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Short Stuff: The Shortest War · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry sitting in for Dave and appropriately
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: in this short Stuff we're going to talk about the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: world's shortest war.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: That's right, another day rue special for the Shorty. So
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: thanks Dave for this.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Thanks.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: This is about the Anglos Azibar War, which is generous
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: to call this a war, but technically it's listed as such.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: It was really a very quick one sided conflict, so
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: quick it is known as the shortest war. Numbers vary,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: but you probably see thirty eight minutes online when you
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: look this thing up, maybe as high as forty five.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but everyone agrees it was less than an hour
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: this war, that's right. So Anglo'sanzibar means that it was
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: between England and Zanzibar. Appropriately enough, it happened, did you
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: say in eighteen ninety six?
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I didn't mention the date.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: It happened in eighteen ninety six, and it was between
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the British Royal Navy and the Sultan of Zanzibar. And
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: you might say, like's the what's the deal here Zanzibar,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: it's off the coast of Tanzania today, Why would the
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: British Navy care about this? Well, back in the eighteen
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: nineties and before that, Zanzibar was a very important and
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: very wealthy trading port. Was that exchanged goods between the
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: interior of Africa and the rest of the world, Middle East, Europe,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: so forth. So Zanzibar was a very important place at
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the time.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I thought it was important because of the great Billy
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Joel song Zanzibar for real.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Billy joelded a record on that.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Hey, there's a song called Zanzibar. Good song, but I
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: think it's it's about a bar named Zanzibar.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, Okay, that's a good name for a bar. Yeah,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I like it.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I just figured out to try and work in Billy
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Joel as much as possible, since you didn't know I
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: was a fan Zanzibar. Yeah, you want to know the lyrics.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to sing it. I got the old
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Man's cart a jazz guitar. I got a tab at
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Zanzibar tonight. That's where I'll be.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I'll be what's the next line?
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Then that's the course. Then it goes into the next verse.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Okay. When I hear Zanzibar, I think of the gi
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Jove dreadnoughts. They were in league with Cobra and they
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: were either from Zanzibar or one of them was named Anzibar.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: See, I still never watch that stuff. I missed out.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: They were great, man, I know you were stuck with
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the big ones.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So where do we leave. It was a busy
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: trading port. Did you mention everything they were trading yet?
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: No?
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Okay, he left that to me. So they were trading ivory,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: they were trading spices and things like that. They were
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: getting back weaponry and textiles. But very sadly, one of
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: the biggest exports was enslaved Africans. They estimate up to
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: thirty thousand and slaved people were shipped out through Zanzibar
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: all the way up through the eighteen eighties, by the way,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: which is almost a couple of decades after the Emancipation Proclamation.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: That was still going on there, and the Sultan of
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Zanzibar was selling his people out because he was getting
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: rich off of this slave trade.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the British really didn't like this. They all
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: they wanted, you know, to have a a to control
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: this really expensive port. But they were very much driven
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: by outlawing slavery in Africa as well. So those two
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: things were big drivers of Great Britain's interest in Zanzibar,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and they in eighteen ninety came up with a treaty
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: between the British and the Germans as the Germans sorry,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: that basically said here's a bunch of East Africa, this
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: is yours, this is mine, this is yours. It was
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: part of what became known as the Scramble for Africa,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: and the European powers just basically carved the entire continent up.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: That led to decades of colonization, colonialism that didn't free
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: up until I guess about the sixties. I think the
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Scramble for Africa deserves its own episode.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: So yeah, for sure, yeah, very shameful stuff. But they
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: carved out what they called zones of influence, and they
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: made Zanzibar a British protectorate, which I looked up the
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: difference between that and a colony. Apparently a protectorate there
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: you know, self ruling and stuff like that, so it's
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: not quite colony as colony light. They are still very
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: much under the control of the British government and military.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: So they said Zanzibar is our protectorate, and we want
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: to get a friendly sultan in there at the Sultanate
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: of Zanzibar that's friendly to our needs and wants. And
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: so they picked a guy named Hamad ben Twany and
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: he was basically a puppet. He was the fifth Sultan
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: of Zanzibar, and this is an eighteen ninety three. But
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: he was not around long because Dave says Heroes, his
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: nephew also saw cousin, this guy, Khalid ben bar Goosh,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: who had already had one failed run at the sultan ship.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: I guess is that what it would be call sultany
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: and then try it again by almost certainly poisoning and
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: killing either his uncle or Cousinyane. Yeah.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And one reason that he's a suspect is right
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: when Thuaney died, Ben Bargos showed up in the palace
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and was like, I'm sultan now. Everybody wanting to let
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: you know. So if you you mentioned that Thuane's sultancy
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: lasted only three years, Bargosh's sultancy lasted only three days
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: because he installed himself as sultan and the British were like,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: we don't like you. You're not going to do our bidding.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: So we have a problem here.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so they said, here's what we're gonna do. Actually,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: let's take a break. Everyone's wondering what the heck's going
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: to happen next, right, Yes, all right, we'll be back
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: right after this. That's why sk to you should know.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: So I was Everyone's hanging on the edge of their seat.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: What are the British going to do? They're gonna engage
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: in gunboat diplomacy, which is the very next day, they
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: pulled up a bunch of ships to the harbor there
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: or whatever it is there and pointed the cannons at
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: the Royal Palace and said, you need to be out
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: of there by nine am and we'll just be waiting
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: here to see what you do.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: That's pretty nice at nine am, you can get up early.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: You could exercise the breakfast, have plenty of time. Yeah.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: So Bargosh was like, I don't think you're going to
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: do that. He decided he was going to call the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: British's bluff that they would they wouldn't fire on their
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: own protectorate. So he brought out his own heavy artillery guns.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I think the previous Sultan had actually developed a bit
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: of a personal fighting force, so those people showed up.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: There were thousands of defense I saw one thousand. I'm
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: not one hundred percent certain, but there were a bunch
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: of Zanzibari defenders around the palace by eight am on
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the day that Bargosh was supposed to leave.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: That's right. And he told the British consul, Basil Cave,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: I'm not leaving and Basil said, well, he said, we
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: have no intention of hauling down our flag and we
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: do not believe you will fire upon us. And Basil
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Cave and the British most British way possible, said hmm,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: we'd prefer not to attack, but unless you do as
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: you're told, we shall certainly do. So.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: You sound like again, every time you do a British accent,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: you sound like tankas area and mystery man.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Oh I love it.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: I'll take it every time the blue rajah. Yeah. So
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: nine am happened and just very promptly the British started
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: pounding the Sultan's palace to dust. They made good on
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: their promise and they just started firing on it from
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: three warships.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: And thirty eight minutes by most accounts is how long
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: that took to completely just I don't think it. They
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: destroyed the palace, but they put a herding on it.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Two minutes into this, Bargosh literally went out the back
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: door and fled to the German consulate and was like,
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: please help.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he did, and the Germans were like, okay, well
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: we'll take care of you. And they smuggled him to
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Tanzania or what's now Tanzania, and I guess he lived
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: out his days there. Did you see anything about him
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: after that?
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I looked into it, but I don't remember it all.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: And I was like, why am I bothering with all
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: of this if we're not going to talk about it right? Sorry.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: The thing is one of the other remarkable aspects of
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: this very very short, less than an hour war was
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: just how lopsided the casualties were.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: So, I mean, it's it's interesting to talk about now,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: but five hundred Zanzibari's lost their lives. Yeah, in less
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: than an hour. Yeah.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: I think they just rained down our artillery on them,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: and like five hundred people died very very quickly. Only
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: one British sailor was wounded. Even I think no one
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: died on their side.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: He probably slipped on the deck of a warship and
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: like impaled his thigh on his sword. Yeah, that's what
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: I'm guessing happened. Yeah, although I did see British marines
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: storm the island, so it probably actually happened there.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. After this though, they because Bargash was gone, they
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: said all right, well now we're going to install our
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: own new sultan that we wanted to do begin with,
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: that will be sympathetic to our needs and basically do
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: what we say.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, So there was a this is a big deal,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: especially at the time, because it basically showed the other
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: nations of East Africa, like do these guys will mess
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: you up? They're they're not messing around, and they want
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: our they want our land, they want our nations, and that,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: like I said, really kind of was a flashpoint for
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: the scramble for Africa because I think also other European
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: powers were like, oh man, the Brits are going to
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: do that, They're going to take over the entire continent.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: We better get there as soon as possible.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And then, like you mentioned, the nineteenth nineteen sixties
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: was when a lot of this started unwinding itself. And
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Zanzibar was one of them under British control until ten
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: of December nineteen sixty three, and then they became a
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: fully sovereign state and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: So good for them.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the sovereign state thing only lasted a short
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: time because very quickly they merged with we kept saying
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: what's now Tanzania At the time it was Tanganyika, and
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: they merged with Zanzibar into Tanzania. Isn't that right?
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: It's super neat.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: It's a great amalgamation of names.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I love it. And just learning more and more
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: about African history is something I did not learn much
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: growing up. It has been a cool part of the
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: show and I can't wait to learn more.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Agreed. I think short Stuff is out.
• 10:59
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• 11:02
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• 11:06
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