Short Stuff: The Shortest War | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. Hey and welcome to the short stuff. I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry sitting. in for Dave. And appropriately in this. short stuff we're going to talk about. the world's shortest war. That's right. Uh another Dave Rue special for the. shorty. So thanks Dave for this. Yeah, thanks. Uh this is about the Anglo. Zanzibar War which is uh it's generous. to call this a war but technically it's. listed as such. It was really a very. quick one-sided conflict. Uh so quick it.

is known as the shortest war. Uh numbers. vary, but you you probably see 38. minutes online when you look this thing. up. Maybe as high as 45. Yeah. But. everyone agrees it was less than an hour. this war. That's right. So uh Anglo. Zanzibar uh means that it was between. England and Zanzibar appropriately. enough. Uh it happened did you say in. 1896? I did not mention the date. It. would happened in 1896 and it was. between the British Royal Navy and the.

Sultan of Zanzibar. And you might say. like why what's the what's the deal. here? Zanzibar, it's off the coast of. Tanzania today. Um why would the British. Navy care about this? Well, back in the. 1890s and before that, Zenzibar was a. very important and very wealthy trading. port that was um that exchanged goods. between the interior of Africa and the. rest of the world, the Middle East, Europe, so forth. So, Zanzibar was a. very um important place at the time. I.

thought it was important because of the. great Billy Joel song. Zanzibar. is for real. Billy Joel did a a record. on that. There's a song called Zanzibar. song, but I think it's it's about a bar. named Zanzibar. Oh, okay. That's a good. name for a bar. Yeah, I like it. Uh, I. just figured I'd try and work in Billy. Joel as much as possible since you. didn't know I was a fan. Zanzibar. Uh, yeah. You want to know the lyrics? I'm. not going to sing it. I got the old. man's car. I got a jazz guitar. I got a.

tab at Zanzibar tonight. That's where. I'll be. I'll be What's the next line? Uh, then that's the chorus. Then it goes. into the next verse. Okay. When I hear. Zanzibar, I think of the G.I. Joe um. Dreadnots. They were in league with. Cobra and they were either from Zanzibar. or one of them was named Zanzibar. See, I still never watch that stuff. I. missed out. They were great, man. I know. you were stuck with the big ones. Yeah. So, where did we leave? It was a busy. trading port. Uh did you mention.

everything they were trading yet? No. Okay, you left that to me. So, they were. trading um ivory. They were trading uh. spices and things like that. they were. getting back uh weaponry and textiles. Uh but very sadly uh one of the the. biggest exports was enslaved Africans. They estimate up to 30,000 enslaved. people were um shipped out through. Zanzibar all the way up through the. 1880s by the way which is uh you know. almost a couple of decades after the. Emancipation Proclamation that was still. going on there. And the Sultan of.

Zanzibar was selling uh his people out. because he was getting rich off of this. slave trade. Yeah. Um and the British. really didn't like this. They they all. they wanted, you know, to have a a to. control this really expensive port, but. they were very much driven by outlawing. um slavery in Africa as well. Um so. those two things were big drivers of. Great Britain's interest in Zanzibar. and they in 1890. um came up with a treaty between the.

British and the Germans, the Germans, sorry. Um that basically said here's a. bunch of East Africa. This is yours. This is mine. This is yours. It was part. of what became known as the scramble for. Africa and the European powers just. basically carved the entire continent up. that led to decades of colonization, colonialism. that didn't free up until I guess about. the 60s. I think the scramble for Africa. deserves its own episode someday. For.

sure. Uh yeah, very shameful stuff. But. uh they they carved out what they called. zones of influence and they made. Zanzibar a British protectorate. uh. which I looked up the difference between. that and a colony apparently a. protectorate. They're you know. self-ruling and stuff like that. So it's. not quite colony, it's colony light. Uh. they are still very much under the. control of the British government and. military. So they said Zanzibar is our. protectorate and we want to get a a. friendly sultan in there at the.

Sultanate of Zanzibar that's friendly to. our needs and wants. And so they uh. picked a guy named Hammad bin TWI. and he was basically a puppet. He was. the fifth Sultan of Zanzibar. And this. was in 1893. But he was not around long. because um Dave says here was his. nephew. I also saw cousin um this guy. Khaled Ben Bargos who had already had. one failed run at the Sultan ship I. guess is that what it would be called or.

Sultan. Mhm. Um and then tried again uh. by almost certainly poisoning and. killing either his uncle or cousin. Thuwanei. Yeah. Yeah. Uh and one reason. that he's a suspect is right when the. died um bin Baros showed up in the. palace and was like I'm Sultan now. everybody. Just wanted to let you know. So um if you you mentioned that um sulty. uh lasted only three years. Bargos's.

sultency lasted only three days because. he installed himself as sultan and the. British were like, "We don't like you. You're not going to do our bidding. So, we have a problem here." Yeah. So, uh. they said, "Here's what we're going to. do." Actually, let's take a break. because everyone's wondering what the. heck's going to happen next, right? Yes. All right. We'll be back right after. this. [Applause]. [Music]. S Y L Y S K S K.

[Music]. All right. So, I was Everyone's hanging. on the edge of their seat. What are the. British going to do? They're going to. engage in gunboat diplomacy, which is. the very next day. They they pulled up a. bunch of ships to the harbor there or. whatever it is there. uh and pointed the. cannons at the royal palace and said, "You need to be out of there by 9:00. a.m. and we'll just be waiting here to.

see what you do." That was pretty nice. 9:00 a.m. You can get up early. You. could exercise, eat breakfast. Got. plenty of time. Yeah. So Barosh was. like, "I don't think you're going to do. that." He decided he was going to call. the British's bluff that they would they. wouldn't fire on um their own. protectorate. So he brought out his own. heavy artillery guns. Uh, I think the. previous sultan had actually developed a. bit of a a personal fighting force. So, those people showed up. Um, there were. thousands of defenders. I saw 1,000. I'm.

not 100% certain, but there were a bunch. of Zanzibari defenders around the palace. by 8:00 a.m. on the day that um, Bargos. was supposed to leave. That's right. Uh, and he told the British council, Basil. Cave, uh, I'm not leaving. And Basil. said uh well he said we have no. intention of uh hauling down our flag. and we not do not believe you will fire. upon us. And uh Basil Cave in the. British most British way possible said.

we'd prefer not to attack but unless you. do as you're told we shall certainly do. so. Very nice. You sound like again. every time you do a British accent you. sound like Hankazeria and Mystery Men. Oh I love it. I'll take it every time. The Blue Raja. Yeah. Um, so 9:00 a.m. happened and just very promptly, uh, the. British started pounding the, um, the. Sultan's palace to dust. They made good. on their promise and they just started. firing on it from three warships. And 38.

minutes by by most accounts is how long. that took to uh, completely just uh, I. don't think they destroyed the palace, but they put a hurting on it. Um, 2. minutes into this, Bargos literally went. out the back door and fled to the German. consulate and was like, "Please help.". Yeah, he he did. And the Germans were. like, "Okay, we'll we'll take care of. you." And they smuggled him to uh. Tanzania or what's now Tanzania. Um, and. I guess he lived out his days there. Did. you see anything about him after that?

Uh, I looked into it, but I don't. remember at all. And I was like, why am. I bothering with all of this if we're. not going to talk about it? Right. Sorry. The thing is, one of the other. remarkable aspects of this very very. short, less than an hour war was just. how lopsided the casualties were. Yeah. So, I mean, it's it's interesting to. talk about now, but 500 Zanzibaris lost. their lives. Yeah. In less than an hour. Yeah. I think they just rained down.

artillery on them and like 500 people. died very very quickly. Uh only one. British sailor was wounded even. I think. no one died on their side. He probably. slipped on the deck of a warship and. like impaled his thigh on his sword. Yeah, that's what I'm guessing happened. Yeah. Although I did see British Marines. stormed the island, so it probably. actually happened there. Yeah. Uh after. this though, they uh cuz Bargos was. gone. Uh they said, "All right, well now. we're going to install our own new. sultan that we wanted to do begin with.

that will be um sympathetic to our needs. and basically do what we say." Yes. So. there was a this is a big deal. especially at the time because it. basically showed the other um nations of. East Africa like dude these guys will. mess you up. They're not they're not. messing around. They want our they want. our land. They want our nations. Um, and. that, like I said, really kind of was a. flash point for the scramble for Africa. Um, because I think also other European. powers were like, "Oh man, the Brits are.

going to do that. They're going to take. over the entire continent. We better get. there as soon as possible." Yeah. Uh and. then like you mentioned um the 19 1960s. was when a lot of this started unwinding. itself and Zanzamar was uh was one of. them under British control until uh 10. of December 1963. and then they became a fully sovereign. state and a member of the Commonwealth. of Nations. So good for them. Yeah. And. that sovereign state thing only lasted a. short time because very quickly they. merged with we kept saying what's now.

Tanzania, right? At the time it was Ten. Yika and they merged with Tan with. Zanzibar to into Tanzania. That's super neat. It's a great. amalgamation of names. Yeah, I love it. And just uh learning more and more about. African history, something I did not. learn much growing up has been a cool. part of the show and I can't wait to. learn more. Agreed. Uh I think short. stuff is out. Stuff You Should Know is a production of.

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