Zulu!

Christian Parkinson of RedcoatHistory.com has unleashed a barrage of videos relating to the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. The occasion is the Clash of Empires Exposition in London this month. Oh, for a magic carpet…

This is the largest-ever artifact-driven expo on the most famous conflict of the Victorian Era.

On 11 January 1879, British and Colonial troops invaded the Zulu Kingdom, the most powerful African kingdom remaining independent in Southern Africa. The invasion was planned and executed by a British official on the spot, without the sanction of the Government in London. The events that followed have become one of the most famous and studied conflicts of the Victorian Era – the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War. Within two weeks, the Zulu army successfully defeated a British and Colonial field force at the Battle of iSandlwana, destroying half a column and forcing the rest to retire, besieged another at Eshowe and halted the advance of a third in the north of their country. The Zulu victory at iSandlwana would prove the greatest single defeat to be inflicted on the British Army during the Victorian era.

Watch exhibition Co-Curator, Ian Knight provide an overview of the Battle of iSandlwana here:

A smaller engagement at a place called Rorke’s Drift, just across the border from iSandlwana, would capture the popular imagination for generations to come as a single company of British infantry, supported by medical, Commissariat and Colonial troops, held off a vastly superior force of Zulus for over twelve hours. No less than eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded for the action, including seven to members of the 24th Regiment – a record number to a single regiment for a single action, to date – and that includes all the battles of World War I and World War II.

 

The RedcoatHistory.com videos are well worth the time…