Today, in keeping with the topic of my last essay, we'll be looking at another real world example of colonialism at its most arrogant and destructive. Today, we'll be looking at the rise and fall of the mighty Zulu Empire, basing our study on the worst defeat ever inflicted on a modern army by an inferior force: the 1879 Battle of Isandlwana. Today, we'll be comparing it to an event that was, in fact, quite deliberately based off the period: the 0 ABY Battle of Maridun. Now, before we jump straight into it, I would just like to say that today's topic is quite personal, not only because I absolutely LOVE the two movies that this conflict spawned (1964's Zulu and 1979's Zulu Dawn) but because I happen to have a very small personal connection to this period: Redvers Buller, the British soldier who experienced a series of disastrous defeats during the Second Boer War but won a Victoria Cross for bravery during the Zulu War, was a distant relative of my family. To say that the connection is tenuous (much my link to "Colonel Anne") is an understatement, but it is a connection nonetheless and one I'm very proud of. Just wanted to share that with y'all. Now, on with the show!

• Prelude: Paradise Found... And Exploited

The rise of the Zulu Kingdom and the establishment of Boer republics across South Africa had not gone unnoticed by the British Empire. At its most powerful after defeating the great Napoleon Bonaparte and with the Scramble for Africa well on the way, the Empire set its sights on conquering fresh territories and exploiting a country that had recently become rich in ivory and diamonds. This meant two things: keeping the Dutch settlers in line and subjugating the natives. However, both objectives would prove to be easier said than done: the Boers had trekked deeper inland to escape British influence and the natives were fiercely territorial- the Zulus were a proud nation of warriors that had dominated the Eastern Cape for over eight decades, turned from a scattered confederacy of pastoral farmers into a unified kingdom of merciless warriors by their bloodthirsty king, Shaka Zulu. Drilled in hand-to-hand combat and a battle tactic known as the "Horns of the Buffalo", they were a devastating fighting force to be reckoned with whose lands stretched from the Pongola River to the Drakensberg Mountains. They constituted a grave threat to British interests and required immediate subverting. However, the British quickly discover that they had something of a fight on their hands...

In the wake of the Clone Wars and the subsequent downfall of the Jedi Order, the planet of Maridun likewise came the attention of the powerful Galactic Empire as an untouched paradise in dire need of exploitation. The planet had been originally colonised by a small group of Lurmen pacifists under the leadership of Tee Watt Kaa. Like Boers, they had come out to the edge of the galaxy seeking to distance themselves from the harmful influences of the dominant intergalactic superpower and like the Boers, they had met with fierce resistance from the planet's native inhabitants: the Amanin, ferocious warriors who (like the Zulus) fought with spears, lived in huts (or "kraals"), kept oral histories through "lorekeepers" and participated in a ritualised form of intertribal warfare known as a "takital". Like the Zulus, they were a proud and extremely territorial people, suited to life in the steamy jungles or sunbaked savannah plains of Maridun. The Lurmen had been allowed to settle because they kept themselves to themselves and because they had given the Amanin their spaceship, but where the Lurmen had gone, the Empire would swiftly follow. With a dire need for raw materials and a rebellion on the way, the Empire was only too eager to stage an invasion and set up mining facilities across the planet. Subjugating a bunch of savages armed with spears would be easy, or so they thought...

After the Battle of Blood River, the Zulus had been driven back. King Mpande had attempted to negotiate a fragile state of peaceful coexistence with the foreign invaders, giving the settlers designated tracts of land to live upon and using neighbouring Swaziland as a buffer zone. But it wasn't enough for the Boers and it would never been enough for the English. Allying themselves with the Dutch (and their soon-to-be-famous "kommandos"), the Empire had pushed further inland, subjugating the Xhosa over the course of nine wars and claiming the entire Eastern Cape. The conquered natives were subsequently assimilated, stripped of their rights and forced to give up their beloved culture. The Boers snuggled up to their British allies, temporarily placing the topic of "Boer independence" on a back-burner. However, there was still one big blank spot left on the map: the Zulu Kingdom...

• Crossing the Rubicon: Empires at War

The British Empire had sent Sir Henry Bartle Frere to subjugate the Xhosa and for his services, Frere had been made High Commissioner of South Africa by Lord Carnarvon. An experienced colonialist who had helped to crush the Indian Mutiny, Sir Henry was well-suited to the task of subjugating a primitive race of hunter-gatherers, but the task of subjugating the Zulus would prove to be less simple than he thought: the Zulus had kept within the borders of their kingdom and though they had remained a warlike people, they had not (as yet) launched any kind of attack...

They had also elected themselves a new king: Cetshwayo, and although he was (like his ancestors) a born warrior, Cetshwayo was a man who sought peace above all else. This would never do. If he was going to invade the Zulu Kingdom, Sir Henry would require sufficient justification; the British Government had not approved his plans for invading Zululand yet. So, Sir Henry sent Cetshwayo an ultimatum that was deeply humiliating, to say the least. He ordered the Zulu king to (among other things) disband his army, abolish the Zulu practice of arranged marriages and submit to the British Empire and any of its vassal states. On top of all that, he ordered Cetshwayo to pay a compensation fee of 600 cattle (cows being the Zulu currency) for failing to respond punctually. What he proposed was simple: that the Zulu people give up the warrior ways that were such an integral part of their culture and become serfs to the British Empire. Understandably outraged (wouldn't you be?), Cetshwayo came up with a counter-offer: he would not make war upon the white man as long as he kept to his side of the Buffalo River. Sir Henry was pleased: battle lines had been drawn and now, all he had to do was force the king's hand. However, he would have to act quickly: what he proposed was an unapproved military expedition into sovereign Zulu territory, without justification. So, Sir Henry turned to his old friend, Lord Chelmsford, and entrusted him with the conquest of the Zulu Kingdom...

On the 11th of January, Lord Chelmsford set off from his base at Natal and crossed the Buffalo River, making his way into the heart of Zululand with over 15,000 battle-hardened troops, six field guns, a small body of irregular cavalry, approximately 2,500 members of the Natal Native Contingent (the South African equivalent of Indian scouts) and even some early rocket launchers. Then, he headed north, meeting only minimal resistance along the way. However, unbeknownst to Chelmsford, the enemy was well aware of his coming and had already outmanoeuvred him, sweeping down around his flanks to converge on the base camp he had established at Isandlwana. Now, it was Cetshwayo's turn to strike. The arrogant lord would soon discover just how badly he had underestimated his foe...

The mines of Maridun had been delivering as promised but the local tribes still posed a serious threat to the Empire. The Amani had watched their uninvited guests with curiosity, waiting to see which way the wind blew and dressing their war lances for battle in anticipation. Then, shortly after the Battle of Yavin IV, a supply convoy unwittingly crossed the borders of one of their sacred takital battlegrounds, thus initiating a blood feud between the Amani and the Imperials. The enraged Amanin moved quickly, striking at the convoy's destination and massacring the undefended mining facility to the last man...

• Amani Dawn: The Massacre at Isandlwana

When entering Zululand, Lord Chelmsford had initially divided his forces into three large columns. Now, as he moved on Cetshwayo's court at Ulundi with the Number 1 Column, he divided his forces again, leaving behind just over 1,800 men to guard the camp at Isandlwana. These troops were placed under the combined command of the Number 2 Column's Henry Pulleine, an inexperienced adjutant administrator, and the Number 3 Column's Anthony Durnford, a one-armed veteran of the Xhosa Wars and a respected commander of the Native Contingent. Though armed with cannon, cavalry and breach-loading Martini-Henry rifles, the Isandlwana garrison had not been permitted by Lord Chelmsford to fortify their position with a laager. They were left out in the open, facing an unfamiliar enemy on unfamiliar ground and though Durnford had begged the general to rethink his strategy, Chelmsford had blindly chosen to push on, leaving the two undermanned columns to their fate. The shocking revelation of the Zulu encirclement came on the morning of January 22nd, at around 11:00 AM, when a cavalry patrol discovered a force of over 20,000 Zulu warriors camped in one of the neighbouring valleys. As the patrol withdrew to warn its commanders, the Zulus seized their opportunity and attacked...

Upon reaching the ransacked mining facility, the supply convoy's leader, General Ziering, had (unlike Lord Chelmsford) taken the wise precaution of fortifying the base, erecting barricades, digging trenches and using the convoy's twin Juggernaut transports as cover. Along with a company of stormtroopers, the convoy was equipped with a set of E-Web blasters, however, during a night attack by the Amani (that had seen General Ziering robbed of one of his eyes), one of the Juggernaut's radios had been sabotaged, meaning that although they had superior firepower, the Imperials (like the British) were now cut off from reinforcements and stranded in the middle of nowhere, fighting an unfamiliar enemy on unfamiliar terrain. Ziering would sent out Captain Gage to survey the area but the captain's patrol was promptly massacred the moment he stepped into the tall grasses. And as the entrenched Imperials looked out across the plains, their blood ran cold, for they saw the entire Amani host surrounding their base on every side, their spears dressed for battle with the skulls of their enemies...

Flooding across the plains in their thousands, a churning sea of glittering assegais and chequered cowhides, the Zulu warriors started to use the infamous battle technique their ancestors had perfected eight decades ago: the Horns of the Buffalo. Dividing their ranks, the Zulu impi would form four detachments: the head, the loins, the left horn and the right horn. The head would move forward, drawing the enemy in while the horns curved around its exposed flanks. Then, the trap would close, with the loins coming up to reinforce the head and horns, thus surrounding and annihilating the entire enemy body. However, owing to their lack of discipline (the Zulu army was, in essence, a militia), the Zulus had lost their initial battle formation, charging straight into the thin red lines that had formed in front of the camp. The Zulus promptly discovered the battle tactic that had allowed their enemies to beat Bonaparte at Waterloo: the volley. Using this devastating rate of fire to their advantage, the redcoats at Isandlwana were able to keep the Zulus pinned down until some time in the early afternoon, when their lack of ammunition started to take its toll and the Buffalo's horns began to curve around their flanks. The British quickly became surrounded, their cannons and rockets making little difference as Cetshwayo's battle-hardened warriors poured through the camp, massacring every soldier they came across. Fixing their bayonets, the remaining redcoats fought back-to-back, their stoic bravery in the face of certain death mirroring the stoic bravery of their Zulu adversaries. While Colonel Pulleine perished with his command, Colonel Durnford would rally his colonial troops to mount a heroic last stand at the wagon park on the edge of the camp, holding back the left horn long enough for a large group of survivors to make their escape. However, by 3 PM, the position had been overrun...

After an ill-fated sortie led by Commander Frickett, the Imperial troops under General Ziering settled in for a gruelling two-day siege. During this siege, the second Juggernaut would be destroyed, rendering the convoy well and truly lost. But the brave stormtroopers (yes, even they were brave here) wouldn't give up without a fight. As with the Zulus, the Amanin found themselves faced with a devastating volley as they rolled towards the Imperial lines. The stormtroopers would catch the fearless warriors in a cross-fire, driving them back with thermal detonators as they swarmed over the trenches...

However, the more warriors they killed, the more kept coming, driving the stormtroopers all the way back to their reserve trench. Using the E-Webs, Ziering would buy the men under his command some much-needed time to prepare for the final assault before mounting a last stand of his own at the wreckage of an AT-TE walker. As the Amanin launched their attack, the general would go down fighting alongside his troops, dying a true soldier's death as his position was overrun and the last of his men prepared to meet an undoubtably grisly end, barricaded up inside the belly of the walker... But the end never came. Moved by their unwavering bravery in the face of overwhelming odds, the Amani chief had deemed the remaining Imperial troops worthy of mercy. Pulling his forces back, the Amani led his warriors away from the smoking battlefield, their takital concluded...

A catalogue of mistakes had beset the soldiers camped at Isandlwana. Their overall commander had split his forces and prevented the camp from constructing a laager. The camp's defences had not been properly handled by the inexperienced Pulleine and Durnford had only weakened those defences by taking his irregular cavalry out to impede the right horn's advance. The ammunition flow had been critically slow, the boxes screwed down with rusty nails and the much-needed bullets kept from the redcoats being disemboweled and dismembered on the front lines. Not enough scouts had been posted in the buildup to the battle, Lord Chelmsford kept busy chasing red herrings as he advanced on Ulundi. Even when he had had an opportunity to come to Durnford's aid, Chelmsford had chosen to stay put out of blind obstinacy instead, stating: "But I left over 1,000 men to guard the camp". And the soldiers at Isandlwana had paid the ultimate price for Chelmsford's blunders, with over 1,300 of them lying dead on the plains of Isandlwana. Even the colours had not survived the fighting, snatched from dead hands of lieutenants Coghill and Melvill during their flight from the camp, when the Zulus had managed to corner them, owing to the fact that your average Zulu warrior could run nearly as fast as a horse, even when he was carrying his spear and shield. The Battle of Isandlwana would go down in history as the worst defeat ever inflicted upon a modern army by a technologically inferior force. Through a truly reckless combination of arrogance and ignorance, Chelmsford had played straight into Cetshwayo's hands, though the Zulu king's great victory would have self-destructive consequences...

• Aftermath: An Empire's End

After the defeat at Isandlwana, Lord Chelmsford would be recalled to Parliament to answer for his actions. However, before he could return to England, Chelmsford would unfortunately save himself from a much-deserved sacking by accomplishing the goal Sir Henry Bartle Frere had originally set him: the conquest of Zululand. After victories at Kambula, Gingindlovu and (most famously) Rorke's Drift, Chelsmford would launch a second invasion of Zululand. Only this time, he came prepared, bringing over 5,000 soldiers, 10 cannons and two Gatling guns with him as he attacked Ulundi. Though the Zulu impis fought bravely and used the same tactic that had granted them victory at Isandlwana, they were inevitably defeated by Chelmsford's superior firepower. Cetshwayo, the Zulu king who had defied the might of the British Empire, was taken prisoner and forced to watch as his people were enslaved and his proud warrior culture was destroyed. Parliament and the British people had been unfortunately galvanised by the massacre at Isandlwana and were only too happy to see the Zulu Empire crumble. Some would continue the fight, though they would befall the same sad fate. The power of the Zulu Empire had been irrevocably broken, its once-great and unified kingdom split into 13 individual states that would become engulfed in civil war as a result of the power vacuum caused by Cetshwayo's dethronement. The Zulu king would adapt to the English way of life, dressing in western clothes and visiting Queen Victoria to beg for his kingdom's reunification. He was sent back to Zululand to quell his troubled people but died in mysterious circumstances, succeeded by his son, Dinuzulu, and later his great-grandson, Buthelezi (who would actually go on to play Cetshwayo in the movie, Zulu)...

However, by subjugating the Zulu nation, Sir Henry had only set the British Empire up for another fall. The Zulu War and the subsequent Scramble for Africa had alienated the very people who had previously helped the British to conquer the Eastern Cape: the Boers. And in a few decades, that snub would finally be answered. A reckoning was long overdue...

In the troubled aftermath of the Battle of Maridun, the Amanin would likewise experience the same hardships as the Zulus. Maridun was annexed (as was Zululand, in 1887) and exploited for its resources. Most the Amanin who'd dared to stand up against the Empire were sold into slavery and the ones who weren't became either mercenaries or (like the members of the Natal Contingent) scouts for the Imperial Army, helping to hunt down and capture their warrior brothers...

Exploitation and enslavement. Tyranny and tragedy. Warriors and warmongers. Putting the far-reaching consequences of these twin periods of colonisation to one side, the battles of Maridun and Isandlwana stand out as epic testaments to the arrogance of empires and the bravery of soldiers- black or white, Zulu or redcoat. Sadly, the exploitation of the African continent would not end on the Cape, as we shall go on to see in the near future with my next comparison...

I hope you've enjoyed this comparison and have hopefully discovered something new about a part of history that is as epic as it is tragic. Feel free to leave some feedback or checkout my previous analysis posts via my hub. God bless, Aragorn :))

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