Country: South Africa
Group: Zulu
Date Finalized: 3/23/2020
Team: Jayline Martin (lead), Colleen Clauss, Payton Young
The Zulu war was a six-month war that took place in 1879 in Southern Africa and led to British rule in the area. The British had justified the invasion of Zululand as an attempt to rid it of a cruel tyrant. They saw it as “bringing European and Christian standards of morality and law to a tyrannized people” (Lieven, 1999). British reports at the time painted the killings and invasion of the British as a justified, heroic actions. As many as 10,000 Zulu may have been killed during the conflict (Knight, 2014). In addition, Zulu dwellings were burned, cattle corrals destroyed, and cattle taken (Lieven, 1999). Numerous historical studies document these events (data quality = 3).
Sources
- Lieven, M. (1999). ‘Butchering the brutes all over the Place’: Total war and massacre in Zululand, 1879. History, 84(276), 614-632.
- Knight, I. (2014). The Zulu War 1879. Bloomsbury Publishing.