The Zulu people have been placed in reserves and most arable land has been given to the white people.

Adopting a classic policy of divide-and-rule, the British have established thirteen subkingdoms; Cetshwayo himself has been banished.

The Zulu peopl have lost their unifying figure and are divided into warring factions, and from 1880 to 1889 the Zulu people north of the Thukela river are engaged in a civil war.

Cetshwayo, having visited Britain and met Queen Victoria the previous year, is allowed to return in January 1883, but is given only a small portion of his old kingdom; the largest part is controlled by Prince Zibhebhu, leader of the Mandlakazi.

Zibhebhu, whom the British support, burns Cetshwayo's palace in July 1883, inflicting wounds on the King, who dies a few months later.In 1884, however, a group of about 200 Boers under Lucas Meyer support the uSuthu faction under King Dinnzulu; this defeats Zibhebhu at the Battle of eTshaneni, north of the Mkhuze river, on June 5th, 1884.

The Boers use this as an excuse to take most of the best Zulu grazing land of eBaqulusini and establish the so-called New Republic.

They produce a `treaty', signed by Dinuzulu, ceding the territory.

This action is condemned by the British government, which knows from its land commission of November 1878 regarding the disputed ZuluBoer territory west of Mzinyathi (Buffalo) and Ncome (Blood) rivers, that the Zulu king is only the custodian of the land and has no right in Zulu law to cede it.