Occasion:
The cruelties and excesses practised by Cetywayo culminated in a raid into Natal, where women were carried off and murdered. Frere issued an ultimatum demanding the break-up of the military system of Zululand, and further that a British Resident was to be received and missionaries were not to be molested. No reply was received, and British troops entered Zululand on January 10, 1879.