Anglo-Zanzibar War

The islands of Zanzibar and the African mainland

Zanzibar was an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Tanganyika; today it forms part of Tanzania. The main island, Unguja (or Zanzibar Island), had been under the nominal control of the Sultans of Oman since 1698 when they expelled the Portuguese settlers who had claimed it in 1499.[5] Sultan Majid bin Said declared the island independent of Oman in 1858, which was recognised by the United Kingdom, and split the sultanate from that of Oman.[5] Barghash bin Said, the second sultan and Khalid's father, had been forced by British ultimatum and a threat of blockade to abolish the slave trade in June 1873, though it was later discovered that instructions from London would have prohibited aggressive action being taken immediately if that ultimatum had been rejected.[6]

The subsequent sultans established their capital and seat of government at Zanzibar Town where a palace complex was built on the sea front. By 1896, this consisted of the palace itself; the Beit al-Hukm, an attached harem; and the Beit al-Ajaib or "House of Wonders"—a ceremonial palace said to be the first building in East Africa to be provided with electricity.[7] The complex was mostly constructed of local timber and was not designed as a defensive structure.[8] All three main buildings were adjacent to one another in a line and linked by wooden covered bridges above street height.[9]

Britain had recognised Zanzibar's sovereignty and its sultanate in 1886, after a long period of friendly interaction, and generally maintained good relations with the country and its sultans.[5][10][11] However, Germany was also interested in East Africa, and the two powers vied for control of trade rights and territory in the area throughout the late 19th century.[12] Sultan Khalifah had granted rights to the land of Kenya to Britain and that of Tanganyika to Germany, a process resulting in the prohibition of slavery in those lands.[5] Many of the Arab ruling classes were upset by this interruption of a valuable trade, which resulted in some unrest.[5] In addition, the German authorities in Tanganyika refused to fly the flag of the Zanzibar Sultanate, which led to armed clashes between German troops and the local population.[13] One such conflict in Tanga claimed the lives of 20 Arabs.[13]

Sultan Khalifah sent Zanzibari troops led by Brigadier-General Lloyd Mathews, a former lieutenant of the Royal Navy, to restore order in Tanganyika.[14] The operation was largely successful, but anti-German feeling among the Zanzibari people remained strong.[13] Further conflicts erupted at Bagamoyo, where 150 natives were killed by German military forces, and at Ketwa, where German officials and their servants were murdered.[14] Khalifah then granted extensive trade rights to the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) who, with German assistance, ran a naval blockade to halt the continuing domestic slave trade.[14] Upon Khalifah's death in 1890 Ali bin Said ascended to the sultanate.[15] Sultan Ali banned the domestic slave trade (but not slave ownership), declared Zanzibar a British protectorate and appointed Lloyd Mathews as First Minister to lead his cabinet. The British were also guaranteed a veto over the future appointment of sultans.[16]

The year of Ali's ascension also saw the signing of the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty between Britain and Germany. This treaty officially demarcated the spheres of interest in East Africa and ceded Germany's rights in Zanzibar to the United Kingdom.[17] This granted the British government more influence in Zanzibar, which they intended to use to eradicate slavery there, an objective they had held as early as 1804.[18][19]

Sultan Ali's successor was Hamad bin Thuwaini, who became sultan in 1893. Hamad maintained a close relationship with the British, but there was dissent among his subjects over the increasing British control over the country, the British-led army and the abolition of the valuable slave trade.[16] In order to control this dissent, the British authorities authorised the sultan to raise a Zanzibari palace bodyguard of 1,000 men, but these troops were soon involved in clashes with the British-led police.[20][21] Complaints about the bodyguards' activities were also received from the European residents in Zanzibar Town.[16]

The bombing of Stone Town in an 1896 British newspaper

Approximately 500 Zanzibari men and women were killed or wounded during the bombardment, most of the dead a result of the fire that engulfed the palace.[1][2] It is unknown how many of these casualties were combatants, but Khalid's gun crews were said to have been "decimated".[40] British casualties amounted to one petty officer severely wounded aboard Thrush who later recovered.[1] Although the majority of the Zanzibari townspeople sided with the British, the town's Indian quarter suffered from opportunistic looting, and around twenty inhabitants died in the chaos.[41] To restore order, 150 British Sikh troops were transferred from Mombasa to patrol the streets.[38] Sailors from St George and Philomel were landed to form a fire brigade to contain the fire, which had spread from the palace to the nearby customs sheds.[42] There was some concern about the fire at the customs sheds as they contained a sizeable store of explosives, but no explosion occurred.[40]

Sultan Khalid, Captain Saleh and around forty followers sought refuge in the German consulate following their flight from the palace,[40][43] where they were guarded by ten armed German sailors and marines while Mathews stationed men outside to arrest them if they tried to leave.[44] Despite extradition requests, the German consul, the recently posted Albrecht von Rechenberg, later Governor of German East Africa, refused to surrender Khalid to the British as his country's extradition treaty with Britain specifically excluded political prisoners.[38] Instead, the German consul promised to remove Khalid to German East Africa without him "setting foot on the soil of Zanzibar". At 10:00 on 2 October, SMS Seeadler of the Imperial German Navy arrived in port; at high tide, one of Seeadler's boats made it up to the consulate's garden gate, and Khalid stepped directly from consular grounds to a German war vessel and hence was free from arrest.[44] He was transferred from the boat onto Seeadler and was then taken to Dar es Salaam in German East Africa.[45] Khalid was captured by British forces in 1916, during the East African Campaign of World War I, and exiled to Seychelles and Saint Helena before being allowed to return to East Africa, where he died at Mombasa in 1927.[46] The British punished Khalid's supporters by forcing them to pay reparations to cover the cost of shells fired against them and for damages caused by the looting, which amounted to 300,000 rupees.[38]

Sultan Hamoud was loyal to the British and acted as a figurehead for an essentially British-run government, the sultanate only being retained to avoid the costs involved with running Zanzibar directly as a crown colony.[38] Several months after the war, Hamoud, with British prompting, abolished slavery in all its forms.[38] The emancipation of slaves required them to present themselves to a government office and proved a slow process—within ten years only 17,293 slaves had been freed, from an estimated population of 60,000 in 1891.[47]

The badly damaged palace complex was completely changed by the war. The harem, lighthouse and palace were demolished as the bombardment had left them unsafe.[41] The palace site became an area of gardens, while a new palace was erected on the site of the harem.[9][48] The House of Wonders was almost undamaged and would later become the main secretariat for the British governing authorities.[40][49] During renovation work on the House of Wonders in 1897, a clocktower was added to its frontage to replace the lighthouse lost to the shelling.[48] The wreck of Glasgow remained in the harbour in front of the palace, where the shallow waters ensured that her masts would remain visible for several years to come; it was eventually broken up for scrap in 1912.[50]

The British protagonists were highly regarded by the governments in London and Zanzibar for their actions leading up to and during the war, and many were rewarded with appointments and honours. General Raikes, leader of the askaris, was appointed a First Class (Second Grade) member of the Order of the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar on 24 September 1896, a First Class member of the Zanzibari Order of Hamondieh on 25 August 1897 and later promoted to Commander of the Zanzibar armies.[51][52] General Mathews, the Zanzibari army commander, was appointed a member of the Grand Order of Hamondieh on 25 August 1897 and became First Minister and Treasurer to the Zanzibari government.[52] Basil Cave, the consul, was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 1 January 1897[53] and promoted to consul-general on 9 July 1903.[54] Harry Rawson was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath for his work in Zanzibar and would later be Governor of New South Wales in Australia.[55] Rawson was also appointed a first class member of the Order of the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar on 8 February 1897 and the Order of Hamondieh on 18 June 1898.[56][57] There were no further rebellions against British influence during the remaining 67 years of the protectorate.[2]

British sailors pose with a captured cannon outside the sultan's palace

The palace complex following the bombardment

The masts of the sunken Glasgow can be seen in this panorama of Zanzibar Town harbour taken in 1902, looking east. The House of Wonders is the white building with a tower and many balconies in the middle of the photograph; the harem and palace stood to the left. The consulate buildings are to the right.

The war, lasting less than three-quarters of an hour, is sometimes considered the shortest in recorded history.[58] Several durations are given by sources, including 38,[1][59] 40[60] and 45[61] minutes, but the 38-minute duration is the most often quoted. The variation is due to confusion over what actually constitutes the start and end of a war. Some sources take the start of the war as the order to open fire at 09:00 and some with the start of actual firing at 09:02. The end of the war is usually put at 09:37, when the last shots were fired and the palace flag struck, but some sources place it at 09:45. The logbooks of the British ships also suffer from this uncertainty with St George indicating that cease-fire was called and Khalid entered the German consulate at 09:35, Thrush at 09:40, Racoon at 09:41, and Philomel and Sparrow at 09:45.[62]

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