Britain fought the shortest recorded war in human history against the Zanzibar Sultanate in 1896, with the entire conflict lasting roughly 38 minutes.

A closer look

Britain fought the shortest recorded war in human history against the Zanzibar Sultanate in 1896, with the entire conflict lasting roughly 38 minutes. When Sultan Khalid bin Barghash refused to step down after his predecessor died, the British Royal Navy simply parked offshore and unleashed an absolute bombardment on the royal palace at exactly 9:02 AM. By 9:40 AM, the palace was burning to the ground, the sultan's forces had suffered 500 casualties, and the British had a single injured sailor who probably just tripped over a cannonball. It is a cynical, brutal showcase of colonial-era gunboat diplomacy, where global superpowers resolved complex geopolitical succession crises by essentially acting like an over-armed neighborhood bully with an egg timer!