A war lasted about thirty-eight minutes
The Anglo-Zanzibar War, on 27 August 1896, ran from roughly 9:02 to 9:40 in the morning. It is the shortest war on record.
Established2 min read
Khalid bin Barghash took the Zanzibar palace without British approval. Consul Basil Cave issued an ultimatum. When it expired, Royal Navy ships fired on the palace. The sultan’s yacht sank. Barghash fled. A ceasefire was in place inside an hour.
The usual figure is 38 minutes, counted from the first shot to the surrender. Start and stop can be nudged by a few minutes depending on which log you trust. No version of the morning becomes a long war. The fact is the scale, and the scale is embarrassing.
Caveats
- ‘Shortest’ means the shortest widely documented war between states, not the shortest fight.
Sources
- 1Hernon I.. The Shortest War in History. History Today (and contemporary consular dispatches), 2003.