#Zula europe royal case full#
#Zula europe royal case free#

On 11 December 1878, with the intent of instigating a war with the Zulu, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, on his own initiative and without the approval of the British government, presented an ultimatum to the Zulu king Cetshwayo in terms with which he could not possibly comply: that the Zulu army be disbanded and the Zulus accept a British resident. However, the British pressured him into withdrawing, which he did shortly. Mpande began raiding the surrounding areas, culminating in the invasion of Swaziland in 1852. This resulted in numerous deaths, and the fleeing of thousands of refugees into neighbouring areas (including the British-controlled Natal). In 1843, Mpande ordered a purge of perceived dissidents within his kingdom. Mpande shifted his allegiance to the British, and remained on good terms with them. However, in 1842, war broke out between the British and the Boers, resulting in the British annexation of Natalia. Mpande and Pretorius maintained peaceful relations. Mpande then took over rulership of the Zulu nation.įollowing the campaign against Dingane, in 1839 the Voortrekkers, under Pretorius, formed the Boer republic of Natalia, south of the Tugela, and west of the British settlement of Port Natal (now Durban). Dingane was assassinated near the modern Swaziland border. Mpande, the half-brother who had been spared from Dingane's purges, defected with 17,000 followers, and, together with Pretorius and the Voortrekkers, went to war with Dingane. The remaining Voortrekkers elected a new leader, Andries Pretorius, who led a crushing attack on the Zulu forces and Dingane at the Battle of Blood River on 16 December 1838, when 15,000 Zulu impis (warriors) attacked a group of 470 Voortrekker settlers led by Pretorius.įollowing his defeat, Dingane burned his royal household and fled north. The site of this massacre is today called Weenen, ( Dutch for 'to weep'). Dingane's army then attacked and massacred a group of 250 Voortrekker men, women and children camped nearby.

Some allege that they were killed for withholding some of the cattle they recovered, but it is likely that the deal was a plot to overpower the Voortrekkers. Retief and his men were overpowered, taken to the nearby hill kwaMatiwane, and executed. At the peak of the dance, Dingane leapt to his feet and yelled 'Bambani abathakathi!' ( isiZulu for 'Seize the wizards'). On 6 February, at the end of the celebrations, Retief's party were invited to a dance, and asked to leave their weapons behind. The next day, a treaty was signed, wherein Dingane ceded all the land south of the Tugela River to the Mzimvubu River to the Voortrekkers. This Retief and his men did, returning on 3 February 1838. ĭingane asked that Retief and his party retrieve some cattle stolen from him by a local chief as part of the treaty for land for the Boers.

#Zula europe royal case free#

In November, about 1,000 Voortrekker wagons began descending the Drakensberg mountains from the Orange Free State into what is now KwaZulu-Natal. In October 1837, the Voortrekker leader Piet Retief visited Dingane at his royal kraal to negotiate a land deal for the voortrekkers. While travelling they first collided with the Ndebele kingdom, and then with Dingane's Zulu kingdom. In an attempt to form their own state as a protection against the British, the Boers began moving across the Orange River northwards.

Military innovations such as the assegai, the age-grade regimental system and encirclement tactics helped make the Zulu one of the most powerful clans in southern and south-eastern Africa.īefore encountering the British, the Zulus were first confronted with the Boers. Īn offshoot of the Zulu, the amaNdebele, better known to history as the Matabele created an even larger empire under their king Mzilikazi, including large parts of the highveld and modern-day Zimbabwe. By 1822, Shaka had conquered an empire covering an area of around 80,000 square miles (210,000 km 2). The death toll has never been satisfactorily determined, but the whole region became nearly depopulated. The Ngoni people fled as far north as Tanzania and Malawi. Within two years, Shaka had defeated Zwide at the Battle of Mhlatuze River (1820) and broken up the Ndwandwe alliance, some of whom in turn began a murderous campaign against other Nguni tribes and clans, setting in motion what became known as Difaqane or Mfecane, a mass-migration of tribes fleeing the remnants of the Ndwandwe fleeing the Zulu. The alliance under his leadership survived Zwide's first assault at the Battle of Gqokli Hill (1818).

#Zula europe royal case full#

Another important reform integrated defeated clans into the Zulu, on a basis of full equality, with promotions in the army and civil service becoming a matter of merit rather than due to circumstances of birth.