WI: A Surviving Omani Empire

It seem to me a major problem are also that the Omani was slave traders, I think they need to diversify hard away from the slave trade in the 18th century, they don't need to stop, but if it stay treir biggest trade, they won't be able to survive it being stopped. Maybe if they move toward their African possessions become producers of cash crops, it could enable them to integrate into a European powers trade network.

I doubt there is enough land to do large scale cash crops. Further, why would desert nomads/merchants decide upon an intense cash crop model? It seems quite arbitrary.

If anything, the only trade that can trump slaves in east Africa for them, would be ivory. Which is not as reliable as slavery.
 
I doubt there is enough land to do large scale cash crops. Further, why would desert nomads/merchants decide upon an intense cash crop model? It seems quite arbitrary.

If anything, the only trade that can trump slaves in east Africa for them, would be ivory. Which is not as reliable as slavery.
Yes I also find it unlikely, but if the Omani Empire have to survive, they need to drop the slave trade, it's simply a too good casus belli for the European powers. They also need to find a European power to establish a client relationship with and a as weak power as possible.
 
It seem to me a major problem are also that the Omani was slave traders, I think they need to diversify hard away from the slave trade in the 18th century, they don't need to stop, but if it stay treir biggest trade, they won't be able to survive it being stopped. Maybe if they move toward their African possessions become producers of cash crops, it could enable them to integrate into a European powers trade network.

I doubt there is enough land to do large scale cash crops. Further, why would desert nomads/merchants decide upon an intense cash crop model? It seems quite arbitrary.

If anything, the only trade that can trump slaves in east Africa for them, would be ivory. Which is not as reliable as slavery.

In OTL Zanzibar, gum copal, ivory, clove (and sugar) plantations were major parts of the Zanzibari economy and survived the end of the slave trade. Zanzibar was actually actively expanding into the interior and formalizing their previous hegemony in the late 19th c. .
 
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