How could the Zulu futher reform their Military?

Ceranthor

Banned
So the Zulu were pretty much revolutionary in tactics and warfare among the tribes of southern Africa, and even with iron-age weapons they still managed to beat the British and scatter the Boers a couple times.

Now how could they upgrade their military tactics so that their armies would be more "modernized"? Maybe have a special regiment of musketmen, or hire Coloured mercenaries to counterbalance the infantry? Or hire Portuguese teachers(from Mozambique) to educate the Zulu in operating artillery, or maybe get their hands on enough horses to build a good cavalry? Or just for badass points, they could breed horses with zebras/quaggas and ride zorses into battle; apparently they're hardy and powerful and they aren't as temperamental as zebras.

In my TL the Zulu are supposed to survive, but to do so they're going to need a better military so that they can fight the Boers/ British and actually hold their own. I might use some of the ideas posted on here, and mix them with my own ideas for the TL so that I can write something realistic.
 
Zebras are VERY hard to domesticate apparently, if not impossible.

Could the Zulu discover a mineral strike on their land and exploit it to get the resources to develop an indigenous arms industry without attracting predatory tendencies from the imperial powers?

There is a Zulu TL featuring Shaka returning to sanity after the assassination attempt that did him in OTL, including fathering an heir. Better leadership might make the difference and more guns could be a butterfly of that.
 

Ceranthor

Banned
Some of Dambulamanzi's impis at the battle of Isandhlwana had muskets, but they were so outdated and poorly handled that they were nearly useless. I might have some renegade British/Portuguese come down from Cape Town or Lorenco Marques and try to school the Zulu on how to wield guns.

I'm not talking about zebras, I'm talking about zorses. I know it's unlikely, but it would be kind of cool if the Zulu bred horses with zebras and rode the zorses into battle. I read up on them and though they can be bitchy they make tough mounts if properly domesticated.

As for mineral resources, the general area that the Zulu were based around is apparently rich in steel and gold(Tata Steel and Rio Tinto are both opening mines there), but I don't really know if the Zulu could reach those deposits w/out the right equipment. Even if they could that on its own wouldn't be enough; they still need military professionals and businessmen to help them develop an industry.

And I think that TL you're talking about is mine:p. You are referring to Lion Awakened right?
 
Maybe the could take a leaf out of Sekhunkhune's book? Getting rifles was dead easy. Native labourers could buy them over the counter on the diamond fields in the 1870s. If Cetwayo had sent his young men - just a few age regiments - to toil for the whites a few months and have each come back with a Snider and a few boxes of ammunition, he could have had a rifle corps.

Of course having rifles and being able to use them effectively are two things. I suspect that the Zulu were a bit too resistant to ideas that come from elsewhere, but I could imagine either some whites being hired to teach them to use their infantry tactics, or some people from neighbouring kingdoms to train them how to shoot veldt-style. After all, the Boers didn't fight traditionally, and the Zulu most likely would have expected to fight them.

I can't see the Portuguese or the British, let alone the Boers, countenanbcing thesale of artillery. The general attitude towards African nations was different. I guess it would havebeen conceivable for a European country, or a private company, to try doing so, but it's going to be difficult.

Horses would be interesting, but I can't see them thinking they'd need them. Maybe pack animals to carry ammunition and equipment?
 
More men like this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dunn_(1833–1895)

If the Zulu want to fight off the British, they need guns, a formal diplomatic service, and some level of development. These are things they can only get through Western educated intermediaries. Admittedly, John Dunn ended up betraying the Zulus, but a consolidated Zululand with a white, educated functionary/mercenary class would be a formidable foe to any European powers who might be inclined to encroach on it. If that class is drawn from a number of European (or even American) nations, it cuts down on the old 'divided loyalties' problem which got John Dunn in the end.

There are not insignificant draws to Zululand: the king would offer talented mercenaries, technicians and educators land, pretty girls and the chance to get into positions of government in an up-and-coming power. These are benefits bound to draw some entepreneurs. As long as the Zulu king retains a healthy distrust of them, the presence of Europeans could benefit the Zulu nation long term. The Europeans in question - assuming their loyalty could be secured - could win diplomatic recognition and foreign arms deals in a way no native Zulu could.

The problem is then, of course, how long it takes for said white functionary/mercenary class to seize power as it did in Sarawak, Hawaii and Nicaragua. That's the price you pay for modernisation, sometimes. You might end up with a Hawaii like situation where the Zulu king ends up a puppet of his European advisors. Alternatively, the Zulu chiefs might revolt and throw them out. It's a whole can of worms just waiting to be opened.

in terms of the military, though, a Western-trained regiment of gunners, some light artillery, and the recognition that human wave tactics are a waste of valuable men would do wonders for Zulu tactics. As would a small cavalry corps.
 

Spengler

Banned
I think they could have updated their armaments considering that the wassoulou were able to make effective of modern armaments against the Europeans as were the Ethiopians I'd say there is nothing stopping the zulu from also doing the same. (Of course my knowledge is just one possibly out dated book on imperialism). The could probably get some westernners to help train them with the guns and maybe act as a go between with the boers and the british allowing themselves to be armed by both.
 

Ceranthor

Banned
If the Zulu want to fight off the British, they need guns, a formal diplomatic service, and some level of development. These are things they can only get through Western educated intermediaries. Admittedly, John Dunn ended up betraying the Zulus, but a consolidated Zululand with a white, educated functionary/mercenary class would be a formidable foe to any European powers who might be inclined to encroach on it. If that class is drawn from a number of European (or even American) nations, it cuts down on the old 'divided loyalties' problem which got John Dunn in the end.

There are not insignificant draws to Zululand: the king would offer talented mercenaries, technicians and educators land, pretty girls and the chance to get into positions of government in an up-and-coming power. These are benefits bound to draw some entepreneurs. As long as the Zulu king retains a healthy distrust of them, the presence of Europeans could benefit the Zulu nation long term. The Europeans in question - assuming their loyalty could be secured - could win diplomatic recognition and foreign arms deals in a way no native Zulu could.

The problem is then, of course, how long it takes for said white functionary/mercenary class to seize power as it did in Sarawak, Hawaii and Nicaragua. That's the price you pay for modernisation, sometimes. You might end up with a Hawaii like situation where the Zulu king ends up a puppet of his European advisors. Alternatively, the Zulu chiefs might revolt and throw them out. It's a whole can of worms just waiting to be opened.
That would actually be really, really interesting, and it could happen, especially if Shaka's successors are comparatively weaker. I actually really like the second idea; and in fact something like it was posited in the miniseries Shaka Zulu, where a couple of British traders nearly "go native" and serve the Zulu over the British at Cape Colony. I was actually thinking that the first wave of these traders could be renegade Portuguese idealist from Mozambique, who might have been disgusted with the slavery and brutality of the colony, and defected to the Zulu both to make a profit and "elevate the black man".
 
Well, if they're coming from Portugal then they don't even, strictly speaking, need to be white: there was a long-standing trading community of mixed-race Portuguese merchants who were long accustomed to Africa, and had been resident in Mozambique for centuries. The question is, why would they choose to arm the Zulus over, say, the Gaza Nguni (who are much more within the Portuguese sphere of influence.)

In fact, it would make more sense for the Portuguese Government to arm the Zulu, and create a relatively modernised buffer state between themselves and the British. The only problem is that the Anglo-Zulu War took place just before the real 'Scramble' for Africa began, and such moves would require the Portuguese to have a level of foresight that they didn't really have IOTL.

As I say, what you really need are a small number of diverse, idealistic (yet greedy) Europeans with technical skills who owe their positions entirely to the Zulu king. Maybe have Cetshwayo educated in the Cape and England, and then come home with some friends from university?

Alternatively, the Zulu could just advertise for them. That was essentially what the Japanese Government did to recruit foreign experts.

Two nations you don't want to be involved are the British and the Boers. You want the Europeans in question to represent disinterested parties like the Spanish, Dutch, Belgians or Americans, or maybe even Latin Americans of some description. That way there's less temptation/pretence for foreign takeovers than if the country is full of British merchants or Boer farmers looking for a pretence for their mutual big brothers to attack.
 
The Zulus weren't keen on change. Shaka turned down adopting the written language because his messengers always relayed his words exactly, on pain of death.
 
Very true: any Zulu king who wants to introduce these European advisors is going to face opposition from his traditionalist subordinates, who will question the technological advances the whites are attempting to bring.

You'll have the same 'moderniser'/'reactionary' split that occurred in most other Westernising countries, with a triumph for one party or the other: probably the modernisers, given that they'll have modern arms and technology on their side.

That said, given how highly the Zulu king's authority is traditionally valued, it may well be that he is able to enforce his authority quite effectively. Afterall, everyone who crosses the Zulu king dies. It may well be that this is enough to quiet many potential rebels, in the same way as Meiji was able to rally supporters by giving his blessing to the modernisers in Japan.

The other problem with the Zulu kingdom is the complete lack of infrastructure, roads, local government - anything, really that would constitute a real state authority, other than the king turning up with his army now and again to put down revolts. There will need to be a process of centralisation to go along with the creation of a modern country, and that in itself is going to breed opposition from traditional elites. Essentially, you've to turn an iron age society into a proto-industrial one overnight, and that's going to annoy a lot of people.

Also interesting: what form would Zulu government take? Absolute monarchy? Consultative houses of some description? I don't know enough about Zulu tribal structures to predict accurately what such structures would look like at a state-level.
 
That said, given how highly the Zulu king's authority is traditionally valued, it may well be that he is able to enforce his authority quite effectively. Afterall, everyone who crosses the Zulu king dies. It may well be that this is enough to quiet many potential rebels, in the same way as Meiji was able to rally supporters by giving his blessing to the modernisers in Japan.

The problem with that is that eventually the Zulu king creates so many desperate enemies that they're all willing to sacrifice themselves just to kill him.

The other problem with the Zulu kingdom is the complete lack of infrastructure, roads, local government - anything, really that would constitute a real state authority, other than the king turning up with his army now and again to put down revolts. There will need to be a process of centralisation to go along with the creation of a modern country, and that in itself is going to breed opposition from traditional elites. Essentially, you've to turn an iron age society into a proto-industrial one overnight, and that's going to annoy a lot of people.

That's not just a problem with the Zulu's, it was a problem with all of the iron age African states below the rainforest.

Also interesting: what form would Zulu government take? Absolute monarchy? Consultative houses of some description? I don't know enough about Zulu tribal structures to predict accurately what such structures would look like at a state-level.

Absolute monarchy most likely. Before Shaka it would've been a chief and his local religious advisors, but Shaka effectively curbed the power of the religious elites and put himself at the head of the kingdom.
 
The problem with that is that eventually the Zulu king creates so many desperate enemies that they're all willing to sacrifice themselves just to kill him.

Well, one thing said Zulu king will have to do is remove all potential challengers to the throne, Ottoman style. The Zulu have a history of internicine squabbling, so getting rid of troublemaking half brothers one way or the other is going to be a must for any aspiring Zulu monarch.

That's not just a problem with the Zulu's, it was a problem with all of the iron age African states below the rainforest.

Pretty much. The difference between the Zulu and a lot of the other tribal nations in the region is basically demographic - the Zulu had a large enough population that they could recruit armies of thousands of men. Other African societies didn't. But essentially, it's a struggle that any technologically backward people will face as it tries to catch up with the Europeans. And that struggle to impose a meaningful central government is one that will take a lot of blood, sweat and tears to resolve.

Absolute monarchy most likely. Before Shaka it would've been a chief and his local religious advisors, but Shaka effectively curbed the power of the religious elites and put himself at the head of the kingdom.

OK, so having got rid of the religious elites, are there secular elites the Zulu king would have to placate? As I understand it, the Zulu kingdom was made up of semi-autonomous tribal leaders and headmen who owed a vague allegiance to the Zulu king. These are the people who the king is going to have to work with (or around) to modernise his kingdom.

I suppose, transforming them from semi-sovereign rulers to district governors is possible - it happened in most of Western Europe, though admittedly over a much longer period of time.

As well as educating a Zulu king to a Western standard, there is going to have to be some sort of mass-Westernisation effort directed towards the eldest sons of these same chiefs and headmen, so that they can better be integrated into the national system. There's no use having bureaucratic functionaries who cannot read or write.

For that matter, literacy is going to be a major problem with the Zulu. As tallwingedgoat has already mentioned, there was an apathy - if not an outright aversion - to literacy. That is something that has to be changed because if it isn't, the kingdom will fall. Nothing is surer.

I'm going over all the things that would need to be modernised in order for the Zulu to emerge intact from the colonial period, and it truly is a horrendous uphill struggle they're going to have. It's not just having an army big enough to beat Europeans: it's getting the Zulu king into a western style uniform, educating his sons at Eton and Cambridge, being literate and disdaining from indiscriminate slaughter. It looks like too much of a culture change, in too short a timespan. They've got to build roads, railways(!), harbours and schools, permanent towns and centres of food production, become literate and educated over less than five decades, and establish a state recognisable to Europeans.

To put it in perspective, Zanzibar had almost all of these things, and still fell to colonialism. Ethiopia also had numerous advantages, and it only barely survived. It's going to be an epic struggle for any Zulu king to surmount these obstacles to development. This king is going to have to be a cross between Machiavelli, Bismarck and Peter the Great in order to have any chance of holding onto his kingdom.
 

67th Tigers

Banned
All they really need is access to guns. Zulus with modern rifles would have been problematic for the British & Boers.

As in rifles?

They had them. The majority of the Zulu army had P1853 Enfields. They couldn't shoot for **** though, and believed that elevating the backsight made the round more powerful.....
 
Well, one thing said Zulu king will have to do is remove all potential challengers to the throne, Ottoman style. The Zulu have a history of internicine squabbling, so getting rid of troublemaking half brothers one way or the other is going to be a must for any aspiring Zulu monarch.

Another problem is that that sets a bad precedent. If the Kings sons are constantly terrified that the eldest is going to slaughter them the second he gets on the throne doesn't that encourage them to engage in coup attempts every time there's an ascension to the throne? How did other kingdoms manage to deal with this problem?

Pretty much. The difference between the Zulu and a lot of the other tribal nations in the region is basically demographic - the Zulu had a large enough population that they could recruit armies of thousands of men. Other African societies didn't. But essentially, it's a struggle that any technologically backward people will face as it tries to catch up with the Europeans. And that struggle to impose a meaningful central government is one that will take a lot of blood, sweat and tears to resolve.

This is why I think any attempt at centralisation needs to occur before the arrival of Europeans. The Shona/Ndebele peoples of Zimbabwe & South Africa had pretty good stone masonry (at least when it came to building walls & houses) could that be adapted towards building roads? They also had pretty good pottery, and if cattle ranchers began branding their property with symbols that might eventually lead to the development of a Shona/Ndebele writing system. Plus they have the added benefit of quite easy trans-continental trade with India and China, which the peoples of the West didn't have.

OK, so having got rid of the religious elites, are there secular elites the Zulu king would have to placate? As I understand it, the Zulu kingdom was made up of semi-autonomous tribal leaders and headmen who owed a vague allegiance to the Zulu king. These are the people who the king is going to have to work with (or around) to modernise his kingdom.

The religious elites weren't gotten rid of, and as for the secular elites, well there's never going to be total control in any absolute monarchy. Most monarchs had to go to ridiculous lengths towards controlling their nobles (in this case: any man who had large herds of cattle); Louis XIV had to force them to spend sh-tloads of money to keep them from trying to overthrow him. But, the general trend from Shaka going on will be absolute monarchy, there's not really another option that wouldn't result in anarchy.

I suppose, transforming them from semi-sovereign rulers to district governors is possible - it happened in most of Western Europe, though admittedly over a much longer period of time.

Is that how they managed to deal with the whole: "overthrowing the king", issue.

As well as educating a Zulu king to a Western standard, there is going to have to be some sort of mass-Westernisation effort directed towards the eldest sons of these same chiefs and headmen, so that they can better be integrated into the national system. There's no use having bureaucratic functionaries who cannot read or write.

Assuming that a Zulu king would be willing, would Westerners be willing to hire
out scholars for gold?



I'm going over all the things that would need to be modernised in order for the Zulu to emerge intact from the colonial period, and it truly is a horrendous uphill struggle they're going to have. It's not just having an army big enough to beat Europeans: it's getting the Zulu king into a western style uniform, educating his sons at Eton and Cambridge, being literate and disdaining from indiscriminate slaughter. It looks like too much of a culture change, in too short a timespan. They've got to build roads, railways(!), harbours and schools, permanent towns and centres of food production, become literate and educated over less than five decades, and establish a state recognisable to Europeans.

To put it in perspective, Zanzibar had almost all of these things, and still fell to colonialism. Ethiopia also had numerous advantages, and it only barely survived. It's going to be an epic struggle for any Zulu king to surmount these obstacles to development. This king is going to have to be a cross between Machiavelli, Bismarck and Peter the Great in order to have any chance of holding onto his kingdom.

The king is going to have to be a Mary Sue of the highest order. That's why, frankly, I don't believe that it's possible. If an empire managed to evolve from the Mapungubwe/ Great Zimbabwe city states that arose in the 13th century that would give a decent amount of time to build a better state; but I still think they'd eventually get colonised. The sheer amount of manpower that the Westerners had, coupled with the geostrategic advantages of controlling the Cape of Good Hope, the gold reserves and mineral resources... the imperative for the West to control South Africa is gigantic. The countries that South Africa will have access to (India, China and the Middle East) won't tell them how to make gunpowder, and even if they do, does South Africa even have the resources it needs to make it?
 
What AHP said. Shaka already created a modern military structure. He gets rifles, too, and the Zulu War turns into a much grander embarrassment for the British Army than it already was. Perhaps on the scale of the Second Boer War.
 
Chirios said:
Another problem is that that sets a bad precedent. If the Kings sons are constantly terrified that the eldest is going to slaughter them the second he gets on the throne doesn't that encourage them to engage in coup attempts every time there's an ascension to the throne? How did other kingdoms manage to deal with this problem?

Some kind of Zulu equivilent to The Cage? :eek:

"Here! Have as many deaf-mute concubines as you like, but if you leave this hut, you'll be speared to death."

On a more serious note, even just exiling those brothers would be a decent solution. They get kicked out of the kingdom and told 'make something of yourself'. This could add another interesting dimension to the Mfecane, as younger Zulu sons attempt to carve out their own kingdoms.

In fact, that could be a good way to get the kingdom modernised in the first place: exiled younger brother is forced out of the kingdom, makes his way to Capetown, gets a bit of an education, pulls together a band of mercenaries and heads back to Zululand to claim his brother's kingdom.

Chirios said:
This is why I think any attempt at centralisation needs to occur before the arrival of Europeans.

Butterflies would mean that the Europeans the Zulu are up against won't be the ones they're up against in this timeline. It's an interesting proposition, but I think the original poster wanted something with Shaka as we-knew-him and the British as-we-know-them.

Certainly, I'd love to see a Great Zimbabwe timeline, though. :D

Chirios said:
The religious elites weren't gotten rid of, and as for the secular elites, well there's never going to be total control in any absolute monarchy. Most monarchs had to go to ridiculous lengths towards controlling their nobles (in this case: any man who had large herds of cattle); Louis XIV had to force them to spend sh-tloads of money to keep them from trying to overthrow him. But, the general trend from Shaka going on will be absolute monarchy, there's not really another option that wouldn't result in anarchy.

Well, from what I can see from Shaka's reign is that the man was a psychopath who terrified his subjects into submission. If it worked for one generation, it might well work for another: just have subsequent kings use the same methods, and get Westernised at the same time. There are plenty of white tyrants to prove that you don't need to be a democrat with a belief in human rights in order to make use of modern technology.

I think we're operating on the assumption here that the Zulu kingdom is fundamentally unstable, which it isn't really. At a fairly early stage it seems to have been decided that the kingship would be confined within one, ruling family, and struggles subsequent to Shaka were between members of that family. However, it wasn't until the British intervened that we see the kingdom split up. The Zulu kingdom is there to stay, European intervention notwithstanding. It just needs its structures regularised to a position analagous to a European nation's in order to be taken seriously.

As I say, the Zulu king has to give each of his 'chiefs' a uniform and a staff of office, and start calling them 'District Governors' rather than chiefs. While there will be some who will be unhappy with their reduced status, a lot of them will just be happy with their shiny new uniform, and continue in much the same style as they did previously.

Chirios said:
Assuming that a Zulu king would be willing, would Westerners be willing to hire out scholars for gold?

I don't see why not. It should be a fairly straightforward thing for Zulu to be translated, written down and taught back to those who already speak it. What you would need to do, however, is create a literate Zulu administrative class fairly quickly, or you're going to have a society with a black bottom, a white middle, and a mixed black-white top. Essentially, a buggered up Haiti.

Anybody can see the value of literacy fairly quickly, though. Those Zulu who learn to read and write will rapidly assimilate new ideas, and become the nucleus of the 'moderniser' faction.
 
I think you need a POD a fair way back in order to have a better Zulu military. I also think you need to modify the whole society in order to make meaningful change to the military.
The first thing that needs to happen is that a practical missionary with a message involving education and training needs to meet and live with the Zulu at least 20 if not 30 years before they encounter the Voortrekkers at Blood River (1838). They need someone who behaves in the same way that Marsden behaved with the Maori. They need to end up with not just an educated elite but a significant proportion of the population with some learning. The kingdom of Zulu has some major advantages over the Maori, it is effectively a single political entity and the Zulu work iron unlike the Maori who were a stone aged people when the Europeans first encountered them.
The second thing that needs to happen is that they need to have a ready source of European weapons and powder at least ten years before they encounter the Boers in battle. They need a great deal of internal strife for several years so that they can learn how to use their muskets before they have to fight Europeans. Again this is modelled on the New Zealand experience and the musket wars. I am not sure where they would get the guns in 1828 or there about, perhaps Mozambique but it should not be hard they have things of value to trade. The civil war between Dingane and Mpande would be an ideal opportunity but has to come almost a decade earlier than it did in OTL. Perhaps this could be achieved if Ndlela is more pro-active in attempting to protect the Royal lineage?
Because of the above the Battle of Blood River may or may not happen. Indeed Dingane or Mpande might be king. In any case the intrusion of the Boer into the Zulu sphere of influence has to be resisted ideally with the utter destruction of the Boers.
Lastly I am unsure how much iron the Zulu smiths produced (does anyone know?) but if they can increase production between 1818 and the 1870s then they may be able to produce significant numbers of firearms themselves.
 
Top