Battle of Isandlwana

Overview

The Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879 was the second major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom – the Battle of Nyezane having been fought and won earlier on the same day by Colonel Pearson's Coastal Column. Eleven days after the British invaded the Zulu Kingdom in Southern Africa, a Zulu force of some 20,000 warriors attacked a portion of the British main column consisting of approximately 1,800 British, colonial and native troops with approximately 350 civilians. The Zulus were equipped mainly with the traditional assegai iron spears and cow-hide shields, but also had a number of muskets and antiquated rifles.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Isandlwana marked the first major defeat of the British Empire by an African force during the Anglo-Zulu War and came eleven days after Britain's invasion of the Zulu Kingdom. A Zulu force of some 20,000 warriors attacked a portion of the British main column numbering approximately 1,800 British, colonial, and native troops along with roughly 350 civilians, killing approximately 1,300 of them at a cost of between 3,000 and 5,000 Zulu dead. The scale of the loss — nearly the entire engaged British force — immediately undermined the momentum of the invasion and forced a reassessment of British operational assumptions about Zulu fighting capability. Despite a British victory the same day at the Battle of Nyezane under Colonel Pearson's Coastal Column, Isandlwana dominated the strategic picture and compelled a prolonged British response before the campaign could be resumed.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (8)