Starting: Zulus can overrun their enemies more easily Ancient: +1 Warrior movement Medieval: Cities grow faster Industrial: +50% gold production Modern: Half-price Riflemen Unique Units: Warrior becomes Impi Warrior
Fun Facts
AmaZulu, another name for the Zulu nation, means "people of heaven."
September 22nd is a holiday known as Heritage Day among Zulu tribes. It marks the day of Shaka Zulu's death and commemorates his successes in creating a unified Zulu people.
Notes from the Civilopedia: The Zulu:
The Zulu were never more than one unremarkable small Southern African tribe among many - until the coming of the great warrior Shaka Zulu, who was born sometime around 1787. Once in power Shaka instituted something of a military revolution among the Zulus, replacing the traditional "assegai" (a javelin-like throwing spear) with a shorter stabbing spear called the "lklwa." He also equipped his warriors with a larger shield which covered most of the soldier's body.
Under Shaka's command, the Zulu warriors would close to melee range with their opponents, where their shorter stabbing spears were more effective than the opposition's throwing weapons. Shaka also taught his warriors to fight in a new tactical formation known as the "buffalo horns." In this formation the center of the Zulu line would engage the enemy to hold them in position, while the right and left "horns" would move forward and envelop the enemy. Outflanked on right and left and equipped with inferior weapons, few enemies could stand up to the Zulu assault.
Within a decade, Shaka had accumulated an army of 50,000 warriors, defeated all of the surrounding tribes, and was master over most of the interior of what is now South Africa. Shaka set up a new capital for the Zulu at Bulaweyo, but his arrogance and cruelty caused dissatisfaction among his people. In 1828 Shaka was assassinated by his half-brothers.
It was into this picture of chaos and violence that the European settlers first began appearing onto the scene in the 1830s. The first European settlement in the Zululand region was the English colony of Port Natal (modern Durban). An English missionary went to live with the Zulu in 1837, and was tolerated by Shaka's successor, King Dingane. However, at the same time a group of Boer settlers known as the "Voortrekkers" (or pioneers) were moving north across the Orange River into the now-empty lands which had been vacated by tribes fleeing the Zulu. Dingane had given the Voortrekkers permission to settle in the area, but in 1838 - either as the result of a misunderstanding or because Dingane had planned it from the start - the Zulus attacked the newcomers.
This proved to be a huge mistake. At the Battle of Blood River, the Zulus vastly outnumbered their opposition, having 10,000 warriors fighting 400 Boers. Despite the odds, however, the Boers slaughtered their opponents, their firearms giving them an overwhelming advantage against their spear-wielding opponents. The Zulus were forced to allow the white men to settle in their territory, which became known as the Republic of Utrecht.
Following the battle, there was a generation of uneasy peace between the Zulus and the growing British and Boer presence in the region. However, after the discovery of diamond mines in South Africa in 1878, the British declared war and invaded Zululand on three fronts.
The Zulu warriors fought bravely (and much to the Europeans' shock managed to slaughter a British force at Isandlwana), but the British rifles and Maxim guns made the ferocity of individual Zulu warriors irrelevant, and the outcome of the war was never in doubt. The Zulu were defeated and Zululand was incorporated into British South Africa. The Zulus spent the next century under British and Afrikaner domination, forced to live under the racist apartheid laws of South Africa.
Following the fall of apartheid in the 1990s, however, today Zulus, the largest ethnic group in South Africa, enjoy full citizenship rights in their homeland.
Unique Zulu worker units
Notes from the Civilopedia: More about Shaka:
Shaka (1787 - 1828 AD) was a Zulu chieftain who is credited with transforming his tribe from one of many insignificant entities into the terror of southern Africa. Many historians consider him to be a military genius. During his tumultuous lifetime Shaka caused revolutionary changes to Zulu society and profoundly altered the history of his tribe forever.
Shaka was born sometime around 1787 to Chief Senzangakona of the Zulus. When Shaka's father died around 1816, Shaka claimed the chiefdom of the Zulus for himself. Once Shaka had control over the Zulu, he began a series of reforms that would transform the Zulu military into the region's most powerful fighting force. First, Shaka replaced the traditional "assegai" (a javelin-like throwing spear) with the "lklwa," a short spear intended for stabbing. He also equipped his men with larger and heavier shields. This new weaponry allowed Shaka to dramatically alter his army's battle tactics, changing the very nature of warfare in the region.
Before Shaka, among the tribes of southern Africa, combat was in large ritualized. The two forces would stand apart from one-another, chanting loudly and clashing their shields while hurling their spears at each other. Eventually one side's resolve would falter and they'd retreat, leaving the other side in possession of the field. Few warriors on either side were killed, and the battles rarely provided decisive results.
Shaka was to change all that. Shaka taught his army to close with the opponents' forces, fighting in hand-to-hand combat, where the new weaponry and shields provided Shaka's forces with a decisive advantage over their foes. Shaka invented a tactical formation called the "buffalo horns," under which his army had large wings (or horns) extending to the right and left of the main force. The main force would engage the enemy directly, while the horns outflanked the foe on left and right. Surrounded on three sides and facing a foe armed with better weaponry and shields, few armies could stand up to the Zulu attack.
With the most powerful army in the region, Shaka unleashed a reign of terror upon the unsuspecting neighboring tribes of southern Africa. Through skilled diplomacy and the judicious use of assassination, he rapidly set up a system of alliances and vassal rulers to extend his control over a wide range of territory, rapidly increasing the forces under his command. Within a decade tribes began migrating out of the area, fleeing the Zulus in all directions. This movement of peoples has become known as Mfecane, or "the scattering."
Although a great conqueror, Shaka was not an effective domestic ruler. His brutal regime was quite unpopular, and several assassinations and coups were attempted. Eventually, one of them succeeded, and in 1828 Shaka was mortally wounded by his two half-brothers. As he lay dying, Shaka is said to have told his half-brothers that they would not rule long, and that the white men would soon take the Zulu lands. Unfortunately for the Zulus, Shaka spoke truthfully, and within seventy years the Zulu would be conquered by the British.
