Isandhlwana, Tuesday, 21 Jan 1879

At the close of the Nineteenth Century, Britain's formidable sea power had brought about an expansive, albeit fragile, colonial empire. Some former colonies, like the United States, had wrested independence from the Empire, but most hadn't. It was an Empire upon which "the sun never set," and it was the envy of France, Germany, and Russia. However, the precariously thin spread of Britain's military strength was a matter of great concern in London, as was the fact that Britain's economic primacy was now under serious assault from both the United States and Germany.

Two centuries earlier, the Dutch had beat Britain to the southern tip of Africa, important because of its geographical position on the sea route to India. The Cape Colony was established in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company. Staunchly religious (Calvinist) Dutch farmers, and French Huguenots (fleeing religious persecution in France), who had settled the Cape Colony, in the eyes of the British, lacked the political sophistication necessary to exploit the area properly. More disturbingly, they were much more friendly to Germany than to England.

So, the Cape was important, strategic real estate and, in the eyes of the British at the dawn of the Nineteenth Century, ripe for the picking. Like the Romans before them, it was inconceivable to the British that anyone would not want their brand of civilization. They really thought they would be welcomed in south Africa. They weren't! Cape residents resisted the British expeditionary force but were quickly defeated by General James Craig at the battle of Wynberg in 1795. By 1810, armed resistance had faded away. The Netherlands formally ceded the Cape Colony to Britain in 1814. However, smouldering resentment on the part of the Dutch never weakened and would explode once more at the end of the Century during the Anglo-Boer Wars.

Indigenous Cape populations consisted mostly of Khoisan (Bushman) tribesman, of which Hottentots were the most prevalent variety. The Dutch referred to them as "Kaffirs," meaning "unconverted." Even the British adopted the term. Hottentots accepted the presence of the Dutch and readily interbred with visiting sailors. White women were scarce. Mixed-race babies became commonplace.

Khoisans, as well at Pigmys, who were all hunter/gatherers, had themselves been pushed out of most of the rest of south Africa by aggressive Bantu farmer/ranchers, coming down from west Africa. When they pushed north and east from the Cape, Dutch frontiersmen encountered the first of the Bantus, the Xhosa. The Xhosa were much more contentious and territorial than the Khoisan. Conflict was violent as new territories were actively contested. The "Kaffir Wars" went on more or less continuously for the rest of the century.

Back at the Cape, Dutch settlers, like so many other colonists, swiftly developed a sincere dislike for the British, British governmental institutions, and the English language. The British had an annoying habit of making second-class citizens out of all non-British. So, many Dutch left the Cape for the south African interior. Others pushed eastward up the coast. All wanted to get out of the reach of British influence. In fact, the "Great Treck," starting in 1836, took on a profound religious significance with the Dutch. At the Battle of Blood River in December of 1838, Dutch "Voortrekkers" decisively defeated a large Zulu army. They took this as a sign that their presence in the interior of south Africa was sanctioned from on high.

The term, "Zulu," meant "the heavens" and referred to a tenuous amalgamation of Bantu tribes. The mixture was ruthlessly held together by a dynasty of strong, military chiefs. Through an aggressive, amoebic foreign policy, Zulus terrorized neighboring tribes and gradually became the dominant force in the interior of south Africa.

Native African horses, like Zebra, were never successfully domesticated, and, unlike American Indians, neither the Khoisan nor the Bantu ever developed an interest in horses and horsemanship. No one knows why. That was their ultimate undoing, as Dutch settlers were skilled horsemen and used their superior mobility to consistently outmaneuver tribesmen (and later, British infantry), who could only walk or run.

In the 1840s (the "hungry forties") the Irish potato famine dried up British army recruitment in Ireland. In 1854-56 Britain was at war with Russia. In 1858, there was a substantial revolt against British forces in India. In 1868, British troops invaded Ethiopia. Maintaining and expanding a colonial empire keep the British busy! However, constant armed conflict also kept both the British Army and Navy at the top of their game. They were not about to let valuable colonies slip away.

Accordingly, no matter how hard the Dutch (called "Boers") in south Africa tried to get away from the British, the British moved in right behind them and promptly recolonized the new neighborhoods. An autonomous, Dutch state (sympathetic to Germany) within south Africa was seen as being in direct conflict with British interests.

However the Boers had become a significant military force in their own right, and, in 1852, the British Governor of the Cape, Sir Harry Smith, under the threat of Boer military intervention, reluctantly signed the Treaty of Sand River, in which considerable autonomy was granted to Andries Pretorius (the hero of Blood River) and his Transvaal and Orange Free State. Bliss was short lived! When diamonds, and later gold, were discovered in the Orange Free State in the 1860s, trouble started all over again.

Ignoring their own treaty, the British annexed the diamond territory in 1871 and ultimately all Dutch-controlled area. In 1880 the Dutch rose up in rebellion (the First Anglo-Boer War) and were astoundingly successful. Armed conflict lasted less than three months. The British were stunned! Prime Minister Disraeli was ousted as a result, replaced by Gladstone. The end result was muddled. Gladstone reinstated Dutch autonomy to Transvaal, but it remained a British colony. It was an utterly unworkable situation, and, predictably, war again erupted (the Second Anglo-Boer War) in 1899. This time, it would not end until 1902.

In Europe, the Boer Wars were pushed off the front page by the Boxer Rebellion in China. Likewise, Americans were more concerned with the Spanish-American War in Cuba and the Philippines. Russians were consumed with the Russo-Japanese War in Manchuria. So, the Boer Wars were regrettably consigned to an obscure corner of history. Most people today have no idea they ever took place.

At the dawn of the Twentieth Century, Dutch settlers in Africa abandoned the label of "Boer" (meaning "farmer") and started calling themselves "Afrikaners," and their Dutch dialect was dubbed "Afrikaans."

*****

In the midst of all these global developments, the Battle of Isandhlwana (the centerpiece of the Anglo-Zulu War, one of the never-ending Kaffir Wars) took place in January of 1879, less than three years after the Battle of the Little Big Horn in America.

In August of 1877, Sir Bartle Frere was appointed governor of the Cape Colony. Frere was anxious to open up farmland in south Africa and at the same time put down revolting tribesmen, who were a constant nuisance to existing farmers. Past experience with local Bantus of the Hlubi and Putuni extraction had convinced Frere that none of them were capable of credible resistance. He had shot them down by the thousands and enslaved the rest, even though slavery was supposed to be illegal in all British colonies. General Frederic Thesiger, 2nd Barron of Clemsford, know to most simply as "Clemsford," had fighting experience in Ethiopia in 1868 and had been personal aid to Queen Victoria. With a general like that, Frere was confident he could now proceed to northern section of Natal Provence and take on the vaunted Zulu Nation itself.

So, on the flimsiest of pretexts, Frere notified Chief Cetshwayo of the Zulus that he must surrender at once. He then declared war on the Zulu Nation without even waiting for a reply! Clemsford was directed to organize an invasion force and proceed without delay. In an eerie replay of the Little Big Horn disaster, Clemsford hastily threw together a task force. Planning, coordination, and training were all deficient. Supplies too were woefully inadequate, but he pressed forward anyway. On 11 Jan 1879 Clemsofrd's force entered Zululand.

Soldiers were armed with a Martini-Henry, breech-loading rifle in 45 caliber. Like the trapdoor Springfield, it was an accurate piece, but basically a sporting rifle. It overheated during high-volume fire, causing spent cartridges to refuse to extract. When their rifles thus went down, soldiers were left with only bayonets and pistols.

Zulu warriors were armed with a skin-covered shield and a short, stabbing spear, called an assegai, which they used in a low, stabbing motion similar to that used by Roman Legionaries many centuries earlier. However, Zulus were masters of massed formations. They could, in unison, run, shift directions, and go to ground as if operating on one brain. In unison, they could chant, stomp the ground, and strike their spears against their shields. The din was deafening! Most frightening, they could absorb hideous casualties and still keep coming as if nothing had happened. They were confident that they could be effective even against British infantry, particularly when they were spread too thin and were armed with rifles that overheated!

Mount Isandhlwana, deep in Zululand, looks like an iceberg jutting out of the prairie. Its nearly vertical sides are unscaleable. It could be seen for miles and served as a convenient landmark for Clemsford's task force. Leaving a company to protect Rorke's Drift (ford), he went forward toward the mountain. Unknown to Clemsford, Chief Cetshwayo had taken the invasion threat seriously and had assembled an army of 10,000 warriors, far more than anyone had imagined! Clemsford had fewer than one thousand regulars and assorted local militia, and he had them spread out so thinly that mutual support was impossible.

One of Clemsford's mounted scouting patrols, chasing some tribesmen over a hill, blundered into Cetshwayo's army. The Zulus immediately charged in unison. Lieutenant Colonel Pulline's regiment was directly in their path, and Pulline was hopelessly unprepared. Like Custer before him, he had only thin lines of infantry standing in the open. Ammunition that would shortly be desperately needed was far the rear and had not even been unboxed. A dire message was sent to Clemsford, "For God's sake, come back. The camp is surrounded!"

In four hours the entire regiment was overrun. Red uniforms were submerged is a sea of black flesh! Of 915 white soldiers at Isandhlwana, only fifty-five survived and only by escaping on horseback. Two thousand Zulus were also killed.

Clemsford did receive the message but discounted it as just a frightened, inexperienced officer in a state of foolish panic. Only hours later, when he bothered to check on Pulline's camp, did he discover the full scope of the disaster. He and his entire command were horrified at the sight! The entire regiment, including Pulling himself, had been massacred. No one in a red uniform had survived. Many rifles were found with spent cartridges stuck in the chamber!

The company left at Rorke's Drift did survive, only because they formed dense lines of riflemen behind parapets. Thus deployed, they were able to stop the Zulu charges.

Frere was recalled. Discredited, he died five years later a broken man.

Clemsford had another chance at the Zulus a few months later. This time, he formed dense squares of infantry with Gatling Guns on the corners. Zulus were mowed down like wheat, and the downfall of the Zulu Empire was assured. However, he was recalled to England. His friendship with the queen saved him from court martial, but his blunder was well noted, and he was consigned thereafter to ceremonial posts. He would never again have a command.

Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the defenders of Rorke's Drift, as that was the part of the battle everyone wanted to remember. Isandhlwana was quickly forgotten. A year later, the British would have their hands full once more, this time with the Boers!

Lessons: "From history we learn that we've learned nothing from history." Arrogant men with condescending disdain for their opponents set themselves up for disaster. The lessons of Little Big Horn were there for everyone to see, but they were ignored.

On the other side of the coin, even though no one gave the Zulus much credit, they found a way to win, even against a technologically superior foe. Those who take the time to look for a way to win usually find it!

/John