IMPERIALSTRATEGY AND THEANGLO–ZULUWAR OF1879DAMIANP. O’CONNOROn22 January1879, the British army suffered its worst colonial defeat of thenineteenth century when 1,500 men armed with the most modern weapons thenavailable were wiped out at the battle of Isandlwana by a Zulu army––animpi––of25,000 warriors armed only with spears. That an army of this size had slipped pastBritish reconnaissance on the open veldt of South Africa to mount such a successfulattack was remarkable in itself, but a second battle on that same day at a smallmission station named Rorke’s Drift made these events more remarkable still. Here,120 men decided to stand and fight rather than flee the advancingimpithat had justwiped out their comrades. At bayonet point, they fought a last-round defenseagainst 4,000 Zulu warriors which earned them a victory and eleven VictoriaCrosses––the highest number of the highest award for bravery ever bestowed on asingle day in British military history. In 1964, this remarkable battle was immor-talized in Cy Enderfield’s classic filmZuluwhich, among other things, providedMichael Caine with his first screen role and generated an interest in the Anglo–ZuluWar of 1879 which has scarcely abated today. Indeed, the historiography on theevents of this war is now remarkably complete; we know more about the militaryevents of this war than perhaps any other. Still open to question, however, is whythose famous Redcoats were fighting Zulus at all, and the search for an answer tothis question has led to some conclusions that were not at all obvious.It has often been posited that the British Empire provides an example of greedycapitalists dispossessing indigenous peoples in their search for new markets andraw materials,1yet whenever one looks into the particular circumstances of anepisode of expansion, it is very difficult to isolate a viable economic motive. This isDamian P. O’Connor is a doctoral research student at the University of East Anglia, UnitedKingdom.1. See for example, A. Duminy and C. Ballard, eds.,The Anglo-Zulu War: New Perspectives(Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1981); R. L. Cope,Ploughshare of War: TheOrigins of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879(Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1999);</spa

WO 32/7773: Overseas: South Africa (Code 0(AU)): Zulu War: General Wolseley on Disposition of Forces to Capture