Battle+Of+Bood+River

On February 4th, 1838 King Dingane and a Dutch leader named Piet Retief signed an agreement to allow the Voortrekkers (Dutch settlers) to occupy land in South Africa that gave them access to Port Natal. A few days later, on February 6th, the king had a change of heart and no longer wanted to allow the Vootrrekkers to occupy his land, so while entertaining Retief and his group, the King's Warriors, by order of the king himself, reportedly clubbed Retief’s group to death killing a reportedly 500 men, women and children in total. Help came for the remaining trekkers whose camps were raided at night by King Dingane's men. This battle and massacre was the icing on the cake that led up to the historic event known as the Battle of Blood River.

The Battle of Blood River was a brutal battle between the Dutch settlers called Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and the indigenous people, the Zulus of South Africa led by King Dingane. This historic battle had a lot of twist and turns in it, it had to do with land, power, and betrayal and as with any battle defeat, victory and tragedy. The Battle of Blood River took place on December 16, 1838 near Ncome River in KwaZulu –Natal, South Africa. This battle took place because the Dutch settlers believed they had rights to land based upon a land treaty issued and signed by King Dingane, and their former leader, Piet Retief, whom the king had killed. Although physically out-numbered by the Zulus 60 to 1, the Voortrekkers had deadly weapons in the form of muskets which the spears the Zulu warriors used could not match, so the Voortrekkers ended up killing thousands of Zulus. Some say over 3,000 Zulus were killed and massacred that day as the remaining Zulus retreated. Many recording have been told accounting that the River had turned red from the blood shed of all the warriors killed that day. By some accounts as many as 21,000 Zulu warriors came ready to fight that day.

After several years of fighting, and thousands of lives lot, the Voortrekkers won several battles and the Zulus won a few battles, but after the killing of the king, the Voortrekkers finally came to an agreement in January of 1840. The Tuluga River would become the boundaries that divide the Zululand from the Voortrekkers land known as the Republic of Natalia. Today at the historic site on the east side of the River there is a Ncome Monument to honor the slain Zulus who fought in the battle, and The Blood River Monument honors the Voortrekkers who were slain in the battle. Since, the group’s new leaders have offered up apologies for the acts of each of their forefathers and have agreed to live in peace.