"Battle of Isandhlwana", 1885, by Charles Edwin Fripp (Photo: National Army Museum of South Africa)
Queen Victoria’s military adventures in Africa demonstrate both the global reach of the mighty British Empire in the 19th century and the dangers of overreach. Benedict Carton, the Robert T. Hawkes professor of history at George Mason University, explores three pivotal conflicts that profoundly shaped South Africa and its legacy of empire.
1–2 p.m. The Fate of African Independence
The Xhosa Cattle Killings in the Cape Colony (1850–1860)
Many Xhosa chiefs believed in a prophecy of a 15-year-old-girl who told her people to destroy vital sources of survival—their herds and crops—and wait for divine reward: the resurrection of ancestral spirits who would drive the white man into the sea. What followed became a controversial episode that galvanized African resistance for generations to come, including the activism of Nelson Mandela.
2:15–3:15 p.m. A Warrior Nation’s Last Stand
The Battle of Isandlwana and Anglo–Zulu War (1870–1880)
Even when stretched thin, the British military still packed a punch wherever it engaged in combat, from Afghanistan to Zululand. In January 1879, Redcoats confident of victory confronted the mighty army of Zulu King Cetshwayo, whose regiments annihilated a column of invading forces. With few firearms, these Zulu soldiers dealt a ruinous blow to imperial pride. But by July, Victoria’s troops would bring defeat to the far corners of Cetshwayo’s kingdom, dismantling a “warrior nation” forged by Shaka, Africa’s mythic empire-builder.
3:30–4:30 p.m. The Boer War
Empire’s Final Hurrah (1899–1902)
Despite the deployment of 400,000 imperial troops, the British military never beat the unrelenting Boer commandos (numbering 70,000) fighting for their independence and to retrain control of their diamond- and gold-rich farmlands. Some of the most compelling stories from the conflict center on great men and women from Churchill, Smuts, Baden-Powell, and Gandhi to humanitarian Emily Hobhouse, Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo (heir to Zulu King Cetshwayo), and a crack intelligence agent for English handlers, Sol Plaatjie, founder of the later-named African National Congress. Their odysseys reveal how South Africa became a proving ground for 20th-century global developments—and introduced guerilla tactics and concentration camps into the arsenal of modern warfare.
