Bombardment of the Palace
- When
- 27 August 1896
- Where
- Palace complex at Zanzibar Town, including the Beit al Hukum Palace
British forces bombarded the palace after the ultimatum expired at 09:00 on 27 August 1896. The conflict lasted between 38 and 45 minutes, marking it as the shortest recorded war.
The ultimatum expired at 09:00 local time on 27 August; the passages do not state the exact moment shelling began. British forces, including two cruisers, three gunboats, and marines, surrounded the Sultan's palace. Around 2,800 Zanzibaris defended the palace. The Royal Navy destroyed the Beit al Hukum Palace, a structure within the palace complex at Zanzibar Town. Some shots were fired ineffectually at pro-British troops as they approached.
Sources
- Anglo-Zanzibar War Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-11
- Zanzibar Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-04
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.