The East African Gambit

(Mombasa and Bagamoyo were mixed up earlier; this has now been corrected.)

Although Mombasa was part of the Oman Empire at this time, as trade between East and West grew, the great powers were visiting in ever-greater numbers. Even Emperor Said, the hegemon of the Indian Ocean, was beginning to feel stretched thin.

He had rebuilt his fleet in just a few years and further strengthened his military, but Austria's giant warships and cannons had become a shadow that Emperor Said could not shake.

The Austrian Empire had occupied Tanzania, while the British had been making a conspicuous show of their intentions by stirring up trouble on both shores of the Gulf of Aden.

In the south, Britain was inciting the nomadic tribes of Somalia to rebel against the Oman Empire. In the north, it had directly occupied Aden City (Port of Aden).

Historically, the Oman Empire had barely reacted to the Somalis' betrayal; it had even sent them its blessings.

But now, thanks to its frankincense and myrrh trade with the Austrian Empire, Omani merchants were firmly opposed to Somali independence. Local plantation owners were even more afraid of losing their markets and land.

So Emperor Said planned to disarm them over a cup of wine, while the Somali chiefs wanted to pull off an assassination like Jing Ke's attempt on the King of Qin.

Afterward, both sides declared the other a "cooking frame" of an enemy, insisting that they themselves had been forced to strike back.

The Somali nomads burned the fields planted by the Omanis. In response, the latter sent their fleet to sweep the coast, destroying almost every port along the way.

The former wanted to drive the latter away, while the latter wanted to warn the British not to interfere. At the time, there were