route leading to Kindu on the Congo River. Beginning in 1886, Great Britain and Germany plotted to obtain parts of the Zanzibar sultanate for their own empires. In October 1886, a British-German border commission established the Zanj as a 10 nautical mile (19 km) wide strip along most of the coast of East Africa, stretching from Cape Delgado (now in Mozambique) to Kipini (now in Kenya), including Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. Over the next few years, however, almost all of these mainland possessions were lost to European imperial powers.
The sultans developed an economy of trade and cash crops in the Zanzibar Archipelago with a ruling Arab elite. Ivory was a major trade good. The archipelago, also known as the Spice Islands, was famous worldwide for its cloves and other spices, and plantations were developed to grow them. The archipelago's commerce gradually fell into the hands of traders from the Indian subcontinent, whom Said bin Sultan encouraged to settle on the islands.
During his 14-year reign as sultan, Majid bin Said consolidated his power around the East African slave trade. Malindi in Zanzibar City was East Africa's main port for the slave market between Africa and Asia (including the Middle East), and in the mid-19th century as many as 50,000 slaves passed annually through the port.
Many were captives of Tippu Tib, a notorious Arab slave trader and ivory merchant. Tib led huge expeditions, some 4,000 strong, into the African interior, where chiefs sold him their villagers for next to nothing. These Tib used to caravan ivory back to Zanzibar, then sold them in the slave market for large profits. In time Tib became one of the wealthiest men in Zanzibar, the owner of multiple plantations and 10,000 slaves.
One of Majid's brothers, Barghash bin Said, succeeded him and helped abolish the slave trade in the Zanzibar Archipelago and largely developed Unguja's infrastructure. Another brother of Majid, Khalifa bin Said, was the third
