A bitter civil war in the mid-19th century erupted which culminated in the 1856 Battle of Ndondakusuka between the brothers Cetshwayo and Mbuyazi.

After Dingiswayo's death at the hands of Zwide, king of the Ndwandwe, around 1816, Shaka assumed leadership of the entire Mthethwa alliance.

Conscripted men were segregated from the rest of Zulu society to be trained as an organised standing army called the amabutho.

Within two years, Shaka had defeated Zwide at the Battle of Mhlatuze River (1820) and broken up the Ndwandwe alliance, some of whom in turn began a murderous campaign against other Nguni tribes and clans, setting in motion what became known as Difaqane or Mfecane, a mass-migration of tribes fleeing the remnants of the Ndwandwe fleeing the Zulu.

An offshoot of the Zulu, the amaNdebele, better known to history as the Matabele, created an even larger empire under their king Mzilikazi, including large parts of the highveld and modern-day Zimbabwe.

In November, about 1,000 Voortrekker wagons began descending the Drakensberg mountains from the Orange Free State into what is now KwaZulu-Natal.

[citation needed] Dingane asked that Retief and his party retrieve some cattle stolen from him by a local chief as part of the treaty for land for the Boers.

[citation needed] Dingane's army then attacked and massacred a group of 250 Voortrekker men, women and children camped nearby.

Following the campaign against Dingane, in 1839 the Voortrekkers, under Pretorius, formed the Boer republic of Natalia, south of the Tugela, and west of the British settlement of Port Natal (now Durban).

This resulted in numerous deaths, and the fleeing of thousands of refugees into neighbouring areas (including the British-controlled Natal).

This constituted the worst defeat the British army had ever suffered at the hands of a native African fighting force.

The defeat prompted a redirection of the war effort, and the British, though outnumbered, began winning small engagements and later larger setpiece encounters.

The fighting culminated in the Siege of Ulundi, the Zulus' capital city, and the subsequent defeat of the Zulu Kingdom.

[8] Dinuzulu's son Solomon kaDinuzulu was never recognised by South African authorities as the Zulu king, only as a local chief, but he was increasingly regarded as king by chiefs, by political intellectuals such as John Langalibalele Dube and by ordinary Zulu people.

In 1923, Solomon founded the organisation Inkatha YaKwaZulu to promote his royal claims, which became moribund and then was revived in the 1970s by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, chief minister of the KwaZulu bantustan.

In December 1951, Solomon's son Cyprian Bhekuzulu kaSolomon was officially recognised as the Paramount Chief of the Zulu people, but real power over ordinary Zulu people lay with South African government officials working through local chiefs who could be removed from office for failure to cooperate.

[8] KwaZulu was a bantustan in South Africa, intended by the apartheid government as a semi-independent homeland for the Zulu people.

It was led until its abolition in 1994 by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the Zulu royal family and head of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

A large portion of the territory is made up of wildlife reserves and a major contributing source of income is derived from tourism – the area is known for its savanna covered hills.

The ZRR is a 20,000 hectare reserve consisting of 15 individually owned farms that have lowered their fences in order to further conservation.