The shortest war in the world.

This fleeting war lasted only 45 minutes and entered the Guinness Book of Records. At the end of the XIX century, Zanzibar was under British rule. In 1896, the new Sultan of Zanzibar, Khalid ibn Bargash, tried to get out of control, seeking support from Germany. He gathered a small army of two and a half thousand soldiers and took out an old cannon of the XVI century from the cellars. The British responded by issuing an ultimatum, expiring at 9:00 a.m. on August 27, according to which the Zanzibarians had to capitulate.

In response, they hoisted the cannon onto their only ship, the yacht Glasgow, and fearlessly set sail to meet five British frigates. Exactly at the time appointed by the ultimatum, the Imperial Fleet opened fire on the shore. Five minutes later, the Glasgow responded and was immediately sunk by crossfire from two ships. The Zanzibar ship continued firing all the time until it disappeared under the water. Half an hour after the bombing, only the masts of the Glasgow were visible from under the water, and the coastal structures were almost destroyed. However, the Zanzibar flag continued to fly on the palace flagpole. The Fleet resumed firing. Fifteen minutes later, the coast was completely burned out, not a single gun was responding. The top of the flagpole was destroyed and the flag was nowhere to be seen. The Sultan ordered the soldiers to leave the battlefield, and he asked for asylum in the German consulate. The shelling lasted 38 minutes, killed about 570 people from the Zanzibar side, and it went down in history as the shortest war in the world.

After the war, the former sultan lived in Dar es Salaam until 1916, when he was captured by the British. He died in 1927 in Mombasa.