Tribes, wars, colonisation, empire, rebellion, independence and reconstruction - this is the compelling history of the Gulf state of Oman, from the 16th century to the present day. Oman began as a trading nation but was then colonised by the Portuguese. Local Omani leaders later expelled the Europeans and went on to use their own powerful navy to build an empire that, at its peak, stretched from the Arabian Gulf halfway down the coast of East Africa. But the British then arrived in the region and used their own considerable naval power to gain control of the Gulf route to India.