The Battle of the Blood River December 1838

The Battle of the Blood River December 1838
The Battle took place on Sunday 16th December 1838 when the Zulu army attacked Pretorius's army (Boers and British volunteers) in its heavily fortified weekend camp on the Ncome River.
The camp had been protected by steep banks and a Dutch in which thousands of Zulu soldiers were trapped by gun fire and massacred, staining the water red with their blood.
Causes of the battle
Andries Hendrick Pretorius wanted to revenge the death of Piet Retief (killed on February 17th 1838 by Dingane).
The Boers wanted to be free from British operations.
The Boers also wanted to set the Natal Republic under their control.
Andries Hendrick Pretorius was very ambitious man w•ho wanted to be the next leader of Natal.
The Zulu under Dingane wanted to be free of any European control.
The Boers wanted to control land in Zululand possibly for settlement.
The determination of the Boers to set up Republics outside the Cape Colony encouraged Pretorius to fight for a war of revenge.
The fight of the Boers against the Zulu encouraged them to fight. The Boers were well equipped well-disciplined commandos and knew victory could be on their side.
The Boers fought the war for purely imperialist reasons.
Zululand was strategic to the Boers if they were to occupy Natal.
The Boers also wanted to revenge earlier defeats by Dingane on them April 1838 which had disastrous consequences.
Effects of the blood river battle
Dingane was disastrously defeated. He even set on fire his own kraal and capital, eMgungundlovu and deserted it.
Three thousand of dead Zulu (Impi) lay heaped like pumpkins on a rich soil while nobody had been killed in Pretorius's army.
It was not the main Zulu army that was defeated at 'Blood River' but the Zulu now understood the power of gunmen on horses making rapid sorties from an armed wagon Camp.
Dingane fled to the North of Zululand to Swazi Country where he was killed at the hands of the Swazi militia bands in February 1841.
After the victory of the Boers at the battle of the blood river, 6,000 Boer trekkers settled in Natal and adopted a Constitution in 1839.
Boer administration in Natal (the Volksraad of 24 elected men) soon clashed with Andries Pretorius the commandant Generalover the powers of government.
Afrikaaner nationalism in the interior of South Africa thrived.
Andries Pretorius proclaimed Mpande (brother ofShaka and Dingane) the new Zulu King.
Zululand became a vassal entity of the Republic of Natal (or Natalia). This followed the success of Mpande's loyal IndianMongala and the Boers over Dingane's army’s army in January.
The Republic of Natal was divided into districts with military Commandant and landdrosts on the old pattern of the Cape Colony before the British occupation.
The Natalia capital city became Pietrmaritzburgin honour of Piet Retief and Gerit Maritz. The state claimed boundaries on the Buffels and Tugela rivers in the North and the MzimkhuJu River in the south.
Boer families and one or two 3,000 Morgen farms of grazing land in Zululand (the blood River territory) .
African claims to own and occupy land were ignored. Boer claims to land and the use of its inhabitants as labour were backed by force if necessary.
The Boers regarded Mpande as their subject though he regarded himself as an ally.
Dingane tried rebuilding his capital at eMgungundlovu. The Boers demanded over 40, 000 cattle as tribute.
When Dingane tried to negotiate, his envoys were executed and Dingane was defeated again in the battle of Makonko hills by Mpande's army, The Boers took 60,000 cattle and many 'apprentices' as payment.
The war gave the Boers confidence to move northwards. Pretorius faced with quarrels over Natal administrative structures moved to Transvaal or the South African Republic and the Orange Free State.
In 1843 the British annexed the Republic of Natal (Natalia). The Boers were once again forced to trek again across the Drakensburg Mountains.