The Zulu Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire or the Kingdom of Zululand, was a monarchy in Southern Africa. During the 1810s, Shaka established a standing army that consolidated rival clans and built a large following which ruled a wide expanse of Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to the Pongola River in the north.
Drawing of King Shaka (c. 1824)
Military innovations such as the assegai, the age-grade regimental system and encirclement tactics helped make the Zulu one of the most powerful clans in southern and south-eastern Africa.
The Battle of Isandlwana, 1879
King Cetshwayo (c. 1875)
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and the physical geography definition based on the physical characteristics of the land.
A November 2002 satellite image of Southern Africa
A waterfall in the Witwatersrand region near Johannesburg
The Sandton section of Johannesburg, the financial centre of South Africa