Thursday, May 18, 2017

A Very Short War From Hermit's History...!

Why is it that they never taught us about the real cool history stuff in school? Too much trouble, I reckon!

Well, here is the Hermit's view of something that they should have mentioned...the shortest war in history! If we have to fight a war, maybe we should follow this example, ya know?

The Shortest War In History



Photo credit: Richard Dorsey Mohun

A mysterious death. A shady relative. A colonial British presence. The perfect ingredients for war.

In 1896, Hamad bin Thuwaini was ruling over Zanzibar, a protectorate of the British Empire, after being instated as a “puppet” sultan by the British. His reign had lasted just three years when he suddenly died in his palace on August 25. Rumor has it that his cousin Khalid bin Barghash had him poisoned, a belief seemingly confirmed by the fact that Barghash quickly moved into the palace and assumed the status of sultan without British permission.

Basil Cave, the chief British diplomat in the area, caught wind of the affair and didn’t approve of the change in leadership. Cave requested the assistance of British military warships stationed nearby. While he awaited permission from Britain to open fire, Barghash gathered his own surprisingly well-armed forces.

At 9:00 AM on August 27, Cave gave the order to begin bombarding the palace. At 9:02 AM, Khalid’s army was essentially destroyed and the palace began to crumble. By 9:40 AM, the sultan had pulled down his flag and the British ended their attack. In 38 minutes, the shortest war in history was over.

See what I mean? History doesn't have to be long, dull, and boring. Dates we would never remember, names we never could pronounce. Instead trhey should have taught us some really interesting like this from Listverse! Would have been much more fun!, don't you think?

Coffee out on the patio. Just pardon the contractor's mess!

7 comments:

Unknown said...
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Momlady said...

You're right. History was boring in school and probably not as accurate as the PTB wanted us to believe. Interesting bit you gave us. Thanks! Hope construction's almost done.

linda m said...

You are so right. That is the kind of war i like - short and to the point. And why can't we learn stuff like that in school instead of having to memorize meaningless dates? Your story was very interesting; thanks.

JO said...

Good post something different and yes why don't you learn these things in school. I bet that some of the history we learned is no longer taught.

Are you staying in the house while all this is going on? Construction is so messy and dusty.
I'm due for patio time and coffee

HermitJim said...

Hey Momlady...
Too much garbage in, means mostly garbage out later, right? Glad you found it interesting!
Yeah, I'm ready for this mess to be done!
Thanks for stopping by today!


Hey Linda...
Hey...if you want to fight, then fight and be done with it. Over and done with!
Thanks for coming by this morning!


Hey Jo...
Different is good sometimes, right? I think you are right that it's probably not taught anymore.
Thanks, sweetie, for the visit today!

Unknown said...

Probably took you almost as long to write the blog, right? Are the contractors doing more than the hall bathroom?

Sixbears said...

If you have to have a war, a short one is the way to go. History is full of cool stories about interesting things and people. Then the school system gets hold of it and sucks all the life out of it.