Battle of Rorke's Drift Battle of Rorke's Drift The Battle of Rorke's Drift, also known as the Defence of Rorke's Drift, was a battle in the Anglo-Zulu War. The defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift, under the command of Lieutenants John Chard of the Royal Engineers and Gonville Bromhead, immediately followed the British Army's defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879, and continued into the following day. Just over 150 British and colonial troops successfully defended the garrison against an intense assault by 3,000 to 4,000 Zulu warriors. The massive but piecemeal Zulu attacks on Rorke's Drift came very
Anglo-Zulu War a small force of British troops. The war eventually resulted in a British victory and the end of the Zulu nation's dominance of the region. By the 1850s the British Empire had colonies in southern Africa bordering on various Boer settlements, native African kingdoms such as the Zulus, the Basotho and numerous indigenous tribal areas and states. Various interactions with these followed an expansionist policy. Cape Colony had been formed after the Anglo–Dutch Treaty of 1814 permanently ceded the Dutch colony of Cape Town to Britain, and its territory expanded very substantially through the 19th century. Natal in south-eastern Africa