Cetshwayo kaMpande

~1826–1884 · Zulu (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) · Anglo-Zulu War, Late 19th Century

Known for: Zulu king who defeated the British at Isandlwana (1879)—the worst British colonial defeat in Africa

Cetshwayo was the Zulu king who inflicted one of the most humiliating defeats in British military history at the Battle of Isandlwana (1879), where 20,000 Zulu warriors annihilated a British column of 1,800. The British eventually won the war through superior firepower but Cetshwayo's victory at Isandlwana shocked the empire.

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