How Did 450 Boers Defeat 15,000 Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838?

How Did 450 Boers Defeat 15,000 Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838?

By the 1830s, the Zulu kingdom was consolidating its power as the strongest African polity in the south-east, but was under growing pressure from British traders and hunters on the coast, and descendants of the early Dutch settlers at the Cape – the Boers. In 1837, the vanguard of the Boers' Great Trek migration reached the borders of Zulu territory, causing alarm. When the Boer leader Piet Retief and his followers were massacred in cold blood, war broke out. Although the initial Boer counter-attacks were defeated by the Zulus, in December 1838 a new Trekker offensive resulted in a nation- defining clash between Boer and Zulu at the battle of Blood River.

Today’s guest is Ian Knight, author of “Blood River 1838: The Zulu–Boer War and the Great Trek.” We explore the 1836 Boer/Ndebele conflict, the imbalance in technique and weaponry, the reasons why the British settlers allied themselves with the Boer Trekkers, and why the war was a key turning point in the use of traditional Zulu military techniques. This work also reveals that a Boer victory at Blood River was by no means a foregone conclusion.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jaksot(1073)

The Real Deadwood: A Gold Rush Town Built in a War Zone but Obliterated in an Inferno

The Real Deadwood: A Gold Rush Town Built in a War Zone but Obliterated in an Inferno

Gunslinging, gold-panning, stagecoach robbing, whiskey guzzling – the myth and infamy of the American West is synonymous with its most famous town: Deadwood, South Dakota. The storied mining town spra...

13 Marras 202537min

America's Pacific Dawn: The Spanish-American War Ushered In Global Reach and Savage Conflict

America's Pacific Dawn: The Spanish-American War Ushered In Global Reach and Savage Conflict

Clara Barton, the founder of the Red Cross, was in Havana in 1898, investigating the terrible conditions endured by Cubans whom the Spanish government had forced into concentration camps, where an est...

11 Marras 202555min

The Unhealed Wounds of WW2 POWs and Combat Veterans

The Unhealed Wounds of WW2 POWs and Combat Veterans

Nearly 16.4 million Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces in World War II, and for millions of survivors, the fighting left many of them physically and mentally broken for life. There was a 25% de...

6 Marras 202550min

Robert McNamara Thought Enough Data Could Win Any War. Instead, It Led America to the Vietnam Quagmire

Robert McNamara Thought Enough Data Could Win Any War. Instead, It Led America to the Vietnam Quagmire

Robert S. McNamara, who was Secretary of Defense during JFK and LBJ’s administrations, and one of the chief architects of the Vietnam war, made a shocking confession in his 1995 memoir. He said “We we...

4 Marras 20251h

The Philistine Connection: Do the Roots of October 7 Go Back 3,000 Years?

The Philistine Connection: Do the Roots of October 7 Go Back 3,000 Years?

The October 7th attacks of Hamas on Israel were an unprecedented, surprise incursion by land, sea, and air that stunned the world and prompted Israel to declare war. The attacks, which included massac...

30 Loka 202536min

The Thucydides Trap: How A Rising Athens Made The Peloponnesian War Inevitable

The Thucydides Trap: How A Rising Athens Made The Peloponnesian War Inevitable

The Peloponnesian War is considered one of the most famous wars of the ancient world not only because it was a massive and devastating conflict that reshaped the Greek world, but also because its thor...

28 Loka 202546min

The Free French Army in North Africa, 1940-1945

The Free French Army in North Africa, 1940-1945

One of the principal architects of Allied Victory in North Africa during World War Two was French General Louis Dio. His importance in North Africa lies in his role as a key leader of the Free French ...

23 Loka 202549min

An Inventor’s Quest to Build a Pneumatic Subway System in 1870s New York

An Inventor’s Quest to Build a Pneumatic Subway System in 1870s New York

Alfred Beach built America’s first operational subway in secret beneath 1860s Manhattan, decades before the city’s official electric subway line in 1904. He designed and commissioned a 300-foot-long, ...

21 Loka 202545min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
sita
i-dont-like-mondays
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
kaksi-aitia
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
uutiscast
poks
antin-palautepalvelu
kolme-kaannekohtaa
aikalisa
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
mamma-mia
rss-murhan-anatomia
rss-nikotellen
rss-haudattu
meidan-pitais-puhua
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
loukussa
taskula-trishin