by Tucker Koch, Contributing Writer
So, colonialism, am I right? I don’t need to sit here and tell you why colonizing any group of people is a sick and twisted idea; it’s pretty self-evident if you look at any part of world history over the past four centuries. However, it did bring about quite a few captivating tales from that time. That brings us to the topic of today’s article: Let’s talk about the Anglo-Zanzibar War.
Firstly, since not everyone looks at a world map in their spare time, you’re probably wondering where Zanzibar is. Zanzibar is a relatively large archipelago that is now part of Tanzania in eastern Africa. Fun fact: Tanzania used to be called Zanzibar. That shows how important this island is. I’m getting ahead of myself, though. Let’s focus on the topic at hand. In the early 1700s, the UK took control of the islands from the Portuguese and transferred administration to Oman. The political situation in Oman at the time is interesting, to say the least, but all you need to know for this article is that it was under British influence. In 1858, Zanzibar declared independence from Oman, and the British approved it. Zanzibar was still under British influence, but it was considered a distinct entity rather than just one of Oman’s African islands. A couple of decades pass, and the British abolish the slave trade in the islands. They mediated the division of East Africa and were credited with helping create the colonies of Kenya and Tanganyika (the mainland part of modern-day Tanzania), fought the German Empire, etc. There were many captivating moments during this time, but I’ll save those for other articles to keep this one from getting obnoxiously long.
On August 25th of 1896, the sultan of Zanzibar died suddenly, and his nephew, Khalid bin Barghash, took the throne without British approval. The UK already had a successor to the sultan in mind, but Khalid just kind of ignored them. Khalid instead stormed the palace and barraged it with 2,800 men, several heavy machine guns, a Gatling gun, 2 pieces of field artillery, and a bronze cannon. They really just grabbed the entire armory. Fun fact, Wilhelm II provided Khalid with the artillery pieces because, of course, this was a European proxy war. Despite all the circumstances, this is mostly considered a violent riot and a coup. So, when does the war actually break out?
At 8 in the morning on August 27th, the British sent Khalid an ultimatum, demanding a civil discussion. Khalid refused, and at 8:55, Britain declared war. Britain then proceeded to bombard the shores of the main island, Unguja, with several battleships. The shots decimated the nearby area, sinking ships and even destroying one of the two pieces of German artillery. According to certain news headlines at the time, Khalid immediately ran for the hills at the sound of the first shot. At 9:40 that same day, Zanzibar surrendered, making it one of the shortest wars in history, lasting less than an hour. After the war ended, Britain installed a new leader who was more in line with their ideals. I know this one doesn’t have the most substance in the world, but I just wanted to go slightly more in-depth about one of the shortest wars in recorded history. Anyways, this has been Tucker Koch, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this.
