Tag: Royal Navy

On a War

Zanzibar. You have no idea where it is, right? Would you believe me if I said it was in northeast Asia, off the coast of Korea? See? You don’t even know if that’s true. The truth is that Zanzibar is off the coast of southeast Africa, just off shore from Tanzania, and it is a semi-autonomous province of that nation. For real. The purpose of this little joke is that Zanzibar isn’t on anyone’s radar, so why would Britain go to war with Zanzibar in 1896? Well, it seems that wars during the Victorian Era was what Britain did. To be somewhat fair, the archipelago was on one of Britain’s shipping lanes from Suez down the east coast of Africa to Britain’s colonies in the southern part of the continent.

While Britain didn’t officially colonize or take over Zanzibar, it did determine who ruled the small nation. And, when the hand-picked ruler of Zanzibar died in 1896, a ruler emerged in the country that wasn’t as friendly to British interests as the one they themselves had chosen. According to a deal of “protection” between Zanzibar and Britain, any potential Sultan of Zanzibar was required to receive British approval. The new Sultan, the nephew of the previous ruler, didn’t do that. And, so, the British representative in Zanzibar issued an ultimatum: Relinquish power or the British would force him out. Well, the new Sultan called Britain’s bluff. He sent a message saying, in effect, you guys wouldn’t dare remove me.

Apparently, this man hadn’t learned the rule that he who rules the waves waves the rules. And, in the late 1890s, Britain’s navy was the world’s most powerful. It was British policy that their navy would be the size of the next two navies in the world combined in an effort to protect Britain’s vast empire and insure the flow of trade goods to and from Britain. And, when the new Sultan of Zanzibar rebuffed Britain’s demands to step down from power, the Royal Navy sent ships to deal with the situation. Britain, the world’s largest empire at the time, declared war on tiny Zanzibar.

The war started with the naval vessels bombarding the Sultan’s palace. Several members of the Sultan’s household were killed, and the mostly wooden structure caught fire. The fire spread quickly, and the palace was largely destroyed. The fire reached a cache of cannonballs and gunpowder, and the ammo dump exploded, thereby almost completely eliminating the Zanzibarian supply of ordinance. Meanwhile, the only ship in Zanzibar’s navy, a retired British ship gifted to the previous Sultan, tried to fire on the British ships, but it was quickly sunk by a British salvo in the shallow harbor, its top masts still sticking out of the water for several months afterward. The incredibly accurate and experienced British ships used their naval superiority to quickly disable the stationary guns Zanzibar had aimed at the harbor where the British ships lay.

Needless to say, the British won what is now called the Anglo-Zanzibar War. The Sultan was whisked away from the scene by the German consulate to the coast of what was then the German colony of Tanzania. Britain quickly installed a Sultan that they approved and one who would continue the mutually beneficial relationship (well, more beneficial to Britain, but still). The British rebuilt the royal residence into a better and more stable building. Order was restored.

And the Anglo-Zanzibar War, lasting all of 38 minutes, is known as the shortest war in history.

On a Rum Rebellion

William had a reputation as a strict disciplinarian. This was the major character trait that won him appointment as the Governor of New South Wales, representing his Majesty, King George, in 1805. The settlement had the reputation of lawlessness, and William was seen as the man to handle the situation. Once he was established in office in the capital city of Sydney, William began implementing his model of what an effectively functioning administration in a royal colony should be.

William immediately made it his goal to bring discipline to soldier, clerk, and administrator alike. He wanted the government to run smoothly, efficiently, and answerable for the choices each person made. This emphasis on responsibility came from his time in the Royal Navy, having captained ships for years before his appointment. He would confront people to their faces, often embarrassingly so, and publicly call out any infraction of law or rule. But, the people of New South Wales, both in the government and the settlers, were not used to this confrontational style of management. As you can imagine, William’s tactics rankled everyone he interacted with.

In addition, William wanted to stop any illegal (that is, not taxed) trade that came to or went out of Sydney. Well, again, things in New South Wales had been done differently for years, and the people there who made a living trading illegally weren’t about to put up with some hot-shot administrator coming in and messing with their livelihoods.

Finally, the government officials, soldiers, and even the settlers of the area had seen enough. In 1808, they all marched on the government house and had William arrested in what became known as the Rum Rebellion (rum being the biggest illegally traded money maker in the area). He was put aboard a boat and sent to Tasmania. There, he attempted to raise British troops to go back to Sydney and re-take the government, but, even there, he managed to rankle the authorities so much that they dismissed his requests.

Poor William! News traveled slowly then from literally the other side of the world. By 1810, word reached him that the British government had declared the rebellion to have been a mutiny since troops were involved. He was assured that the guilty would be punished. He also received word that he had been replaced a governor. William was a broken man by this time; while he received a promotion, he would never get another significant appointment or command for the rest of his career.

Of course, this wasn’t an unusual event in William’s life. No, he had experienced something similar several years earlier. You see, it was in 1789 that a man named Fletcher Christian had led another mutiny against Captain William Bligh of the HMS Bounty.