,726 sq mi) with a population of 1,341,209 in 1941. The capital of the state was the town of Bahawalpur.
The state was founded in 1748 by Nawab Bahawal Khan Abbasi. On 22 February 1833, Abbasi III entered into a subsidiary alliance with the British, by which Bahawalpur was admitted as a princely state. When British rule ended in 1947 and British Raj was partitioned into India and Pakistan, Bahawalpur joined the Dominion of Pakistan. Bahawalpur remained an autonomous entity until 14 October 1955, when it was merged with the province of West Pakistan.
