This event entered the Guinness Book of Records and is often presented in a humorous manner. However, despite its transience, the conflict claimed several hundred lives. What did the rivals fight for, and how did the confrontation end?
Unknown history
This is about the war between the Sultanate of Zanzibar and the British Empire in 1896. By this point, Zanzibar was a small island kingdom of 1,600 km² and a number of coastal towns in East Africa.
From 1890, the local Sultan Ali voluntarily came under the British protectorate. The treaty provided for London to appoint successors to the ruler. After 6 years, 3 sultans had succeeded to the throne.
The last, Khalid, ascended the throne without the approval of the British consul. He was anti-British and popular with the local aristocracy. Fairly calculating that London did not need such a man, Consul Basil Cave gave the monarch an ultimatum.
Within twenty-four hours, Khalid had to relinquish power and hand it over to his cousin Hamud. Otherwise, the British threatened to remove the troublemaker by force. Khalid refused. On the morning of 27 August 1896, hostilities began.
The shortest war in history
The British pulled up 5 armored warships to Zanzibar. The landing consisted of 150 marines supported by 900 Askari warriors of Hamouda. The Askari were armed and trained to European standards.
On Khalid's side were 2,800 men, the core of whom were 700 Askari, who had sworn an oath to the new ruler. The monarch countered the enemy's fleet with one nine-gun steamer and a coastal battery of one obsolete and two modern small-caliber guns.
British historians are lost in speculation: what was Khalid hoping for? The sultan's army fortified itself in the palace enclosure. However, all the buildings were wooden and were not originally designed as defenses.
At 9:00 the flotilla shot a Zanzibar steamer at point-blank range and then began bombarding the monarch's quarters. The bombardment lasted 38 minutes. During this time the British blew up the shore battery and destroyed the palace, harem and lighthouse almost to the ground.
The firing ended when an accidental cannonball blew down a flagpole bearing the Zanzibar flag. The event was regarded as a surrender of the enemy. It took another 7 minutes for the landing party to crush the insecure resistance of the defenders and occupy the empty fortifications.
Thus, different sources give the total duration of the war as 38 to 45 minutes. In just a quarter of an hour the British fired 500 cannon, 4,100 machine gun and 1,000 rifle shots. The victors later forced the Zanzibaris to repay their cost. There were no casualties among the stormers.
In turn, Khalid's supporters lost more than 500 men. The ruler himself fled after the first cannon shots, leaving the people to their fate.
How did this story end?
The British Empire did not abolish the Zanzibar statehood for fear of increased financial costs. The throne was handed over to Sultan Hamud, who finally lost all autonomy. But formally the region became part of the British colonies.
But Khalid managed to be arrested only in 1917. The activist took refuge in the German consulate and was captured during the First World War. The failed monarch was held on the island of St Helena, the same place where Napoleon Bonaparte was once held.
Today, Zanzibar is an autonomous region within the Republic of Tanzania.
