There are also serious tensions between the Transvaal Republic and the Zulus led by King Cetshwayo.

The Zulus occupy a kingdom located to the southeast, bordered on the one side by the Transvaal Republic and on the other by British Natal.

Cetshwayo, a son of Zulu king Mpande and Queen Ngqumbazi, half-nephew of the famous Zulu king Shaka and grandson of Senzangakhona kaJama, had in 1856 defeated and killed in battle his younger brother Mbuyazi, Mpande's favorite, and become the effective ruler of the Zulu people.

He did not ascend to the throne, however, as his father was still alive.

Stories from that time regarding his huge size vary, saying he stood at least between six feet six inches tall (one hundred and ninety-eight) and six feet eight inches tall (two hundred and three centimeters) and weighed close to twenty-five stone (one hundred and fifty-eight kilograms).

His other brother, Umtonga, was still a potential rival.

In 1861, Umtonga had fled to the Boers' side of the border and Cetshwayo had had to make deals with the Boers to get him back.

In 1865, Umtonga did the same thing, apparently making Cetshwayo believe that Umtonga would organize help from the Boers against him, the same way his father had overthrown his predecessor, Dingaan.

Mpande died in 1873 and Cetshwayo had become king on September 1.

As was customary, he has created a new capital for the nation and called it Ulundi (the high place).

Cetshwayo had expanded his army and reintroduced many of the paramilitary practices of Shaka.

He had also started equipping his impis with firearms, although this is a gradual process and the majority have only shields, clubs (knobkerries) and spears (throwing spears and the famous assegais).

Over forty thousand strong, disciplined, motivated and confident Zulu warriors are a formidable force on their own home ground, their lack of modern weaponry notwithstanding.

King Cetshwayo has banished European missionaries from his land, and there are suggestions that he might also have become involved in inciting other native African peoples to rebel against the Boers in the Transvaal.

The Transvaal Boers become increasingly concerned, but King Cetshwayo's policy is to maintain good relations with the British in Natal in an effort to counter the Boer threat.

The British and Colonials had fallen into complete panic over the possibility of a counter invasion of Natal by the Zulus following the battles of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift.

All the towns of Natal have 'laagered' up and fortified and provisions and stores laid in.

Bartle Frere has stoked the fear of invasion despite the fact that, aside from Rorke's Drift, the Zulus have made no attempt to cross the border.

Immediately following the battle, Zulu Prince Ndanbuko had urged them to advance and take the war into the colony but they were restrained by a commander, kaNthati, reminding them of Cetshwayo's prohibiting the crossing the border.

Unknown to the inhabitants of Natal, Cetshwayo, still hoping to avoid a total war, had prohibited any crossing of the border in retaliation and was incensed over the violation of the border by the attack on Rorke's Drift.

The British government's reasoning for a new invasion is threefold.

The first is jingoistic to a degree and national honor demands that the enemy, victors in one battle, should lose the war.

The second concerns the domestic political implications at the next parliamentary elections. (However, despite the new invasion, the British Prime Minister Disraeli and his party will lose the 1880 election.)

Finally, there are considerations affecting the Empire: unless the British are seen to win a clear-cut victory against the Zulus, it will send a signal that the British Empire is vulnerable and that the defeat of a British field army could alter policy.

If the Zulu victory at Isandlwana encourages resistance elsewhere in the Empire, then committing the resources necessary to defeat the Zulus will, in the long term, prove cheaper than fighting wars that the Zulu success inspire against British Imperialism elsewhere.

After Isandlwana, the British field army is heavily reinforced and again invades Zululand.

Sir Garnet Wolseley is sent to take command and relieve Chelmsford, as well as Bartle Frere.

Chelmsford, however, avoids handing over command to Wolseley and manages to defeat the Zulus in a number of engagements, the last of which is the Battle of Ulundi, followed by capture of King Cetshwayo.

The British encourage the subkings of the Zulus to rule their subkingdoms without acknowledging a central Zulu power.

By the time King Cetshwayo is allowed to return home in 1883 there will no longer be an independent Zulu kingdom.

The measure of respect that the British had gained for their opponents as a result of Isandlwana can be seen in that in none of the other engagements of the Zulu War had the British attempted to fight again in their typical linear formation, known famously as the Thin Red Line in an open-field battle with the main Zulu impi.

In the battles that followed, the British, when facing the Zulu, had entrenched themselves or formed very close-order formations, such as the square.

Sir Garnet Wolseley now turns to the Pedi in the Transvaal, and they are finally defeated by British troops in 1879.

The British now consolidate their power over Natal, the Zulu kingdom and the Transvaal.