The shortest war in history

It all began the year of the death of Sultan Hamad ibn Thuwaini, who was close to the British: the man who succeeded him, his cousin Khalid ibn Bargach (1874-1927), was in the pay of the Germans. A few years earlier, in 1890, the German Empire and the United Kingdom had divided up, in the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty, several territories including the Heligoland archipelago [in the North Sea], the Wituland Sultanate [in present-day Kenya] and that of Zanzibar [in present-day Tanzania]. The United Kingdom then officially obtained the Sultanate of Zanzibar from the Germans, which it made a protectorate. In reality, however, the British had long since taken control of this African archipelago.

So, when the pro-German Sultan Khalid ibn Bargach took power in Zanzibar in 1896, the British decided to act. They gave him an ultimatum: he had to abdicate and leave his palace by 9 a.m. on August 27, 1896. Except that the Sultan didn't see it that way and barricaded himself in his palace. As soon as the ultimatum time passed, a flotilla of British warships bombarded the palace, which caught fire. The flag was torn down, the palace destroyed, and the offensive ended. The war lasted a total of thirty-eight minutes (some sources say