Slave Trade in the western Indian Ocean during the 19th century: the role of Baloch mercenaries

The gradual and progressive process of eroding Omani-Arab power in East Africa had begun, and British predominance was to increase still further. In this new context, external powers and trade, once established from the Gulf to the Indian Ocean wider scenarios and different economies, contributed to modify the powers within regional and international leaderships that were inevitably subjected to future substantial changes of these seaboard regions. Probably, Zanzibar was not that rich and the Omani Sultans did not benefit that much from the trade. Moreover, they did not effectively control, in the modern European sense, the East African coast from Cape Guardafui to Cabo Delgado