72-8537 6 ZULU BEATING THEIR SHIELDS WITH THE SPEAR REGIMENT OF MARRIED WARRIORS

The Zulu people are an African people who still exist today and speak the Zulu language, which in turn belongs to the Bantu African language family. Currently, the largest Zulu population lives in South Africa. At the beginning of the 19th century, at about the same time as the Napoleonic wars in Europe, the Zulu created a series of militarized state or proto-state organizations in southern Africa, which the chief Shaka, probably, united into a rather loose confederation. Later, probably in the mid-19th century, many of them were further consolidated. There are also many indications that it was Shaka who introduced many changes in the field of Zulu military. First of all, he put into service the Zulu warriors (in Zulu: impi) you will start with shorter and more handy spears. He probably also introduced a new type of shield, providing better cover for the warrior. Shaka also put great emphasis on training warriors and maintaining their discipline. He also put emphasis on a much more aggressive conduct of combat operations and sought to increase the mobility of his troops. It is worth adding that firearms played a marginal role in the activities carried out by the Zulus, and all their tactics were aimed at fighting the enemy and outflanking them. In the course of the battle, the Zulu army formed an formation resembling a bull's head. It is quite often assumed that the basic tactical unit was ambabutho with about 1,500 warriors. The great test of Zulu tactics was the clash with the forces of the British Empire, which went down in history as the Anglo-Zulu war in 1879. Several battles were fought during this war, but two in particular have gone down in history. The first - at Isandlawana - was lost by the British, who lost almost the entire 1,600 unit. The battle of Ulundi, fought a few months later, was already a great British success, when the British army of about 5,300 soldiers completely defeated the Zulu army of 20,000. people. This battle was also tantamount to the complete collapse of the independent Zulu state.