Editing History of South Africa (section)

===Zulu militarism and expansionism===
{{Main|Zulu people|Difaqane}}{{POV section|date=October 2024}}[[File:Shaka's Empire map.svg|thumb|400px|The rise of the Zulu Empire {{color box|#aa4400}} under Shaka forced other chiefdoms and clans to flee across a wide area of southern Africa.  Clans fleeing the Zulu war zone {{color box|#ffb380}} included the [[Soshangane]], [[Zwangendaba]], [[Ndebele people (Zimbabwe)|Ndebele]], [[Hlubi people|Hlubi]], [[Swazi people|Ngwane]], and the [[Mfengu]].  Some clans were caught between the Zulu Empire and advancing [[Voortrekkers]] and [[British Empire]] {{color box|#F08080}} such as the [[Xhosa people|Xhosa]] {{color box|#008000}}.]]
The Zulu people are part of the Nguni ethnic group and were originally a minor clan in what is today northern KwaZulu-Natal, founded ca. 1709 by [[Zulu kaNtombela]].

The 1820s saw a time of immense upheaval relating to the military expansion of the [[Zulu Kingdom]], which replaced the original African clan system with kingdoms. [[Sotho language|Sotho]]-speakers know this period as the ''[[difaqane]]'' ("[[forced migration]]"); [[Zulu language|Zulu]]-speakers call it the ''mfecane'' ("crushing").<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Queen Victoria's Enemies 1: Southern Africa|url=https://archive.org/details/queenvictoriasen02knig|url-access=limited|last=Knight|first=Ian|publisher=Osprey|year=1989|isbn=085045901X|editor-last=Windrow|editor-first=Martin|location=Great Britain|pages=[https://archive.org/details/queenvictoriasen02knig/page/n4 4]–6}}</ref>

Various theories have been advanced for the causes of the ''difaqane'', ranging from ecological factors to competition in the ivory trade.<ref>Noel Mostert, ''Frontiers: The Epic of South Africa's Creation'', London: Pimlico 1993, pp.496–7 {{ISBN|0-7126-5584-0}}</ref> Another theory attributes the epicentre of Zulu violence to the slave trade out of Delgoa Bay in Mozambique situated to the north of Zululand.<ref>Julian Cobbing, "The Mfecane as Alibi", ''Journal of African History'', 29 March 1988, p.487.</ref> Most historians recognise that the Mfecane wasn't just a series of events caused by the founding of the Zulu kingdom but rather a multitude of factors caused before and after [[Shaka|Shaka Zulu]] came into power.<ref name="Etherington2004">{{cite journal|last1=Etherington|first1=Norman|title=A Tempest In A Teapot? Nineteenth-Century Contests For Land In South Africa's Caledon Valley And The Invention Of The Mfecane|journal=The Journal of African History|volume=45|issue=2|year=2004|pages=203–219|issn=0021-8537|doi=10.1017/S0021853703008624|s2cid=162838180|url=http://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/publications/a-tempest-in-a-teapot--nineteenthcentury-contests-for-land-in-south-africas-caledon-valley-and-the-invention-of-the-mfecane(1ec5b37a-fd2e-4935-a8d7-3b13b0f9b8a5).html}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Creation of the Zulu Kingdom, 1815–1828|last=Eldredge|first=Elizabeth|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2014|page=9}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

In 1818, [[Nguni people|Nguni]] tribes in Zululand created a militaristic kingdom between the [[Tugela River]] and [[Pongola River]], under the driving force of [[Shaka]] kaSenzangakhona, son of the chief of the Zulu clan.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bulliet|title=The Earth and Its Peoples|url=https://archive.org/details/earthitspeoplesg00bull_069|url-access=limited|year=2008|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|location=USA|isbn=978-0-618-77148-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/earthitspeoplesg00bull_069/page/n284 708]}}</ref> Shaka built large [[army|armies]], breaking from clan tradition by placing the armies under the control of his own officers rather than of hereditary chiefs. He then set out on a massive programme of expansion, killing or enslaving those who resisted in the territories he conquered. His ''[[impis]]'' (warrior regiments) were rigorously disciplined: failure in battle meant death.<ref>Rubinstein, W. D. (2004). Genocide: A History. Pearson Longman.</ref>

[[File:KingShaka.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Shaka Zulu]] in traditional [[Zulu people|Zulu]] military garb]] The Zulu resulted in the mass movement of many tribes who in turn tried to dominate those in new territories, leading to widespread warfare and waves of displacement spread throughout southern Africa and beyond. It accelerated the formation of several new nation-states, notably those of the Sotho (present-day [[Lesotho]]) and the [[Swazi people|Swazi]] (now [[Eswatini]] (formerly Swaziland)). It caused the consolidation of groups such as the [[Northern Ndebele people|Matebele]], the [[Mfengu]] and the [[Makololo]].

In 1828 Shaka was killed by his half-brothers [[Dingane|Dingaan]] and [[Umhlangana]]. The weaker and less-skilled Dingaan became king, relaxing military discipline while continuing the despotism. Dingaan also attempted to establish relations with the British traders on the Natal coast, but events had started to unfold that would see the demise of Zulu independence. Estimates for the death toll resulting from the Mfecane range from 1 million to 2 million.<ref name="Walter1969">{{cite book|author=Walter, Eugene Victor |year=1969 |title=Terror and Resistance: A Study of Political Violence, with Case Studies of Some Primitive African Communities|publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k-3mmwEACAAJ|isbn=9780195015621 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite periodical|author=Charters, R. A. |year=1839 |title=Notices Of The Cape And Southern Africa, Since The Appointment, As Governor, Of Major-Gen. Sir Geo. Napier |periodical=United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine|location=London |publisher=Henry Colburn |volume=1839, Part III |issue=September, October, November|pages=19–25, 171–179, 352–359, page 24}}</ref><ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th edition</ref><ref name="Hanson2007">{{cite book|author=Hanson, Victor Davis |year=2001 |title=Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGr16-CxpH8C|location=New York |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-42518-8|page=313}}</ref>