East Africa has a significant number of colonies along the Persian Gulf coast. This forms the foundation for East Africa's colonization of the Middle East, and the Middle East and Central Asia are among the primary directions for East Africa's current economic colonial expansion.
Since the last century, East Africa's trade in the region has extended eastward to Afghanistan, northward to Central Asia's Russian heartland, westward to the Red Sea coast, and southward to the Arabian Sea.
However, at that time, East Africa was not a major participant in international affairs in the Middle East and Central Asia. Besides the local countries and powers, the dominant forces in the Middle East and Central Asia were the United Kingdom and Russians.
