Speaker A
Ywaaann, huh, what is going on? WAKE UP, MATE! The war has begun. Quick, man, the cannons and give them hell!
Explore the shortest war in history: the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896, a brief conflict sparked by a succession dispute and British colonial interests.
Key Takeaways
- The Anglo-Zanzibar War is the shortest recorded war in history, lasting less than an hour.
- British colonial interests and anti-slavery policies drove the conflict in Zanzibar.
- Succession disputes in colonial territories could trigger rapid military interventions.
- Naval superiority was decisive in the swift British victory.
- The war exemplifies the use of puppet rulers and political manipulation in imperial control.
Summary
- The video covers the Anglo-Zanzibar War, the shortest war in history, lasting only about 40 minutes in 1896.
- It explains the British Empire's vast colonial reach and the strategic importance of Zanzibar as a trade hub.
- The British aimed to abolish slavery in Zanzibar, conflicting with local rulers who continued the practice.
- Zanzibar's sultan was a British puppet until his sudden death by poisoning, allegedly by his cousin Khalid bin Barghash.
- A succession dispute arose between pro-British Hamud bin Muhammed and anti-British Khalid bin Barghash.
- Khalid barricaded himself in the palace with thousands of supporters, refusing British demands to step down.
- Admiral Harry Rawson led a British naval force to enforce the British-backed succession.
- After an ultimatum expired, British ships bombarded the palace, quickly defeating Khalid's forces.
- The war ended with Khalid's exile and the installation of the pro-British sultan, consolidating British control.
- The video highlights the political maneuvering and colonial power dynamics behind this brief but significant conflict.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and War Begins
- 00:36War Already Over?
- 01:09Overview of Great Britain and Its Empire
- 01:33Zanzibar's Strategic Importance
- 01:55British Abolition of Slavery
- 02:31British Anti-Slavery Policy Sparks Conflict
- 03:02British Naval Strategy to Stop Slave Trade
- 04:19Colonial Rivalry and British Control of Zanzibar
- 05:12Sultan’s Death and Succession Crisis
- 06:08Khalid's Rebellion and British Ultimatum
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
[Sailors running through the hallway chanting] War..? Oh god, okay, just—give me a second, just gotta change into my uniform and— Wait, what?
Speaker A
Oh hey, Charles. Wait—why aren't you guys manning the cannons? The cannons? What are you—oooh, you mean the war?
Speaker A
Already finished it, matey. It’s over?? Yeah, mate, hey, you joining this round or what?
Speaker A
This bloke is about to wager his soul. Ah, bollocks. A deal’s a deal, sir. No—wait, WAIT—Can I go to bed again?... :(
Speaker A
Historically Facts part 5. Welcome to the late 19th century.
Speaker A
And welcome to Great Britain. The land of the Industrial Revolution, the land of economic opportunities, and the land of overcrowded cities.
Speaker A
With many, many rats. You know what else Britain has many of? Colonies. How many? Very many.
Speaker A
Approximately 22% of all of Earth's land area. It’s the biggest empire that the world has ever seen.
Speaker A
And within that humongous empire is a small island called Zanzibar. Just off the coast of Tanzania, Zanzibar was the trade center of the Indian Ocean.
Speaker A
Connecting African, Indian, and Asian traders all in one spot. This made the island crucial for the British colonists, as it strengthened their position in the African trading world.
Speaker A
But that wasn’t the sole reason the British wanted the island. There was also slavery.
Speaker A
No, no, no, the British didn’t want to establish it; they wanted to abolish it.
Speaker A
Around the year 1800, the British had a change of heart and decided that maybe tearing families apart and shipping them across the world to work till they die of exhaustion wasn’t that humanitarian.
Speaker A
So, after a good long talk with abolitionists like Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp, and William Wilberforce, they decided that slaves are indeed also human, and passed a law that made it illegal to have slaves in the Great British Empire.
Speaker A
This simultaneously resulted in a new spark in the hearts of the British people. “We shall free the world of slavery, and have every man, and later on maybe also women, made equal.” This brings us back to Zanzibar.
Speaker A
Turns out, just because the British quit slavery, doesn’t mean the local sultan and many traders settled in Zanzibar did.
Speaker A
And that was a problem for the British, as slavery is very inhuman and, more importantly, not allowed according to British law.
Speaker A
Now, the easy way to deal with this problem is to immediately force every trader and wealthy person on the island to give up their main source of income so the island would no longer be illegal, but that has a slight side effect of rebelling and guerrilla warfare.
Speaker A
(Rip) And we wouldn’t want to somehow end up in a war, would we? ;) This brings us to the second, less rebellious option.
Speaker A
Admiral Harry Rawson. Admiral Rawson was the chief of command at the Cape of Good Hope station in Southern Africa, which meant he was the head of the British fleet responsible for the waters around the African countries.
Speaker A
What if, instead of making slave trading illegal, we just send multiple ships patrolling the seas around East Africa to intercept any incoming slave ships, effectively causing slave trading to come to a halt without coming across as evil colonists?
Speaker A
Sounds… like a smart plan actually, but won't the local sultan oppose this? He would… if he could…
Speaker A
When Britain acquired Zanzibar, it’s not like they walked into the palace of the Sultan and said, “Hey man, we want to set up a colony here so we can get richer, do you consent to this very one-sided agreement?”
Speaker A
No. It went more like this. “Hey Germany, ‘ach scheiße’ *cough* Oh, Great Britain. I heard you’re also trying to set up colonies in Africa.”
Speaker A
“Yes, my dear friend. Tell you what, if you take this part of East Africa, I’ll take this, this, this, aaand...
Speaker A
Also this.” [German thinking noises] “If you refuse, I will use my superior naval force to make your life a living hell.”
Speaker A
[War flashbacks] [Not again] [Hilf mir] [I hate my job] [When will it end?] [I hope you fall one day] Uhhh—You know what, you make an outstanding argument. Deal.
Speaker A
[Revenge is coming.] Oh, hello Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini. I own this island now. Any objections?
Speaker A
✋ You sure? Okay, nice. But wait a minute, if the British seized ownership of the island, why is the sultan still here?
Speaker A
To once again avoid unnecessary warfare, which we certainly wouldn’t want to happen, they kept the sultan in place to create the illusion that the Zanzibaris were still governed by their good-old slave-loving sultan.
Speaker A
Though in reality, he was more like a puppet of the British to control the population.
Speaker A
As long as the local sultan listened to the British, nothing bad would happen. Aand he’s dead.
Speaker A
How did he die? “Suddenly.” Aka poisoned by his cousin Khalid bin Barghash. Gosh, poisoned by a family relative?
Speaker A
We have never seen THAT before in history. Alright, so the sultan is dead, which means the British lost their puppet.
Speaker A
Very upsetting, not war-triggering upsetting, but still pretty bad. Time to get a new sultan elected.
Speaker A
Here are our two choices. We have Hamud bin Muhammed, a pro-British, anti-slavery candidate, or Khalid bin Barghash, the same dude who poisoned the previous sultan and, not to mention, really didn’t like the British.
Speaker A
Why did he hate the British so much? Well, when his father (Ali bin Saeed), the sultan before the poisoned one, died... died, the British, just like now, had two choices.
Speaker A
A pro-British, anti-slavery candidate or Prince Khalid bin Barghash, who had slaves himself. Khalid was the only son of the passed sultan, which made him a prince and, in his opinion, the successor of the throne.
Speaker A
The British didn’t think so and favored Hamad bin Thuwaini a lot more. Khalid really didn’t like that and, in response to the British taking away his sultanship, stormed the palace and barricaded himself inside till the British gave him the throne.
Speaker A
Luckily, the British managed to smooth-talk their way to Khalid giving up the throne anyway, so unnecessary blood wasn’t shed.
Speaker A
But now it happened again, and Khalid wasn’t about to let his sultanship be taken away for a second time.
Speaker A
So, after hearing the British favored Hamud bin Muhammed over him, he once again, though now with over 3,000 men and women, stormed the palace and locked themselves inside.
Speaker A
The British initially tried to once again sweet-talk Khalid into leaving the palace, but Khalid had enough of the British and flat-out ignored them.
Speaker A
This was extremely problematic for the colonizer, as they had to get a sultan in power who aligned with their ideals.
Speaker A
After asking Khalid to leave again, presumably now with a bouquet of flowers, the British turned back to Admiral Harry Rawson.
Speaker A
Sooooo... yes, this bloke in the palace is not getting out. You think you could somehow convince him to leave?
Speaker A
Yeah, no worries, mate, I gotchu. I’ll be right there first thing in the morning and, uhh, for no reason whatsoever, please evacuate all British citizens and merchants from the island, okay?
Speaker A
See you tomorrow! [The following morning, 8:00 AM] Oi mate, my name is Harry. And those are my five ships.
Speaker A
We give you one final hour to leave or we’ll do it the good old way, alright?
Speaker A
Whereas Khalid responded, and I quote, “We have no intention of leaving and we do not believe you would open fire on us.”
Speaker A
Oh, I’m not sure if you should call our claims a bluff, mate. One final hour, don’t be a hero.
Speaker A
So back to his ships Harry went, waiting for Khalid and his 3,000 supporters to leave the palace.
Speaker A
But as the time grew closer to 9 AM, there were no signs of surrendering.
Speaker A
Instead, the British noticed the Zanzibari rebels man the ONE shore battery they had and that a Zanzibari warship began to position itself within the formation of the five ships.
Speaker A
Very questionable behavior. I wonder why they are doing that. Oh hey, would you look at the time, it’s time for [WAR].
Speaker A
9:02 AM. The three gunboats Raccoon, Thrush, and Sparrow simultaneously opened fire at the palace, where Thrush’s first shot immediately destroyed the only manned shore battery.
Speaker A
Even though the 3,000 supporters heavily fortified thems...
Speaker A
In response, the Saint George laid fire back, and sunk the ship in approximately 4 shots.
Speaker A
For some reason a couple minute later 2 small steam launchers came to try to take down Thrush but they did it with rifles?
Speaker A
What? .... Needless to say, they were disposed of really quickly as well. And that was all the naval defenses the Zanzibari had.
Speaker A
What followed was 30 minutes of over 500 high-explosive shells continuously fired upon the palace, till one Zanzibari climbed up the roof to take down the rebellers flag.
Speaker A
And then the war ended. Yep, the entire war, the shortest war in history, ended in just 38 minutes with over 500 casualties on the Zanzibari side and only one sailor hurt on the British side, presumably by dropping a shell on his foot.
Speaker A
In the end, the Anglo-Zanzibar war was the shortest and one of the most one-sided war in our entire history..
Speaker A
But, what happened to Khalid? Well, he… ran off. 5 minutes into the shelling he just left with his rich buddies and sought refuge at the German embassy leaving his thousands of supporters to die in the palace.
Speaker A
Brother, Not very cool. After the war, Khalid fled to the german side of Africa where he continued to live an easy life till he got captured by the allies who were liberating and possibly trying to take more for themselves in Africa from the Germans in World War 1
Speaker A
and sent to exile to the same island that they sent Napoleon to. Where Khalid wrote and sent dozens of personal letters to Churchill begging to be sent home whereas the cigar man responded by sending him to kenya where he died.
Speaker A
Epic troll. Anyway, 20 minutes after the war ended Hamud bin Muhammed ascended to become Sultan and slavery was completely abolished in Zanzibar.
Speaker A
This is the bizarre 38 minutes war that caused way, way too many deaths. end
Topics:Anglo-Zanzibar Warshortest warBritish EmpireZanzibarcolonial historyslavery abolitionAdmiral Harry RawsonKhalid bin Barghash19th century warshistorical conflicts
