Zulu

Origins and formation

The Zulu Kingdom, sometimes called the Zulu Empire, was a monarchy in Southern Africa. During the 1810s Shaka established a standing army that consolidated rival clans and built a following across a wide expanse of the coast, from the Tugela River in the south to the Pongola River in the north, centered on today’s KwaZulu-Natal. The kingdom is that monarchy. It is not the Anglo-Zulu War, which comes after his death.¹

Defining periods

Shaka kaSenzangakhona, also called Shaka Zulu, lived from about 1787 to 24 September 1828 and was king from 1816 to 1828. The lead places the birth in the lunar month of uNtulikazi, July, in 1787, at Mthonjaneni, and calls the year approximate in the opening line. He was a son of Senzangakhona kaJama, spurned as illegitimate, and he spent part of his childhood in his mother’s settlements. He served as a warrior under Dingiswayo and refined the ibutho system with the support of the Mthethwa paramountcy. He forged alliances with smaller neighbors. A civil war in the mid-19th century, the 1856 Battle of Ndondakusuka, is between Cetshwayo and Mbuyazi, not part of this reign. In 1879 a British force invaded. The Zulu victory at Isandlwana came in January, and the British victory at Ulundi in July ended the war. No Civilization VII essay covers this kingdom, so none is linked.^{1 2}

Leaders

The Chinese update notes head a balance block with the ordinary name for the Zulu and name an ability and the Ikanda. They do not print Shaka. The English notes use the same pair. The brackets name both Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm. A bracket that names two expansions is a ruleset for the change, not a sentence that says which pack adds the civilization, so his pack stays unconfirmed. The Chinese form of his personal name in this essay is the standard reading.^{3 4}

Legacy and interpretation

The kingdom’s legacy in the lead is a standing army and a coastal realm between two rivers. Shaka’s legacy is the reforms of 1816 to 1828. Isandlwana and Ulundi are 1879. They belong to a later war, after the king is dead. A civilization entry that uses only his face should not be read as the battle of 1879 or as the end of the monarchy.^{1 2}

A closer look

The update’s Zulu lines add gold and science to buildings in the Ikanda. They are balance numbers. This essay does not copy them. A changed building is not the ibutho and not 24 September 1828.^{3 4}

In Civilization VI

The pack stays unconfirmed. Keep the approximate birth in 1787, the reign of 1816 to 1828, the death on 24 September 1828, and the war of 1879 apart, and do not treat the standard reading of his name as a quotation from the 2K pages used here.^{1 2 4}