The Zulu Kingdom was one of the most powerful states in Southern and Central Africa during its peak in the mid-19th century. The Zulu expansion and domination of their neighbours is credited to the inspirational leader Shaka, who transformed regional warfare, using new weapons and tactics to defeat all comers. Inevitably, the aspirations of the Zulu Kingdom to conquer new resources and territories led it into conflict with European colonists, particularly the Boers and the British. The Zulu Kingdom was conquered and divided following British success in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Zululand was incorporated into the Union of South Africa in 1910, and the kingdom became the province of KwaZulu-Natal in 1994.

The Zulus were originally one clan of the Nguni people who had migrated down into Southern Africa in the 16th century. Originally, the Zulus were mixed farmers, with cattle ownership being the main symbol of prosperity. Indeed, cattle were so important to the Zulu that their language had over 300 words to refer to the subject. Zululand grew around the eastern coast of Southern Africa and expanded to control the area between the Umkusi River in the north and the Tugela River in the south. By the 1820s, the Zulu Kingdom had built itself an empire based on a martial culture where society and the army were strictly divided by age.

Credit for creating this centralised empire is usually given to King Shaka (aka Chaka, reign 1816 to 1828). Shaka was born the illegitimate son of Senzangakhona, an Nguni clan chief. Shaka and his mother were banished from their village, and so they went to live among the nearby Mthethwa people, located to the east. When Shaka reached adulthood, he joined the Mthethwa army and performed well, helped by his height of around 6 feet (1.82 m). Shaka employed alternative tactics to the traditional hit-and-run of the Mthethwa and, instead, promoted attacks where skills in hand-to-hand combat were vital, the enemy was pursued after the battle, and the losers were mercilessly slaughtered. Shaka's success expanded the Mthethwa territory at the expense of the Ndwandwe and Nongoma peoples and brought him his own personal following of warriors.

Between 1810 and 1812, Shaka developed a highly effective manoeuvre, one that later became synonymous with the Zulus. This was the isiCwe or 'Bull's Horns' attack, a manoeuvre which involved enveloping the enemy from two flanks (the 'horns'), drawing them towards the main force, the head or chest of the 'bull', and so completely overwhelming the enemy force. This manoeuvre may have preceded Shaka, but he added a 'loins' element, strengthening the central body where more experienced warriors were stationed.

Following his military success and the death of Senzangakhona, Shaka was able to return to the Zulus and claim kingship around 1816. The new monarch immediately reorganised the Zulu army according to his own ideas and created four distinct regiments. Shaka went on campaign against the Buthelezi (1816) and Ndwandwe (1818) peoples and won great triumphs. Zulu warrior expeditions were regularly sent out beyond the kingdom's borders, principally to seize cattle and extract tribute from militarily weaker neighbours. This was not a policy that could be pursued indefinitely, as the Zulus eventually impoverished neighbouring lands, and expeditions had to be sent further and further afield.

The growth in the Zulu Kingdom, called by the Zulus KwaZulu, came, then, at the expense of other African peoples, who were obliged to move elsewhere or stay and pay tribute to Shaka. Famines and social disruption followed as consequences of Zulu aggression. Conquered peoples were conscripted into the Zulu army, and new chiefs were selected by Shaka, who remained the absolute ruler. The Zulu threat caused a migration of peoples to more northern regions (around modern-day Malawi and Mozambique), a movement and period of disturbance known as the Mfecane (literally, 'crushing'). Although sparsely populated, the region to the north of the Zululand was not empty, and so there was an inevitable clash as various peoples competed for the Highveld grasslands beyond the Drakensberg mountain range. Even a group of Zulus migrated northwards. This was a group led by a rival of Shaka, Mzilikazi, and they moved into what is today part of Zimbabwe. Mzilikazi's Zulus became known as the Matabele and their territory Matabeleland.

Through aggressive expansion, "the Zulu territory changed in two generations from an area of 1200 square miles to a huge expanse twelve times as great, reaching from the region round Utrecht and Luneberg in the west, to the eastern coastline; and from the Pongola River in the north to the Tugela River in the south" (McBride, 3). The frontiers of Zululand were not formally fixed but were maintained through the threat of war. The capital of the kingdom was the royal kraal (enclosure) at Ulundi. Shaka's reign ended with his death in 1828. He was succeeded by his brother and murderer, Dingane. The king of the Zulus from 1872 was Cetshwayo, also known as Chief Cetewayo, who was the nephew of Shaka and had defeated his chief rival and half-brother Mbuyazi.

The wealth of the Zulu Kingdom traditionally came from the rearing of cattle, sheep, and goats. Ownership of cattle was strictly apportioned according to a man's age and rank in Zulu society. Men who lost their cattle through disease or war often left to find paid work in the European colonies, particularly Natal. The objective was to earn enough money to buy new cattle. The kingdom was self-sufficient for its needs, but it did trade with neighbours, principally to acquire firearms. Production of materials (such as shields, pottery, and iron blades) and food was generally divided into specific communities spread around the kingdom. The wealth of the nation came from its surplus, which was siphoned off by the king and his favoured officials.

The Zulu people lived in villages or umizi, which had conical-shaped huts arranged in a circle or oval. The huts had protective walls on either side of them, but a gap was left facing east to serve as an entrance. A large space was left in the centre of the umizi for use as either a cattle enclosure for ordinary villages or a parade ground for military ones. The village chief (inkhosi) had a larger hut than everyone else, while his wives lived in separate huts close by. Zulu culture was a polygamous one. Village chiefs inherited their position from their fathers, and although autonomous, they were subordinate to the Zulu king. The king was aided by a council of elders composed of the most important chiefs and members of the royal family.

Zulu identity was reinforced by the strict hierarchy of its members and such communal activities as festivals. The system where warriors lived separately until their military service was done also helped break down traditional blood ties and create a wider sense of belonging to the Zulu nation. That society and human interaction were important to the Zulus is evidenced in their famous saying, umuntu ungumuntu ngabantu, "man becomes human through association with other human beings." Music and dance were another method to bring people together, with the Zulus employing drums to which communal dancers kept rhythm. Male Zulu dancers tended to employ vigorous movements that displayed physical prowess and stamina, while female dancers concentrated on creating sophisticated step patterns.

Another contact, besides traders, with societies outside the kingdom's border came via White Christian missionaries. Zulu kings were not against missionaries, but attempts to convert people away from traditional Zulu beliefs were not generally successful. Rather, "most Africans found no greater use for missionaries than as informants about the wider world, as scribes for communicating with White authorities, and (if possible) as suppliers of firearms and ammunition" (Curtin, 295).

By 1879, King Cetshwayo could call upon 40,000 warriors in a martial system that had been honed to a high degree of sophistication since Shaka's innovations of 60 years before. Warriors lived isolated from the rest of the Zulu community in stockaded villages. Those men not involved in military service (for example, the aged or adolescents) lived in other villages where the women and children resided and where crops were tended, stock raised, and other necessities of life were manufactured.

The groups of warriors in their separate villages were strictly regimented into age groups, the youngest being 18 or 19 years of age, while the eldest were in their early thirties. Young men who reached the age of military service had their earlobes pierced in a collective ceremony. Young warriors who did well in their military training were given praise names (izibongo). Zulu warriors, then, were unmarried men who were rewarded for military service by being given the right to marry by the king. Married men wore a ring (isicoco) on their heads. Curiously, the Zulu army included three regiments of women warriors whose responsibility was to guard the royal kraal.

The regiments (amabutho, singular: ibutho) built their own stockaded village, an ikhanda, where three or four men slept in each hut. Each regiment had a unique name, such as uFasimba ("haze") or amaPhela ("cockroaches"). Each regiment had its own uniform dress, which gave it a strong sense of esprit de corps and, indeed, helped foster the evident rivalry between regiments. The uniform was composed of particular types and combinations of furs and feathers (for example, scarlet lourie or white ostrich feathers), worn as a headband and bands around the upper arms and lower legs. These insignia were worn in addition to the everyday clothing, which "consisted of a thin belt of hide around the waist, with strips of fur hanging at the front, and a square of softened cowhide over the buttocks" (Knight, 32). A skin cloak (kaross) was worn in cooler weather and used as a sleeping blanket when on the march.

Particular markings on their stiffened cowhide shields also indicated a regiment's identity – typically, the more white shown, the more senior the bearer. Shields (izihlangu) belonged to the regiment, not the individual warriors. The Zulu army on the march, known as an impi, was divided into its regiments, each composed of around 1,500 men and commanded by a general or induna. Military rank was indicated by the wearing of cow tails and animal skins.

The principal weapon of the Zulu warrior was an assegai spear (iklwa), which had a long, thin blade. The assegai's short staff made it ideal as a stabbing weapon. Warriors also carried two or three light throwing spears and sometimes a light club (iwisa), which could also be thrown. Some Zulus had antiquated European rifles and even modern Martini-Henris. Unfortunately for the Zulu king, his warriors' skill in using firearms was not high, although a small number of men who had worked with White hunters in the region did acquire some proficiency as snipers.

Zulu warriors were certainly well-trained in using their traditional weapons. Zulu tactics, on the other hand, were rather limited, as indunas almost always favoured a head-on attack against the enemy. The 'Bull's Horns' tactic did remain effective against a similarly-armed enemy but less so against firearms. A particular strength of Zulu warriors was their ability to march at least 20 miles (32 km) a day, sometimes even double that distance. A Zulu army needed very little logistical support. In the first few days of a campaign, boys accompanied the army and carried corn and beer, but thereafter, warriors were expected to obtain their food by foraging.

In victory, Zulus ritually slashed the abdomen of the fallen enemy, an action which was believed to ensure the soul escaped the body and so could enter the afterlife. It was also believed that if a dead warrior's soul were not released, it might remain in this world and haunt the living. Another Zulu tradition was for the victor to take part of the dead man's clothing and wear it until a ceremony of ritual cleansing had been performed. Finally, a warrior who had performed well in battle won the right to wear a bead necklace that signified his bravery.

Britain controlled the Cape Colony at the tip of Southern Africa from 1806. The colony was a mix of White settlers with Dutch or French ancestry (who called themselves Boers, meaning "farmer" or Afrikaners because they spoke Afrikaans), British settlers, native Southern Africans, African slaves, and people of biracial heritage. Through the 1830s, as the British outlawed slavery and population growth applied too much pressure to land and resources, around 14,000 Boers migrated northwards. The Boers fought both the Ndeble and Zulu peoples. One group of Boers, led by Piet Retief, was massacred by the Zulu king after he invited them to his royal compound. Subsequent Boer settlers, with the advantage of rifles, were more successful. A Boer force led by Andries Pretorius defeated a Zulu army in the 1838 Battle of Blood River. Around 3,000 Zulus were killed in this battle, and in the aftermath, the state was temporarily split between followers loyal to Mpande and his half-brother Dingane. Mpande eventually won this dynastic struggle, but the Zulu Kingdom was weakened as a result of the civil war. Meanwhile, by the mid-1850s, the Boers had taken advantage of the Zulu weakness and managed to establish two new territories for themselves: Transvaal and Orange Free State.

Meanwhile, another British colony was created, Natal, along the Indian Ocean coast and immediately to the south of Zululand, in 1843. Southern Africa suddenly became of much more interest to the British after diamonds were discovered in Griqualand in the late 1860s. This region, which bordered Natal/Cape Colony and Orange Free State, was made a crown colony in 1871. A huge influx of new settlers came, and exports rose dramatically, with diamonds accounting for one-third. As Southern Africa developed economically, railways were built using cheap African labour. The British were now keen to unify the Cape Colony and Natal with the two Boer republics into some sort of federation. One major obstacle to such a plan was the Zulu Kingdom.

The Zulu Kingdom had shown no signs of hostility to its European neighbours. Even a British commission had decided in favour of the Zulus in a territorial dispute with the Transvaal Boers. False reports were sent by British colonial officials to London, strongly suggesting the Zulus were a serious threat to the stability of the region. Benefits of such a war included access to fine grasslands for raising cattle and acquiring a source of cheap labour for the mines, farms, and railways of the European colonies. The British government gave the green light for an invasion of Zululand.

The pretext for invasion was King Cetshwayo's refusal to meet excessive British demands, made in December 1878. Cetshwayo ignored the British ultimatum, as the British intended he would. What the British did not imagine was that Cetshwayo would manage to galvanise his warriors into a formidable fighting force, men who would fight to the death for their homeland. The Zulus were not, as the British had hoped, ruined by disunity, but rather they rallied behind this new threat to their kingdom.

The British invasion began in January 1879, but it began with utter defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana when the Zulu army wiped out the camp of one of the invading columns. The same afternoon and evening saw the British mission station at Rorke's Drift, located just across the Zulu border with Natal, attacked. The Battle of Rorke's Drift ended in the British force of 140 men holding out against up to 4,000 Zulu warriors. The British returned to Zululand with a larger force and, after several engagements, wiped out the Zulu army at the Battle of Ulundi in July 1879.

On 31 August, Cetshwayo was captured and imprisoned. The Zulu Kingdom was divided into 13 rulerships. The Zulu people were obliged to live on 'reserved' land, and although they continued to live under the nominal authority of their tribal chiefs, there was no doubt that the British had the real power. Zulus were now obliged to work as labour on White-owned farms and in the colony's diamond and new gold mines. The Zulu leadership was beset by factional infighting, and even the reinstatement of Cetshwayo in 1883 could not resolve the crisis.

Zululand became a crown colony in 1887 and was absorbed into Natal in 1897. White farmers were given access to two-fifths of Zululand between 1902 and 1904 and used it to grow sugar and wattle and raise cattle. In 1906, a Zulu rebellion, the Bambatha uprising (named after the minor Zulu chief who led it), which was motivated partly by a tax on huts and the loss of Zulu land to White farmers, was brutally quashed. Natal and the former territory of Zululand became part of the Union of South Africa, a new British colony formed in 1910. As more and more Zulus migrated to work in the colonists' mines and money was used to buy food instead of growing it, traditional Zulu society broke down, and a rift developed between the younger and older generations who tried to continue elements of Zulu culture.

The Zulu monarchy continues to rule KwaZulu-Natal, a province of today's South Africa. In addition, the Inkatha Freedom Party, whose base expresses a Zulu identity, won around half of the votes in South Africa's first free elections in 1994, and the party continues to play an active role in the governance of South Africa today.