A Sultan’s Brief Dalliance With Power
The Anglo-Zanzibar War was probably history’s shortest war: it lasted less than an hour. In the nineteenth century, the Sultanate of Zanzibar in what is now Tanzania consisted of the islands of Zanzibar off the East African coast, and the mainland across the water from them. In 1890, the British and Germans divided Zanzibar amongst themselves: Germany got the mainland, and Britain got the islands. That same year, the sultan of Zanzibar accepted a British protectorate, by whose terms his successors had to be preapproved by Britain. When the Sultan died in 1893, the British used that provision to install a puppet replacement, Hamad bin Thawani. He ruled for three years, until shortly before noon on August 25th, 1896, he died suddenly.
Sultan Thawani’s 29-year-old nephew, Khalid bin Bargash, was suspected of having poisoned him. Khalid immediately moved into the palace in Zanzibar Town, and without British approval as required by the terms of the protectorate treaty, declared himself sultan. The British preferred a more pliant successor, Hamoud bin Muhammad. So they rushed three cruisers, two gunboats, 150 marines and 900 African soldiers to Zanzibar Town, and gave Khalid an ultimatum to vacate the palace by 9 AM, August 27th. He refused, gathered a force of about 2800 men, and barricaded himself in the palace. When the ultimatum expired on the 27th, the British ships opened fire and commenced a bombardment at 9:02 AM.