The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Following the Constitution Act of 1867 for the federation in Canada, by Lord Carnarvon, it was thought that similar political effort, coupled with military campaigns, might succeed with the African Kingdoms, tribal areas and Boer republics in South Africa. In 1874, Sir Bartle Frere was sent to South Africa as High Commissioner for the British Empire to effect such plans. Among the obstacles were the armed independent states of the South African Republic and the Kingdom of Zululand.
Frere, on his own initiative, sent a deliberately provocative, untenable ultimatum on 11 December 1878 to the Zulu king Cetshwayo, and upon its rejection sent Lord Chelmsford to invade Zululand. The war is notable for several particularly bloody battles, including an opening victory of the Zulu at the Battle of Isandlwana, followed by the successful defence of Rorke's Drift by a small British force from attack by a large Zulu force. The British eventually won the war, ending the Zulu nation's dominance of the region.