"The Shortest War in History: Zanzibar 1896 " Topic

"The island of Zanzibar, off the coast of modern Tanzania, was to be the scene in 1896 of what has been described as "The Shortest War in History". It lasted a mere 38 minutes but in this short period it proved to be very bloody indeed.

By the 1890s the newly-forged German Empire, hungry for colonies, was establishing itself in Tanganyika, the mainland directly west of Zanzibar, while British interests were similarly engaged in setting up a colony in Kenya, further north. German efforts to suppress slaving were resented by Arabs traders, resulting in armed clashes, and leading also to significant Anti-German resentment on Zanzibar itself. Britain and Germany were now vying for supremacy in East Africa and Zanzibar, in view of its position, assumed strategic significance.

Germany was to do well out of its opposition to British control of Zanzibar for in a treaty signed in 1890 it pledged to give up its interest in there in exchange for Britain handing back to Germany the island of Helgoland in the North Sea. Occupied by Britain since 1814, this small island was ideally placed to protect the approaches to both the new German naval base of Wilhelmshaven and the western entrance of the Kiel Canal. Had Britain retained Helgoland and fortified it heavily, as the Germans were thereafter to do, the course of both world wars might have been significantly different…"

Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

I remember reading this in one of the Ripley's "Believe it or Not!" Sunday cartoons.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand