At the coast of equatorial Africa, divided from the mainland for a channel width of only thirty miles, lies the island of Zanzibar (Unguja). The regular recurrence of the monsoon allowed to continue contacts with India, the Red Sea and the Gulf, the proximity of the coast represented a strategic position for trade between the interior of Africa and the Indian Ocean, Zanzibar was in the nineteenth considered 'the depot of the richest trade in Eastern Africa'. Special opportunities for trade in goods and slaves, controlled by the Omani dynasty of Al Bu Sa'id, could not escape the political and commercial interests of France and England.
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