Hello and welcome to this episode of Epochs where we shall be talking all about the Anglo-Zulu war of the 19th century and I am joined by Nick Hughes. How are you sir?

I'm very well thanks and hello to everybody watching yeah the thanks for your time and it's a

really interesting topic this there's quite a lot to say about it even though in the

grand scheme of of the history of war it is quite a small affair I think nonetheless

six months is it tops sorry it takes it takes place over six months right yes

six or seven months yeah and like the casualties in again in the scheme of things aren't very big and all that sort of thing but it's it's got all sorts of cultural repercussions because we're going to talk about the Anglo-Zulu world which took place in like the 1878 to 79

mainly in 1879 there's the film Zulu and also Zulu dorm and so we're going to just talk about everything to do

with this topic. So I thought maybe if it's alright with you I could sort of just do a few

quick minutes just setting up the sort of the background to it.

So very quickly because we want to get onto the events of that year and the famous battles.

Well, Europeans had been sailing round the cape, the bottom of Africa there since the 14th, 15th century. It wasn't until the very, very early 19th century, the Napoleonic era

when Britain relieved the Dutch of control of the cape basically and over the next few decades

We get more and more traders in there more and more missionaries and things and in the end it became the Cape colony or Natal.

And so by the 1870s, we'd basically sort of without even really trying as such.

That's the story of the British Empire in all sorts of ways,

isn't it, without even really explicitly trying,

just pushed more and more inland

until we come up against the sort of the biggest most powerful tribe in South Africa which was the Zulu.

And they'd consolidated their power in the last few centuries, going back to the great Shakazulu himself.

But by the 1870s, they were a little bit, I'll put a map up so everyone can see, they're sort of sandwiched between the Boer Republicans and Natal.

And so that's sort of, in a very, very, very brief nut shell where we find ourselves.

Yes. And if you want to say any words about that.

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