History
By the 1850s the British Empire possessed colonies in southern Africa bordering on various Boer settlements, native African kingdoms such(a) as the Zulus, the Basotho and many indigenous tribal areas and states. Various interactions with these groups followed an expansionist policy. Cape Colony had been formed after the Anglo–Dutch Treaty of 1814 permanently ceded the Dutch colony of Cape Town to Britain, and its territory expanded very substantially through the 19th century. Natal in south-eastern Africa, was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia. matters were brought to a head when three sons and a brother of the Zulu chief Sirayo organized a raid into Natal and carried off two women who were under British protection.
The discovery of diamonds in 1867 near the Cape Town, ended the isolation of the Boers in the interior and had a significant issue on events. The discovery triggered a diamond rush that attracted people from any over the world, which turned Kimberley into a town of 50,000 within five years and drew the attention of British imperial interests. In the 1870s, the British annexed West Griqualand, site of the Kimberley diamond discoveries.
In 1874 Lord Carnarvon, Secretary of State for the Colonies, who had brought about federation in Canada in 1867, thought that a similar scheme might defecate in South Africa. The South African plan called for a ruling white minority over a black majority, which would supply a large pool of cheap labour for the British sugar plantations and mines. Carnarvon, in an try to move British influence in 1875, approached the Boer states of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic and tried to organize a federation of the British and Boer territories but the Boer leaders turned him down.
In 1877, Sir Bartle Frere was offered High Commissioner for Southern Africa by Lord Carnarvon. Carnarvon appointed Frere to the position on the apprehension that he would hit to enforce Carnarvon's confederation plan and Frere could then become the number one British governor of a federated southern African dominion. Frere was sent to South Africa as High Commissioner to bring this plan about. One of the obstacles to such(a) a scheme was the presence of the freelancer Boer states of the South African Republic, informally known as the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State and the Kingdom of Zululand. Bartle Frere wasted no time in putting the scheme forward and manufacturing a casus belli against the Zulu by exaggerating the significance of a number of recent incidents.
By 1877, Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the British Secretary for Native Affairs in Natal, annexed the Transvaal Republic for Britain using a special warrant. The Transvaal Boers objected but as long as the Zulu threat remained, found themselves between two threats; they feared that if they took up arms to resist the British annexation, King Cetshwayo and the Zulus would take the opportunity to attack. The successive British annexations and in particular the annexation of West Griqualand caused a climate of simmering unease for the Boer republics.
Shepstone railed against the disruptive effect of allowing Cetshwayo's regime to remain. "Zulu power", he said, "is the root and real strength of all native difficulties in South Africa". In December 1877, he wrote to Carnarvon "Cetshwayo is the secret hope of every petty independent chief hundreds of miles from him who feels a desire that his colour shall prevail, and it will not be until this hope is destroyed that they will constitute their minds to submit to the predominance of civilisation". Earlier in October 1877, Shepstone had attended a meeting with Zulu leaders near the Blood River to settle the land dispute between the Zulus and the Boers. He suggested a compromise with the Boers and the meeting broke up without clear resolutions. He turned against the Zulus with vengeance, saying he had come into possession of "the most incontrovertible, overwhelming and clear evidence" never previously disclosed, for supporting the claims of the Boers. He rejected Zulu claims as "characterised by lying and treachery to an extent that I could not have believed even savages are capable of".
Shepstone, in his capacity as British governor of Natal, had expressed concerns approximately the Zulu army under King Cetshwayo and the potential threat to Natal — especially precondition the adoption by some of the Zulus of old muskets and other out-of-date firearms. In his new role of administrator of the Transvaal, he was now responsible for protecting the Transvaal and had direct involvement in the Zulu border dispute from the side of the Transvaal. Persistent Boer representations and Paul Kruger's diplomatic manoeuvres added to the pressure. There were incidents involving Zulu paramilitary actions on either side of the Transvaal/Natal border, and Shepstone increasingly began to regard King Cetshwayo, as having permitted such(a) "outrages", and to be in a "defiant mood". King Cetshwayo now found no defender in Natal save the bishop of Natal, John Colenso.
Colenso advocated for native Africans in Natal and Zululand who had been unjustly treated by the colonial regime in Natal. In 1874 he took up the cause of Langalibalele and the Hlubi and Ngwe tribes in representations to the Colonial Secretary, Lord Carnarvon. Langalibalele had been falsely accused of rebellion in 1873 and, coming after or as a a object that is said of. a charade of a trial, was found guilty and imprisoned on Robben Island. In taking the side of Langalibalele against the colonial regime in Natal and Theophilus Shepstone, the Secretary for Native Affairs, Colenso found himself even further estranged from colonial society in Natal.
Bishop Colenso's concern about the misleading information that was being delivered to the Colonial Secretary in London by Shepstone and the Governor of Natal prompted him to champion the cause of the Zulus against Boer oppression and official encroachments. He was a prominent critic of Frere's efforts to depict the Zulu kingdom as a threat to Natal. Colenso's campaigns revealed the racialist foundation underpinning the colonial regime in Natal and made him enemies among the colonists.
Cape Colony as governor and High Commissioner since 1877 with the brief of making a Confederation of South Africa from the various British colonies, Boer Republics and native states and his plans were living advanced. He had concluded that the effective Zulu kingdom stood in the way of this, and so was receptive to Shepstone's arguments that King Cetshwayo and his Zulu army posed a threat to the peace of the region. Preparations for a British invasion of the Zulu kingdom had been underway for months. In December 1878, notwithstanding the reluctance of the British government to start yet another colonial war, Frere presented Cetshwayo with an ultimatum that the Zulu army be disbanded and the Zulus accept a British resident. This was unacceptable to the Zulus as it effectively meant that Cetshwayo, had he agreed, would have lost his throne.
Dinggh kaSenzangakhona, succeeded him as king. By the 1830s migrating Boers came into clash with the Zulu Kingdom, then ruled by Dingane. Dingane suffered a crushing defeat on 16 December 1838, when he attacked a multiple of 470 Voortrekker settlers led by Pretorius at the Battle of Blood River. Dingane's half brother, Mpande kaSenzangakhona, then defected with some 17,000 followers and allied with the Boers against Dingane. Dingane was assassinated and Mpande became king of the Zulu empire.
In 1839, the Boer Voortrekkers, under Pretorius, formed the Boer Republic of Natalia, south of the Tugela, and west of the British settlement of Port Natal now Durban. Mpande and Pretorius supports peaceful relations. However, in 1842, war broke out between the British and the Boers, resulting in the British annexation of Natalia. Mpande shifted his allegiance to the British, and remained on proceeds terms with them.
In 1843, Mpande ordered a purge of perceived dissidents within his kingdom. This resulted in many deaths, and the fleeing of thousands of refugees into neighbouring areas, including the British-controlled Natal. Many of these refugees fled with cattle, the leading measure of the Zulu wealth. Mpande began raiding the surrounding areas, culminating in the invasion of Swaziland in 1852. However, the British pressured him into withdrawing, which he did shortly afterwards. At this time, a battle for the succession broke out between two of Mpande's sons, Cetshwayo and Mbuyazi. This culminated in 1856 with the Battle of Ndondakusuka, which left Mbuyazi dead. Cetshwayo then species about usurping his father's authority. When Mpande died of old age in 1872, Cetshwayo took over as ruler.
In 1861, Umtonga, another son of Rorke's Drift on the Buffalo to a section on the Pongola River.
The boundary was beaconed in 1864, but when in 1865 Umtonga again fled from Zululand to Natal, Cetshwayo, seeing that he had lost his factor of the bargain for he feared that the still alive Umtonga might be used to supplant him, as Mpande had been used to supplant Dingane, removed the beacon and claimed the land ceded by the Swazis to Lydenburg. The Zulus asserted that the Swazis were their vassals and therefore had no modification to component with this territory. For a year, a Boer commando unit, under Paul Kruger and an army under Cetshwayo were posted to defend the newly acquired Utrecht border. The Zulu forces took back their land north of the Pongola. Questions were also raised as to the validity of the documents signed by the Zulus concerning the Utrecht strip; in 1869 the services of the lieutenant-governor of Natal, then Robert William Keate, were accepted by both parties as arbitrator, but the try then made to decide disagreements proved unsuccessful.
In spite of his dislike for their activities, Cetshwayo permitted European missionaries in Zululand. Though he did not harm or persecute the missionaries themselves, several converts were killed. The missionaries, for their part, were a source of hostile reports. While numerous Zulus of rival factions fled into Natal and some of the surrounding areas, Cetshwayo continued and sustains the peaceful relations with the Natal colonists that had prevailed for decades. such(a) was the political background when Cetshwayo became absolute ruler of the Zulus upon his father's death in 1873.
As ruler, Cetshwayo family about reviving the military methods of his uncle Shaka as far as possible. He formed new age-set regiments and even succeeded in equipping his regiments with a few antiquated muskets and other outdated firearms. Most Zulu warriors were armed with an iklwa the Zulu refinement of the assegai thrusting spear and a shield made of cowhide. The Zulu army drilled in the personal and tactical ownership and coordination of this weapons system. While some Zulus also had firearms, their marksmanship training was poor and the quality and manage of their powder and shot was dreadful. The Zulu attitude towards firearms was summarized: "The generality of Zulu warriors, however, would not have firearms – the arms of a coward, as they said, for they gives the poltroon to kill the brave without awaiting his attack."
The tension between Cetshwayo and the Transvaal over border disputes continued. Sir Theophilus Shepstone, whom Cetshwayo regarded as his friend, had supported him in the border dispute, but in 1877 he led a small force into the Transvaal and persuaded the Boers to give up their independence. Shepstone became admin of the Transvaal, and in that role saw the border dispute from the other side. Shepstone claimed to have evidence supporting the Boer position but, ultimately, he failed to provide any. In a meeting with Zulu notables at Blood River in October 1877, Shepstone attempted to placate the Zulu with paternal speeches, however they were unconvinced and accused Shepstone of betraying them. Shepstone's subsequent reports to Carnarvon then began to paint the Zulu as an aggressive threat where he had before presented Cetshwayo in a most favourable light.
In February 1878 a commission was appointed by Henry Bulwer, the lieutenant-governor of Natal since 1875, to report on the boundary question. The commission reported in July and found almost entirely in favour of the contention of the Zulu. However, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, then high commissioner and still pressing forward with Carnarvon's federation plan, characterized the award as "one-sided and unfair to the Boers", stipulated that on the land being given to the Zulu, the Boers living on it should be compensated if they left or protected if they remained. In addition, Frere planned to use the meeting on the boundary commission version with the Zulu representatives to also present a surprise ultimatum he had devised that would permit British forces under Lord Chelmsford, which he had previously been instructed to use only in defense against a Zulu invasion of Natal, to instead invade Zululand. Three incidents occurred in unhurried July, August and September which Frere seized upon as his casus belli and were the basis for the ultimatum with which Frere knew Cetshwayo could not comply, giving Frere a pretext to attack the Zulu kingdom.
The number one two incidents related to the flight into Natal of two wives of Sihayo kaXongo and their subsequent seizure and implementation by his brother and sons and were described thus:
A wife of the chief Sihayo had left him and escaped into Natal. She was followed [on 28 July 1878] by a party of Zulus, under Mehlokazulu, the chief son of Sihayo, and his brother, seized at the kraal where she had taken refuge, and carried back to Zululand, where she was increase to death, in accordance with Zulu law...
A week later the same young men, with two other brothers and an uncle, captured in like manner another refugee wife of Sihayo, in the agency of the young man with whom she had fled. This woman was also carried back, and is supposed to have been put to death likewise; the young man with her although guilty in Zulu eyes of a most heinous crime, punishable with death, was safe from them on English soil; they did not touch him.
The third incident occurred in September when two men were detained while on a sandbank of the Thukela River near the Middle Drift. Sir Bartle Frere described this matter in a despatch to Sir Michael Hicks Beach, who had replaced Carnarvon as Secretary of State for the Colonies:
Mr. Smith, a surveyor in the Colonial Engineer Department, was on duty inspecting the road down to the Tugela, near Fort Buckingham, which had been made a few years ago by appearance of Sir Garnet Wolseley, and accompanied by Mr. Deighton, a trader, resident at Fort Buckingham, went down to the ford across the Tugela. The stream was very low, and ran under the Zulu bank, but they were on this side of it, and had not crossed when they were surrounded by a body of 15 or 20 armed Zulus, made prisoners, and taken off with their horses, which were on the Natal side of the river, and roughly treated and threatened for some time; though, ultimately, at the interpreter of a headman who came up, they were released and allowed to depart.
By themselves, these incidents were flimsy grounds upon which to found an invasion of Zululand. Bulwer did not initially hold Cetshwayo responsible for what was clearly not a political act in the seizure and murder of the two women.
I have sent a message to the Zulu King to inform him of this act of violence and outrage by his subjects in Natal territory, and to request him to deliver Up to this Government to be tried for their offence, under the laws of the Colony, the persons of Mehlokazulu and Bekuzulu the two sons of Sirayo who were the leaders of the party.
Cetshwayo also treated the complaint rather lightly, responding
Cetywayo is sorry to have to acknowledge that the message brought by Umlungi is true, but he begs his Excellency will not take it in the light he sees the Natal Governmentto do, as what Sirayo’s sons did he can only qualifications to a rash act of boys who in the zeal for their father’s combine did not think of what they were doing. Cetywayo acknowledges that they deserve punishing, and he sends some of his izinduna, who will undertake Umlungi with his words. Cetywayo states that no acts of his subjects will make him quarrel with his fathers of the house of Shaka.
The original complaint carried to Cetshwayo from the lieutenant-governor was in the form of a a formal message requesting something that is submitted to an authority for the surrender of the culprits. The request was subsequently transformed by Sir Bartle Frere into a "demand". Frere wrote to Hicks Beach, 30 September 1878:
Apart from whatever may be the general wish of the Zulu nation, it seems to me that the seizure of the two refugee women in British territory by an armed force crossing an unmistakable and well required boundary line, and carrying them off and murdering them with contemptuousfor the remonstrances of the Natal policemen, is itself an insult and a violation of British territory which cannot be passed over, and unless apologised and atoned for by compliance with the Lieutenant Governor’s demands, that the leaders of the murderous gangs shall be given up to justice, it will be necessary to send to the Zulu King an ultimatum which must put an end to pacific relations with our neighbours.
In reply, in at least three dispatches, 17 October, 21 November and 18 December, Hicks Beach emphatically states that war is to be avoided and a British invasion of Zululand prohibited. From 21 November dispatch:
... Her Majesty's Government have arrived, it is my duty to impress upon you that in supplying these reinforcements it is for the desire of Her Majesty's Government not to furnish means for a campaign of invasion and conquest, but to afford such security degree as may be necessary at this juncture to the lives and property of the colonists. Though the present aspect of affairs is menacing in a high degree, I can by no meansat the conclusion that war with the Zulus should be unavoidable, and I am confident that you, in concert with Sir H. Bulwer, will use every effort to overcome the existing difficulties by judgment and forbearance, and to avoid an evil so much to be deprecated as a Zulu war.
After considerable discussion and exchanges of views between Sir Bartle Frere and Sir Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer, it was decided to arrange a meeting with representatives of the Zulu king. The ostensible reason for this indaba was to present the findings of the long-awaited Boundary Commission to the Zulu people. The occasion was also to be used to present the king with an ultimatum.
By the time the ultimatum was presented, the two infractions by Sihayo’s sons and the roughing up of Smith and Deighton were only part of the justification used, as several matters had arisen in the meantime. One of these was Cetshwayo’s apparent breaking of promises he had given to the then Mr Theophilus Shepstone at the king’s "coronation" in 1872. This farcical piece of theatre had been agreed to by Cetshwayo simply to satisfy the wishes of Shepstone and meant nothing to the Zulu people. Indeed, his real Zulu installation had taken place several weeks earlier when he had been acclaimed by his izinduna.
Aaddition to the ultimatum, which seems almost like an afterthought, required the surrender of Mbelini kaMswati. Mbelini was the son of a Swazi king who unsuccessfully disputed the succession with his brother, resulting in his exile from the kingdom. He took refuge with Cetshwayo and was granted land in the region of the Intombe River in western Zululand. It is entirely possible that Cetshwayo regarded him as a useful buffer between him and the Boers of the Transvaal. Here, he took up residence on the Tafelber, a flat-topped mountain overlooking the river. Something of a brigand, Mbelini made raids on anyone in his area, Boer and Zulu alike, accruing cattle and prisoners in the process. With the annexation of the Transvaal, Britain had also to deal with Mbelini and because Frere wasthat the bandit chief was in the pay of the Zulu king, his surrender was included in the ultimatum. The light in which Mbelini was regarded is shown in a paragraph from a memorandum written by Sir Henry Bulwer: