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The world was astonished by the Isandlwana war. It was inconceivable that a native army, heavily armed with stabbing weapons could ever manage to hold off forces from a western power equipped with modern rifles and artillery, much less completely destroy it. The Zulu battle was just another colonial wildfire battle of the kind that simmered constantly in various areas of the British Empire until news of the catastrophe reached Britain. The loss of a regiment of soldiers, the news of which reached Britain throug telegraph altered the country's perspective on the battle.

By forming a federation of British colonies and Boer Republic in 1877, Lord Carnarvon, Secretary of State for the colonies, hoped to increase British imperial authority in South Africa. To carry out his strategy, he selected Sir Bartle Frere as British High Representative. Frere was required by Carnarvon's doctrine to take over Zululand, a warrior kingdom that bordered Natal and the Transvaal. Frere's requests for federation and the dissolution o the Zulu Army were rejected by King Cetshwayo since doing so would have meant losing his hold on power When a force under Lieutenant General Lord Chelmsford invaded Zululand in January 1879 to impose British demands, war broke out. The majority of Zulus only carried shields and spear into war. They were still strong opponents, though. They had remarkable maneuverability, were brave in the face of danger and were skilled in hand to hand fighting. The majority of the war's battled depended on British firepower to keep the Zulus at bay.

The British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom engaged in their first significant battle in the Anglo-Zulu War at the Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879. A Zulu arm of roughly 20000 warriors attacked a segment of the British main column made up of about 1800 British, colonial, and native troopswith about 350 civilians, eleven days after the British invaded Zululand in Southern Africa. Despite having far inferior weaponry, the Zulus outnumbered the British and eventually overpowered them, killing almost 1300 soldiers including everyone on the forward firing line. Between 1000 and 3000 Zulu soldiers were slaughtered. The Zulus won the war and as a result the first British invasion in Zululand was defeated.

For many of the nineteenth century, the Zulu Kingdom was recognized as the biggest and most powerful government in southeat Africa. The Zulu Kingdom period spans the pre colonial and early colonial eras of southern Africa, beginning with its formation in the late 1810's under King Shaka kaSenzangakhona and ending with its demise as an independent kingdom as a result of British Invasion during the rule of King Cetshwayo kaMpande in 1879. Our picture of the Kingdom has been largely shaped by a rich collection of narratives by trader, travellers and missionaries, colonial paper and document oral histories.

The British engaged in war with the Zulu empire in 1879. Zulu warriors fought courageously, and they were only subdued after a string of exceptionally brutal engagements that will forever be recorded in the annals of colonial warfare.