University of Johannesburg History 2A 2023

ould vary. In the event it was a different story that had to be told. Lord Chelmsford, the commander-in-chief, established his camp at Isandlwana on 20 January 1879. During the next three days a British battalion and the camp of the main column was annihilated by a Zulu force anned with spears, while the small British frontier post at Rorke's Drift was successfully defended for several hours.

After their catastrophic defeat at Isandlwana the British told themselves a number of stories in order to be reassured. Lieutenants Coghill and Melvill died at the battle of Isandlwana attempting to save the color, the mystical soul of the battalion that bore the legend of its history, and their "ride to glory" became a powerful symbol of self-sacri

As the battle of Isandlwana came to an end and the victorious impi sacked the British camp, a Zulu force, which had not been involved in the main battle, crossed the Buffalo river to attack the base

On 22 January 1879, the British army suffered its worst colonial defeat of the nineteenth century when 1,500 men armed with the most modern weapons then available were wiped out at the battle of Isandlwana by a Zulu army––an impi––of 25,000 warriors armed only with spears. That an army of this size had slipped past British reconnaissance on the open veldt of South Africa to mount such a successful attack was remarkable in itself, but a second battle on that same day at a small mission station named Rorke’s Drift made these events more remarkable still.

It has often been posited that the British Empire provides an example of greedy capitalists dispossessing indigenous peoples in their search for new markets and raw materials, 1 yet whenever one looks into the particular circumstances of an episode of expansion, it is very difficult to isolate a viable economic motive

. Indeed, it should be sufficient to point out that the major forward moves conducted in South Africa––the annexation of the Transvaal, the occupation of Bechuanaland, and the destruction of the Zulu kingdom––all took place before the discovery of gold. Before this mineral revolution, South Africa was too poor to tempt the British government into increasing its control there for economic reasons.

Christian Slavery, Colonialism, and Violence The Life and Writings of an African Ex-Slave

It becomes evident that the ban on slavery was not an indictment of the institution; rather, it was meant to protect the putative racial, moral, religious, and cultural superiority of the Dutch from heathen infestation.

I AM directed by the Committee of the Church Missionary Society to bring under your Lordship's notice the measures which they have in contemplation for the improve¬ ment of the condition of slaves captured by Her Majesty's cruizers on the East Coast of Africa.

Their presence in large numbers gave the Missionaries an opportunity of classifying the various dialects spoken, and of reducing into written languages those which largely preponderated in the assemblage of tongues.