War, the Long and Short of It

Throughout military history, many short-term conflicts have been recorded but, by all accounts, the Anglo-Zanzibar War was the shortest war in the history of the World. The origin of the conflict was a territorial dispute during the late 1800’s that focused upon the trade interests of Germany and Great Britain in Eastern Africa and specifically the small island of Zanzibar, which is located off of the eastern coast of Africa.

In the beginning of 1890, Great Britain assumed control of the island with the support of the ruling Sultan of Zanzibar. However, upon his death in 1896, the throne was up for grabs. His son, Bargesh, with the support of the Germans, took over the throne. This, of course, was unacceptable to the British, who ordered the new Sultan to step down, so that they could install his brother in the throne, who would be sympathetic to Great Britain. Instead, Bargesh ceremoniously declared war against Great Britain. He did so with an army of 2,500 soldiers and a yacht armed that was armed with a bronze cannon.

The British already had 5 warships anchored offshore to maintain their presence, and, after Bargesh’s Declaration of War, the Royal Navy opened fire at 9_00 a.m. on 27^th of August 1896. Within 15 minutes, the yacht had been sunk and the palace walls were in ruins. Bargesh surrendered 45 minutes later. He was given asylum by the German consulate and taken to exile.

Great Britain also holds the title for waging the longest war on record. It is not, as you might think, the Hundred Years War that was waged against France for over a century, and actually continued for a one hundred and sixteen year duration. The longest recorded war began in 1651 when the Dutch declared war on a British domain, the Scilly Isles. This event occurred while the British were preoccupied with their own civil war, the English Civil War. This Dutch and English conflict went largely unnoticed by the British and to an error in the records, the peace treaty was not recorded and the war was not concluded officially until 1986, when the mistake was noticed.

The Annals of British military history took another thumping several centuries later. As the Crimean War with Russia broke out in 1853, Queen Victoria’s Declaration of War named England, Scotland, Ireland and Berwick on Tweed, a town that was claimed by both England and Scotland, and under dispute. However, when peace was announced in 1856, the Peace Treaty authors named only Russia, England, Scotland and Ireland. Therefore, Berwick on Tweed was formally still at war with Russia. Although there were no active hostilities, the matter was not remedied until 1966 when mayor of Berwick and the Soviet ambassador formally drafted and signed an official Peace Treaty. The mayor informed the ambassador that the citizens of Russia could now sleep peacefully with the knowledge that the war had come to an end. It was a lone spark of humor during this time when the U.S.S.R. and Great Britain, together with other countries, were actively engaged in the cold war.

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