Hinterland nomads controlled Somali ports before European colonization reversed the pressure

Evidence

Thus by the middle of the nineteenth century the Somali coast was no longer isolated, and locally it was now rather the nomads of the hinterland who controlled the ports than the other way about. To a large extent the coastal and hinterland traditions had merged, and the centre of political pressure had swung from the coast to the interior. The new external links between the coast and the outside world, however, served in the following decades of the nineteenth century to pave the way for a new colonial impact in which the pressure, initially at least, was again mainly from the coast towards the hinterland. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 138

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: By the mid-nineteenth century hinterland nomads controlled the Somali ports; Somali history before 1900 hinged on coastal-hinterland interaction, not coast alone; Omani influence reshaped the southern Somali ports by the eighteenth century — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 130 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Nineteenth-century European control of Africa long remained marginal before imperial conquest #corroborates (0.75)
• Political pressure in Somalia shifted from the coast to the interior by mid-century #corroborates (0.60)