Tomorrow I leave to return to NYC after 2 1/2 months in my other home city. Getting ready is onerous. And lots of people here are wondering, given the political situation, why I want to go back. I know why. But that's another story.
I also am in a place in my WIP where one of my characters is about to go into a dangerous battle in WWI, and I am worried about what will happen to him.
I am hoping that WW III will not be breaking out soon and also that my character will not be... I can't even type it.
The best I can today is go back to this post about another war that I first offered 11 years ago.
It will take longer to write this post than the duration of
the war. Much longer.
The combatants were the British Empire and the Sultanate of
Zanzibar. Want to guess who won?
We will get to that, but let’s start further back.
Though I knew nothing of Zanzibar’s location on the map or
its history, the very sound of its name was synonymous with “romantic and
exotic” in my mind when I was a child.
Its story has proved my young imagination correct. Its position and its protected, defensible
harbor made it a base for voyaging traders from time immemorial. Arabs, Indians, and Africans had used it as
such for millennia when the Vasco Da Gama arrived and assumed control of it in
1499. It took the Ottomans two hundred
years and at least two shooting wars to unseat the Portuguese for good in 1698.
 |
| Sultan Seyyid |
Afterwards, under the control of the Sultanate of Oman, the
island became a center of agriculture and an important post for trading ivory
and slaves.
During the 19th century Scramble for Africa, the
British set their sights on Zanzibar. Its main potential uses: it would give
them a leg up in their competition with the Germans for control of East Africa
AND they could claim it as key to abolishing slavery. The
Empire’s progress there came in diplomatic fits and starts until 1856, when the
Brits recognized Sultan Seyyid Said, who in return gave their East African
ambitions his support, favoring them over their German rivals.
But… and since this is about a war, there must be a “but.” Said’s heir, the pro-British Hamad bin
Thuwaini, died on August 25th 1896, whereupon Hamad’s nephew Khalid
bin Barghash took over in a coup d’etat.
The treaty between Her Majesty’s government and the
Sultan Seyyid had given Britain the right to approve of who ruled Zanzibar.
The Brits saw that Khalid threatened their favored position
and would play the Germans and the British off against each other. They
were most seriously displeased. They much preferred another heir, Hamud bin
Muhammed, who would be their man.
The game was afoot.
Khalid had 2800 men with him in the fortified palace and an
armed yacht anchored in the harbor. The
rest of the regular Zanzibar Army was elsewhere on the island and under the
command of General Lloyd Matthews, formerly a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Needless to say, Khalid was not getting any
help from that quarter.
On August 26th, the Brits moved in with five
cruisers. They also landed a few
platoons of Royal Marines. They
delivered an ultimatum to Khalid: Stand down and give up the palace by 9
tomorrow morning or you will be toast.
Khalid ignored the order. Big
mistake.
On August 27th, at 9:02 in the morning,
Rear-Admiral Henry Rawson gave the order to open fire. That volley set the Sultan’s palace afire and
destroyed the defenders’ artillery. The
British sank the HHS Glasgow, the
Zanzabari royal yacht. Khalid’s
retreating troops fired a few desperate shots at the Brits. At 9:40 AM, a final shot from the HMS Thrush’s 12-pounder brought down the
Sultan’s flag at the palace and the war was over.
Khalid absconded to the German embassy and eventually
escaped to German East Africa on the mainland. The British puppet, Sultan Hamud took the
throne.
Five hundred of Khalid’s men—largely composed of civilians
and slaves—were killed or injury. One
British sailor was wounded.
And the way was paved for the Brits to gain hegemony over
British East Africa (now Kenya). You can
meet some of those Brits—real and fictional—in my Strange Gods, which will launch on June 24.
Annamaria - Monday
