The Battle of Isandlwana
Thursday, December 19, 2019
In the history of conquest, those with better technology usually defeat less developed cultures. But occasionally that scenario is reversed, and the supposedly-"primitive" side is able to prevail.
Sheer numbers saved the day for the Zulu warriors who overcame superior British firepower at the Battle of Isandlwana, the first major battle of the Anglo-Zulu War which took place near an isolated hill in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province on January 22nd, 1879.
The Zulu were armed mainly with thrusting spears (called "assegai") as well as wooden clubs and cow-hide shields. A few old muskets and antique rifles were on hand, but the Zulu were generally poor marksmen, and had little in the way of powder or shot. However, they were well-drilled in the use of their hand-held weaponry, and in fact, they considered the use of firearms to be cowardly, as it prevented a fighting man from encountering his opponent face to face and hand to hand.
On the night of January 20th, the well-armed British force of 4,000 encamped near Isandlwana, but--typically underestimating their enemy's skills--failed to take proper precautions. The British commander then took over half of his men out of camp to seek out what he thought was the main Zulu army, but instead was a small diversionary movement.
Meanwhile, some 20,000 Zulu had camped in a nearby valley the following day, and were planning to attack on the 23rd. But they were discovered by a British scouting party on the 22nd, and immediately rushed the British camp, taking battle formations as they ran. The camp held fewer than 1,800 men when the Zulus attacked.
Remarkably, at approximately 2:30 on the afternoon of the battle, a solar eclipse occurred, but seems to have had little effect on the fighting.
When the battle was over, over 1,300 British soldiers and their allies were dead, and the Zulus took vast quantities of weapons and provisions. Somewhere between 1,000 and 2,500 Zulus had been killed.
The first British invasion of Zululand had failed, but the British army reinforced itself and ultimately won the war.