Customer Reviews

The History of Warfare: Zulu Wars 1879

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The history of warfare: the Zulu Wars is a documentary type presentation of the events in South Africa in 1879 when the British invaded and conquered Zululand, mostly because they wanted their land. The invasion and the ensuing battles are described in the video though it is a mix of a small amount of original content with a couple of actors and then clips from the two movies Zulu! and Zulu Dawn. While the movies are very good recreations of the events (with some Hollywood thrown in, of course) it seemed pretty lame to me to simply include movie footage as historical content. Not a bad video but nothing really new.

In typical history classes, students learn why a war was fought and who won. The mechanics of the war are usually only studied by those in military classes. This work goes into specifics about weapons not working, battle plans, retreat plans, etc.

It's easy to think that Europeans defeated non-Europeans without exception. However, the battle in South Dakota's Black Hills, this battle, Algeria, Vietnam, and the Ethiopian battle against Italians prove that the line of domination was not always unidirectional. Whereas history suggests that Custer was foolhardy, the British Frere (whose French last name is never explained) had valid reasons to think the Zulus could not overthrow the Europeans. The documentary immediately states how the Zulu success was a Pyrrhic victory because five Zulus died for every one Brit killed and the Zulus were not able to keep their independence for long.

Many of the battle reenactments were well-done, rather than cheesy. I wonder if they took clips from Michael Caine's film "Zulu." In the reenactments, they actually had the Zulu King speaking in Zulu with English subtitles. Shaka Zulu is mentioned once but it's implied that not in the picture by this point. Just as indigenous tribes helped the Spanish conquer the Aztecs and the Incas, this documentary stated that some Zulus did support the British. The fact that the Zulus killed Napoleon IV ended a French dynasty never comes up either.

Unlike most documentaries that interview four or five scholars, this work only interviewed one. This is a British production, so it uses British spellings.

Remember, Boy George sang, "War, war is stupid!" Even Bart Simpson gave a caveat that wars are terrible. Still, this documentary made a battle look interesting. I really think Civil War recreationists and other hawks will really enjoy this work.