Battle of Isandlwana

Battle context

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.