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The Battle of Isandlwana (alternative spelling: Isandhlwana) on 22 January 1879 was the first major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom.
- 22 January 1879
Learn about the Zulu War battle of 1879, where the Zulus defeated a British force of 1,200 men and killed their commander. Find out the details of the battle, the Zulu army, the British regiments and the aftermath.
Battles of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift, (Jan. 22–23, 1879), first significant battles of the Anglo-Zulu War in Southern Africa. In December 1878 Sir Bartle Frere, the British high commissioner for South Africa, issued an ultimatum to Cetshwayo, the Zulu king, that was designed to be impossible to.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jan 25, 2014 · Learn how a force of 20,000 Zulus annihilated a British contingent of 1,800 men in 1879, and how this battle became a symbol of black resistance in South Africa. Hear the stories of the Zulu warriors and their descendants who keep the memory alive.
- Tristan Hughes
- Lord Chelmsford invaded Zululand with a British army on 11 January. The invasion came after Cetshwayo, the king of the Zulu Kingdom, did not reply to an unacceptable British ultimatum that demanded (among other things) he disband his 35,000-strong army.
- Chelmsford made a fundamental tactical error. Confident that his modernised army could easily quash Cetshwayo’s technologically inferior forces, Chelmsford was more worried that the Zulus would avoid fighting him on the open field.
- 1,300 men were left to defend Isandlwana… Half of this number were either native auxiliaries or European colonial troops; the other half were from British battalions.
- … but the camp was not suited for defence. Chelmsford and his staff decided not to erect any substantial defences for Isandlwana, not even a defensive circle of wagons.
Learn how a British invasion of Zululand in 1879 led to a disastrous defeat at Isandlwana, where 20,000 Zulu warriors attacked a camp of 1,300 British soldiers. Find out the causes, course and consequences of the battle and the war that followed.
May 8, 2017 · Learn about the 1879 battle that saw the British army defeated by the Zulu warriors in South Africa. Find out the background, the course, and the aftermath of this historic clash.
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