Today, I bring you to you one of the most curious war conflicts of history: the Anglo Zanzibar war, the shortest war that has ever existed (or at least the shortest that has been documented). This war took place during the XIXth century and for me, it is a clear display of the power that Imperialist Europe, specially the British Empire, had versus the rest of the colonized world back then.
First it is important to look at the insights of the different types of structures imposed by European Imperialism during the XVII-XIXth centuries. The territories under the European power could be classified into the following categories: colonies, protectorates and spheres of influence. Colonies could be either ruled directly or indirectly, meaning that they could have a ruler from an European power or they could have an appointed ruler native from the colony. On the other hand, in a protectorate, the local rulers were allowed to rule under the condition of being loyal and supportive of the European policies and measures. Protectorates were generally cheaper as they were granted autonomy and it was not necessary to carry out major changes to their political and economic structures. On top of that, the European powers did not need to exercise so much control on them. Lastly, spheres of influence are geographical or regional areas which are not owned by any country, however they function under the interest of a dominant power. This usually happens because the regional states are weak and they do not have other option than submitting to a strong external power, sometimes because they are coerced and sometimes in order to obtain protection and benefits by establishing trade relations with stronger states.
One of the kingdoms that benefited the most from Imperialism is Great Britain.
The British Empire had the control of colonies all over Africa, Middle East and North America. Many of them became protectorates years later. Great Britain also had strong spheres of influence all along Asia.
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| British dominions during the XIX Century- source "British Empire Geographical Dominions." N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2015. |
One of the English protectorates was the Zanzibar Islands, located in the eastern sea of Africa, very close to Madagascar.
Zanzibar Islands are famous because of the exotic spices which were exported to Europe such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
They were conquered during the late of the XIX century under the Anglo-German treaty of Heligoland-Zanzibar. It later gained its independence in 1963.
Nowadays this territory is a part of Mozambique, although its citizens are free to elect their own president.
The structure of the Zanzibar Islands politics during British colonialism was the following: the British government appointed a sultan -a ruler- to protect their interests and had a strong military presence in the protectorate to ensure that the sultan would be respected. The political figure of the sultan was much older though, as it was imposed during the 17th by the Arabs.
The Zanzibar Islands experimented coercion from the British Empire through high taxation and oppressive foreign politics, although it is fair to say that the limited political framework of the protectorate allowed it to enjoy certain stability. Nevertheless, these factors contributed on the long run to create tension, being the fact that the Zanzibar people were not free to choose their own leader, which was appointed by the British Empire instead, one of the main contributors to this situation. Soon, the prospect of a violent civil reaction became imminent.
In 1896, the Sultan Hamad, who until then had peacefully ruled in spite of the general tension, died (although it is believed that he was assassinated due to the sudden and aggressive nature of his death). As it was customary, the next sultan would be appointed, however, contrary to the procedure, Hamad’s cousin, Khalid Bin Barghash proclaimed himself the new sultan of the Zanzibar Islands. This was regarded by the English as a rebel act of treason to the British Crown.
The British Empire immediately resorted to a diplomatic approach and talks began; Khalid was asked to step out of the political power, however, not only he rejected this petition but also gathered an army and accumulated forces around the Zanzibar palace.
As a result to Khalid's resolution to retain the power, the British gathered up to four warships around the islands and gave him an ultimatum with a deadline that ended the August 26th at 9am which he deliberately ignored. The British navy then began bombarding the Zanzibar palace.
By 9:02, most of Khalid’s forces were put down and finally at 9:40 he surrendered. The war lasted a total of 40 minutes, breaking the record of the shortest war in history.
Soon after the war was over, the British government appointed a new governor, the sultan, Hamud bin Muhammed while Khalid managed to escape to a German consulate nearby. The victims of the war were over 500 wounded or killed men on Khalid’s side and an injured English officer who was later capable to recover. The Zanzibar palace, the center of the protectorate political life, was left in ruins.
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| Zanzibar Palace after the war- source "The Shortest War in History." Historic UK. Ed. Ben Johnson. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.
Bibliography
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