Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh and
Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry sitting in for Dave and appropriately
Speaker 1: in this short Stuff we're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: world's shortest war.
Speaker 2: That's right, another day rue special for the Shorty. So
Speaker 2: thanks Dave for this.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Thanks.
Speaker 2: This is about the Anglos Azibar War, which is generous
Speaker 2: to call this a war, but technically it's listed as such.
Speaker 2: It was really a very quick one sided conflict, so
Speaker 2: quick it is known as the shortest war. Numbers vary,
Speaker 2: but you probably see thirty eight minutes online when you
Speaker 2: look this thing up, maybe as high as forty five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but everyone agrees it was less than an hour
Speaker 1: this war, that's right. So Anglo'sanzibar means that it was
Speaker 1: between England and Zanzibar. Appropriately enough, it happened, did you
Speaker 1: say in eighteen ninety six?
Speaker 2: I didn't mention the date.
Speaker 1: It happened in eighteen ninety six, and it was between
Speaker 1: the British Royal Navy and the Sultan of Zanzibar. And
Speaker 1: you might say, like's the what's the deal here Zanzibar,
Speaker 1: it's off the coast of Tanzania today, Why would the
Speaker 1: British Navy care about this? Well, back in the eighteen
Speaker 1: nineties and before that, Zanzibar was a very important and
Speaker 1: very wealthy trading port. Was that exchanged goods between the
Speaker 1: interior of Africa and the rest of the world, Middle East, Europe,
Speaker 1: so forth. So Zanzibar was a very important place at
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: I thought it was important because of the great Billy
Speaker 2: Joel song Zanzibar for real.
Speaker 1: Billy joelded a record on that.
Speaker 2: Hey, there's a song called Zanzibar. Good song, but I
Speaker 2: think it's it's about a bar named Zanzibar.
Speaker 1: Oh, Okay, that's a good name for a bar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 2: I just figured out to try and work in Billy
Speaker 2: Joel as much as possible, since you didn't know I
Speaker 2: was a fan Zanzibar. Yeah, you want to know the lyrics.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to sing it. I got the old
Speaker 2: Man's cart a jazz guitar. I got a tab at
Speaker 2: Zanzibar tonight. That's where I'll be.
Speaker 1: I'll be what's the next line?
Speaker 2: Then that's the course. Then it goes into the next verse.
Speaker 1: Okay. When I hear Zanzibar, I think of the gi
Speaker 1: Jove dreadnoughts. They were in league with Cobra and they
Speaker 1: were either from Zanzibar or one of them was named Anzibar.
Speaker 2: See, I still never watch that stuff. I missed out.
Speaker 1: They were great, man, I know you were stuck with
Speaker 1: the big ones.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So where do we leave. It was a busy
Speaker 2: trading port. Did you mention everything they were trading yet?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Okay, he left that to me. So they were trading ivory,
Speaker 2: they were trading spices and things like that. They were
Speaker 2: getting back weaponry and textiles. But very sadly, one of
Speaker 2: the biggest exports was enslaved Africans. They estimate up to
Speaker 2: thirty thousand and slaved people were shipped out through Zanzibar
Speaker 2: all the way up through the eighteen eighties, by the way,
Speaker 2: which is almost a couple of decades after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Speaker 2: That was still going on there, and the Sultan of
Speaker 2: Zanzibar was selling his people out because he was getting
Speaker 2: rich off of this slave trade.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the British really didn't like this. They all
Speaker 1: they wanted, you know, to have a a to control
Speaker 1: this really expensive port. But they were very much driven
Speaker 1: by outlawing slavery in Africa as well. So those two
Speaker 1: things were big drivers of Great Britain's interest in Zanzibar,
Speaker 1: and they in eighteen ninety came up with a treaty
Speaker 1: between the British and the Germans as the Germans sorry,
Speaker 1: that basically said here's a bunch of East Africa, this
Speaker 1: is yours, this is mine, this is yours. It was
Speaker 1: part of what became known as the Scramble for Africa,
Speaker 1: and the European powers just basically carved the entire continent up.
Speaker 1: That led to decades of colonization, colonialism that didn't free
Speaker 1: up until I guess about the sixties. I think the
Speaker 1: Scramble for Africa deserves its own episode.
Speaker 2: So yeah, for sure, yeah, very shameful stuff. But they
Speaker 2: carved out what they called zones of influence, and they
Speaker 2: made Zanzibar a British protectorate, which I looked up the
Speaker 2: difference between that and a colony. Apparently a protectorate there
Speaker 2: you know, self ruling and stuff like that, so it's
Speaker 2: not quite colony as colony light. They are still very
Speaker 2: much under the control of the British government and military.
Speaker 2: So they said Zanzibar is our protectorate, and we want
Speaker 2: to get a friendly sultan in there at the Sultanate
Speaker 2: of Zanzibar that's friendly to our needs and wants. And
Speaker 2: so they picked a guy named Hamad ben Twany and
Speaker 2: he was basically a puppet. He was the fifth Sultan
Speaker 2: of Zanzibar, and this is an eighteen ninety three. But
Speaker 2: he was not around long because Dave says Heroes, his
Speaker 2: nephew also saw cousin, this guy, Khalid ben bar Goosh,
Speaker 2: who had already had one failed run at the sultan ship.
Speaker 2: I guess is that what it would be call sultany
Speaker 2: and then try it again by almost certainly poisoning and
Speaker 2: killing either his uncle or Cousinyane. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And one reason that he's a suspect is right
Speaker 1: when Thuaney died, Ben Bargos showed up in the palace
Speaker 1: and was like, I'm sultan now. Everybody wanting to let
Speaker 1: you know. So if you you mentioned that Thuane's sultancy
Speaker 1: lasted only three years, Bargosh's sultancy lasted only three days
Speaker 1: because he installed himself as sultan and the British were like,
Speaker 1: we don't like you. You're not going to do our bidding.
Speaker 1: So we have a problem here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they said, here's what we're gonna do. Actually,
Speaker 2: let's take a break. Everyone's wondering what the heck's going
Speaker 2: to happen next, right, Yes, all right, we'll be back
Speaker 2: right after this. That's why sk to you should know.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So I was Everyone's hanging on the edge of their seat.
Speaker 2: What are the British going to do? They're gonna engage
Speaker 2: in gunboat diplomacy, which is the very next day, they
Speaker 2: pulled up a bunch of ships to the harbor there
Speaker 2: or whatever it is there and pointed the cannons at
Speaker 2: the Royal Palace and said, you need to be out
Speaker 2: of there by nine am and we'll just be waiting
Speaker 2: here to see what you do.
Speaker 1: That's pretty nice at nine am, you can get up early.
Speaker 1: You could exercise the breakfast, have plenty of time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So Bargosh was like, I don't think you're going to
Speaker 1: do that. He decided he was going to call the
Speaker 1: British's bluff that they would they wouldn't fire on their
Speaker 1: own protectorate. So he brought out his own heavy artillery guns.
Speaker 1: I think the previous Sultan had actually developed a bit
Speaker 1: of a personal fighting force, so those people showed up.
Speaker 1: There were thousands of defense I saw one thousand. I'm
Speaker 1: not one hundred percent certain, but there were a bunch
Speaker 1: of Zanzibari defenders around the palace by eight am on
Speaker 1: the day that Bargosh was supposed to leave.
Speaker 2: That's right. And he told the British consul, Basil Cave,
Speaker 2: I'm not leaving and Basil said, well, he said, we
Speaker 2: have no intention of hauling down our flag and we
Speaker 2: do not believe you will fire upon us. And Basil
Speaker 2: Cave and the British most British way possible, said hmm,
Speaker 2: we'd prefer not to attack, but unless you do as
Speaker 2: you're told, we shall certainly do. So.
Speaker 1: You sound like again, every time you do a British accent,
Speaker 1: you sound like tankas area and mystery man.
Speaker 2: Oh I love it.
Speaker 1: I'll take it every time the blue rajah. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: nine am happened and just very promptly the British started
Speaker 1: pounding the Sultan's palace to dust. They made good on
Speaker 1: their promise and they just started firing on it from
Speaker 1: three warships.
Speaker 2: And thirty eight minutes by most accounts is how long
Speaker 2: that took to completely just I don't think it. They
Speaker 2: destroyed the palace, but they put a herding on it.
Speaker 2: Two minutes into this, Bargosh literally went out the back
Speaker 2: door and fled to the German consulate and was like,
Speaker 2: please help.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he did, and the Germans were like, okay, well
Speaker 1: we'll take care of you. And they smuggled him to
Speaker 1: Tanzania or what's now Tanzania, and I guess he lived
Speaker 1: out his days there. Did you see anything about him
Speaker 1: after that?
Speaker 2: I looked into it, but I don't remember it all.
Speaker 2: And I was like, why am I bothering with all
Speaker 2: of this if we're not going to talk about it right? Sorry.
Speaker 1: The thing is one of the other remarkable aspects of
Speaker 1: this very very short, less than an hour war was
Speaker 1: just how lopsided the casualties were.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, it's it's interesting to talk about now,
Speaker 1: but five hundred Zanzibari's lost their lives. Yeah, in less
Speaker 1: than an hour. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think they just rained down our artillery on them,
Speaker 2: and like five hundred people died very very quickly. Only
Speaker 2: one British sailor was wounded. Even I think no one
Speaker 2: died on their side.
Speaker 1: He probably slipped on the deck of a warship and
Speaker 1: like impaled his thigh on his sword. Yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: I'm guessing happened. Yeah, although I did see British marines
Speaker 1: storm the island, so it probably actually happened there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. After this though, they because Bargash was gone, they
Speaker 2: said all right, well now we're going to install our
Speaker 2: own new sultan that we wanted to do begin with,
Speaker 2: that will be sympathetic to our needs and basically do
Speaker 2: what we say.
Speaker 1: Yes, So there was a this is a big deal,
Speaker 1: especially at the time, because it basically showed the other
Speaker 1: nations of East Africa, like do these guys will mess
Speaker 1: you up? They're they're not messing around, and they want
Speaker 1: our they want our land, they want our nations, and that,
Speaker 1: like I said, really kind of was a flashpoint for
Speaker 1: the scramble for Africa because I think also other European
Speaker 1: powers were like, oh man, the Brits are going to
Speaker 1: do that, They're going to take over the entire continent.
Speaker 1: We better get there as soon as possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And then, like you mentioned, the nineteenth nineteen sixties
Speaker 2: was when a lot of this started unwinding itself. And
Speaker 2: Zanzibar was one of them under British control until ten
Speaker 2: of December nineteen sixty three, and then they became a
Speaker 2: fully sovereign state and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Speaker 2: So good for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the sovereign state thing only lasted a short
Speaker 1: time because very quickly they merged with we kept saying
Speaker 1: what's now Tanzania At the time it was Tanganyika, and
Speaker 1: they merged with Zanzibar into Tanzania. Isn't that right?
Speaker 2: It's super neat.
Speaker 1: It's a great amalgamation of names.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love it. And just learning more and more
Speaker 2: about African history is something I did not learn much
Speaker 2: growing up. It has been a cool part of the
Speaker 2: show and I can't wait to learn more.
Speaker 1: Agreed. I think short Stuff is out.
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