In 1840, the British launched the Opium War to open the door to China, but the Qing army was repeatedly defeated in the face of the Qing army. In the Battle of Bali Bridge, the most elite Mongol cavalry of the Qing government was defeated by the British and French cavalry, which made the Chinese people extremely desperate.
The empire is famous for not setting, and the footprints of the British army are all over the world, running amok and no one can control it.
Is it true that the British army cannot be defeated? In fact, a group of indigenous people once beat the British troops to the point of throwing away their armor, what was going on?
First, the expansionist ambitions of the British
Britain was the first country in the world to carry out the industrial revolution, and since the mid-to-late 18th century, the level of industrialization has been greatly improved, and the comprehensive national strength has increased rapidly, becoming the most powerful country in the world.
The expansion of national power fueled the expansion of ambitions, and the British at that time had industrial and military strength as a backing, and soon embarked on the path of colonial expansion.
In 1814, the British defeated the Dutch, forcing the Dutch to hand over the Cape Town colony in South Africa to the British, thus beginning the history of colonization of South Africa.
Since then, the British government has invested a lot of energy in the Cape Town colony, which has become an important British military and material base between the two oceans.
At the same time, the Zulu Kingdom in eastern South Africa also began to rise, expanding its territory through military operations. At this time, the Zulu Kingdom did not border the Cape Town colony that the British had just taken over, and there were several tribal territories separated between the two sides.
It was not until 1843 that the British annexed the Republic of Natalia and the colony expanded to border the Zulu Kingdom. When the British annexed the Transvaal Republic in 1877, the only thing left in eastern South Africa to compete with the British was the Zulu Kingdom.
The pace of British expansion will certainly not stop there, and the British government is eager to establish South Africa as a Federal State similar to Canada, providing Britain with a steady stream of abundant resources by sending whites to rule over blacks and using black natives as cheap labor for plantations and mines.
In order to achieve this goal, the British needed to eliminate the kingdoms originally located in south Africa, so that Africans would lose their independent status and economic self-sufficiency, so that Africans who had been living and working in peace and contentment would have to work for the British.
The Zulu Kingdom became the last obstacle for the British in this region, and as long as the Zulu Kingdom was destroyed, the British could fully control the region.
Second, the Zulu people rose up in resistance
After identifying the Zulu Kingdom as an obstacle, the British began to study how to annex the country and began to develop plans for aggression.
But the plan was shelved for a long time because Disraeli, who was British prime minister at the time, did not support the move. The Prime Minister disagreed, but the colonial officials remained ambitious, and they resorted to various means to try to force the Zulus to comply.
Before the war began, the British adopted a strategy of division and disintegration within the Zulu Kingdom, weakening the Zulu Kingdom step by step by inducing local troops to break away from the rule of the zulu political center.
In December 1978, the Governor-General of the British Colonies issued an ultimatum to the zulu army, asking them to disarm and "submit" to Britain, or the British would carry out a military invasion of the Zulu kingdom.
Under the british military threat and disintegration, there were certain differences within the Zulu Kingdom, and some generals openly rebelled, but more people chose to share the same hatred and die with the Zulu Kingdom.
In the anger of the Zulu Kingdom, the British policy of division and disintegration could only be summarily concluded.
In January 1978, Lord Chelmsford, the senior commander of South Africa, led more than 18,000 British troops and mercenaries to invade the Zulu Kingdom in three ways, and he himself was personally responsible for the middle offensive.
At that time, South Africa was in the middle of the busy farming season, and the people of the Zulu Kingdom were busy working in the fields. The British deliberately chose to attack at this time, hoping to catch the other side off guard. Unexpectedly, the small actions of the Early British had already made the rulers of the Zulu Kingdom wary, and they had already secretly begun to prepare for war.
The scene where the British army had expected to easily crush the Zulu army did not appear, and the young strength of the Zulu army was not busy with labor, but had already gathered and waited for the arrival of the British army.
The British army undoubtedly faced stubborn resistance from the Zulus. The Zulu army also defeated the main Force of the British Army at the Battle of Isandlwana, causing heavy losses to the British army and having to temporarily retreat.
Even if the envisaged perfect opportunity to attack was lost, the so-called invincible Empire of the Sun Was actually defeated by the Zulu people's frontal attack.
3. The British army loses its armor and armor
At the end of January 1878, lord Chelmsford's Middle Route Army crossed the Fitz River and reached the vicinity of Mount Isandlvana. As soon as the British arrived, the rulers of the Zulu Kingdom received relevant information, immediately mobilized the main force to quietly reach Isandlwana, and ordered the troops to ban fireworks to avoid exposure. At the same time, he also let small groups of troops constantly harass the British army, making the British think that there was only a small part of the Zulu army on this side.
After careful investigation, the Zulu king found that the situation was not optimistic. The British army was well equipped and even had the most advanced thermal weapons. Although the Zulu Kingdom had more than 20,000 excellent soldiers, it was equipped with only primitive spears and round-nosed rods, which could not be compared with the British army. The Zulu kingdom had to find another way - "to move the tiger away from the mountain".
After the implementation of the "tiger away from the mountain", the Zulu state sent a small force disguised as the main force of the Zulu, made a big move, and marched very ostentatiously in the direction of the British East Road Army, trying to lure some British troops out of the camp and actively weaken their own strength.
When the British discovered this, they believed that the main force of the Zulu Kingdom had gone to the Eastern Route Army. At that time, the Eastern Route Army was weak and could not resist the attack of the Zulu army. Therefore, most of the troops were hurriedly mobilized and rushed to the direction of the Eastern Route Army. In this draw, there were fewer than 1,800 British troops left in the Isandlvana camp.
After the main British army left, the Zulu king led the Zulu army that was the first to ambush here and attacked the British camp. The Zulu army had an absolute numerical superiority, while the British army was suddenly attacked in a disorderly manner, and could not organize an effective counterattack, and was suddenly killed and wounded.
In less than 3 hours, more than 1,300 British soldiers were killed, and the Zulu army won a great victory.
The battle was the biggest defeat suffered by the British army in South Africa. Although the Zulu army they faced was poorly equipped, the belief in defending the country was very firm, and the empire of the sun that did not set on the sun and the enemy had to end in a dismal end.
Text/Leyu
Reference source: "Study on the Zulu War against the British in South Africa", Gold Wide