Why the British defeated the Zulus?

Answer 1

Sir Bartle Frere was responsible for starting the Zulu war. He was the British High Commissioner in southern Africa and he ignored repeated orders* from London from Sir Michael Hicks Beach to refrain from starting the war. He could have stopped it or delayed it but chose to go ahead, even though he knew that this decision was beyond his remit.

Frere was convinced that the British Empire was vulnerable to Russian attack, particularly along the North East border of India. The Balkan crisis further threatened to put Russia in control of Constantinople and therefore of the Eastern Mediterranean and Suez - the main supply route from Britain to India.

(In fact, the Russian army stayed within a day's march of Constantinople right through the Zulu war and Britain stood at the brink of war against Russia in Afghanistan.)

Britain wanted South Africa to be a safe pro-British bastion on the route to British India and as a strategic naval base. Russia had a 'volunteer navy' especially for the purpose of raiding and robbing British imperial ports. Bartle Frere's primary mission was to shore up the defenses of the colony. But he found the Russian attack issue complicated by Boer revolts against British rule, a powerful Zulu nation which disputed its borders, local wars and border violations. Frere thought that the colony would never be safe if the Zulu King Chetshwayo and his 40,000 warriors did not respect British hegemony.

Chetshwayo, like the British administration, did not himself want war and he even hoped for British help against the Boers. Frere ignored a telegram from London and issued an ultimatum to the Zulus with which Frere knew the Zulus could never comply - it would have been a complete subjugation to British rule. Frere invaded Zululand and suffered a terrible defeat at Isandlwana.

(*Bartle Frere was not alone in resisting orders from London and taking a bellicose stand locally in order to protect the empire, as there was a strong body of opinion that the empire was under threat and action on the ground was necessary to protect it: in Sudan, India, Afghanistan, Malaysia.)

Answer 2

The Zulus were a warrior culture by the time the voortrekkers arrived there. They were used to being the dominant force in the whole of Southern Africa and attacked them out of a misplaced sense of superiority. They were an aggressive nation, whose armies massacred tribes ranging from the eastern cape through the Freestate and as far as Western Transvaal. Diplomacy fro the Zulu's were conducted at the tip of the assegaai. So when they were faced with new comers in their territory they did what the have done for the past 200 years which was to attack.

Answer 3

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