The first indentured Indian workers arrive in Natal

Hintsa was shot while attempting to escape British custody. His killing became a lasting symbol of colonial betrayal and Xhosa resistance.

Four years after formal abolition, the enforced apprenticeship period ended. Formerly enslaved people gained legal freedom but generally received neither land nor compensation.

A fortified Voortrekker commando defeated a much larger Zulu force, consolidating settler expansion into the interior. The battle later became central to Afrikaner nationalist memory.

The colonial proclamation pushed the Cape-Xhosa boundary to the Kei River and placed more African land under British authority. It followed the War of the Axe and intensified dispossession.

AmaNgqika fighters attacked a colonial patrol at Boomah Pass and military villages after Governor Harry Smith deposed Sandile. AmaGcaleka, AmaThembu and Kat River rebels joined the wider resistance.

The Belvedere arrived from Calcutta with another group of indentured Indian labourers. Deaths during the voyage reflected the dangers of the system.

The British government annexed the South African Republic and included African territories claimed by the republic. The annexation expanded imperial control and prepared the way for renewed attacks on...

British officials demanded that Cetshwayo dismantle the Zulu military system and surrender sovereignty. The deliberately unacceptable terms provided a pretext for invasion.

British columns crossed into Zululand after Cetshwayo rejected the ultimatum. The invasion began an imperial war to destroy Zulu political independence.

Chelmsford's column camped beneath Isandlwana without entrenching or forming a wagon laager. Zulu forces were already moving to oppose the invasion.