On 11 January 1879, when General Chelmsford’s ultimatum to the Zulu Ingonyama uCetshwayo kaMpande to disband the regiments and lay down arms had been ignored, a British Army of approximately 18 000 troops, cavalry and hundreds of wagon trains loaded with food, weapons and equipment, crossed the Tugela River and invaded Zululand.
As the Commander-in-Chief of British forces during the Anglo-Zulu War, General Chelmsford initially planned a five-pronged invasion of Zululand composed of over 16,500 troops in five columns and designed to encircle the Zulu army and force it to fight, as he was concerned that the Zulus would avoid battle. The centre of gravity was the Zulu capital, Ulundi, which was about 120 kilometres inside Zulu territory.
The invasion was part of the grand design of bringing the whole of Southern Africa under British imperialism’s political and economic control, which depended on smashing conclusively both the military power and the agrarian self-sufficiency of the Zulu people. This greedy plan was succinctly expressed by the master of treachery and deceit, Theophilus Shepstone, who, as Secretary for Native Affairs in Natal, reported regretfully after attending Ingonyama Cetshwayo’s coronation in 1872 that the Zulus “were so attached to their regimental system” that the “recruitment of labour from that people” was impossible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNfe-WjN758
Thank you to Phindile Zulu for putting together this video.
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