The King failed to meet the demands, whereupon his country was invaded by three columns. During the campaign, which lasted just under eight months, several severe engagements were fought. Among these were Inyezane, Isandhlwana, Rorke's Drift, Hlobane, Kambula, Gingindhlovu and Ulundi.[14]
The last battle, Ulundi, when the Zulu power was broken up, was fought on the 4th July, but it was not until 28th August that the King was captured.
On the conclusion of the War, the country was divided into thirteen districts, over which as many Chiefs, with very extensive powers, were appointed by Sir Garnet (later Viscount) Wolseley. The arrangement soon proved calamitous and unsatisfactory, notwithstanding that a British resident was stationed in the country to supervise internal and external affairs.
After his arrest, Cetshwayo was imprisoned for a time at Cape Town. In 1882, he was allowed to visit England, where he had an audience of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. He was subsequently repatriated, but, owing to the refusal of two or three of the thirteen appointed Chiefs to recognize him as head of the district assigned him, his position became untenable. He attacked one of these Chiefs, Zibebu, who, retaliating, forced the ex-King to take refuge in reserved territory south of the Mhlatuze River, first at Nkandhla, then at Eshowe. Cetshwayo died at the latter place on the 8th February, 1884. His body was conveyed by his people to the vicinity of the Nkandhla forests and there interred. Of this grave and forests a good deal will be heard later.
The disturbances that had broken out between Zibebu and the royal family continued down to the middle of 1888, by which time Dinuzulu, eldest son of Cetshwayo and bearer of his father's tattered mantle, had reached his majority.[15]
As the part played by Dinuzulu both before and during the Rebellion was of the greatest importance, it would be as well to include here, by way of introduction to what has to follow, a somewhat fuller notice of his antecedents. He was born about the year 1868. As Zulus are nothing if not expressive in the selection of names, so, in devising one for his eldest son, Cetshwayo gave evidence of the well-known national characteristic. Dinuzulu means "one who is a source of worry to the Zulus."
Under Sir Garnet Wolseley's settlement, Ndabuko, Dinuzulu's uncle, and, next to Cetshwayo, the man of greatest rank and influence in Zululand, was placed under one of the thirteen "kinglets," Zibebu, a blood relation of the King. During Cetshwayo's imprisonment, Ndabuko became Dinuzulu's guardian. As the result of endeavours by this prince to secure the return of Cetshwayo, friction arose between him and Zibebu. It was not long before civil war broke out between the royalist party and that of Zibebu. Ndabuko's cause became the cause of Dinuzulu. The British Government had, in the meantime, definitely refused to take over the government of the country.
In 1883, when, at Ulundi, Cetshwayo was surprised and defeated by Zibebu, Dinuzulu was saved by a faithful adherent Sitshitshili, who will be referred to later.
On the death of Cetshwayo, the heads of the nation nominated Dinuzulu as successor.[16] The claim of his younger brother, Manzolwandhle,[17] to the heirship has, however, always been regarded by the majority of Zulus as superior to his own.
Dinuzulu soon found it necessary to seek the assistance of the Boers against Zibebu and Hamu (another of the "kinglets" and an uncle of Dinuzulu). The latter (Dinuzulu) called in the support of Boers of the Transvaal, who, on the 21st May, 1884, went through the farce of "crowning" the prince "King of the Zulus," thereby recalling the occasion on which, forty years before, they had installed his grandfather as Paramount Chief. On the 5th June following, Dinuzulu's adherents, aided by 600 Boers, attacked and completely routed Zibebu and his followers at Tshanini.[18] The Boers, for their moral assistance—hardly more than moral—induced the young "King" to sign a document ceding them a large tract of north-eastern Zululand, extending down to the sea at St. Lucia Bay. This they cut up into farms and created the "New Republic," afterwards the Vryheid district of the Transvaal. In Sir A. Havelock's settlement with the Boers, this Republic was recognized by Britain, its limitations were defined, and a large portion of country alleged to have been ceded was recovered for the Zulus, including all the coast land round St. Lucia Bay.