First Matabele War
For more details on this topic, see First Matabele War.In August 1893, Lobengula sent warriors down to Fort Victoria to attack the Shona in the area. Lobengula's warriors were instructed not to kill any white people, but they did plunder and commit numerous murders of local Shona people. During this confrontation, a fight broke out between British and Matabele and thus began the First Matabele War. Hoping for a quick victory, Leander Starr Jameson sent his British forces to attack the capital Gubulawayo and capture Lobengula. But rather than fight, Lobengula burned down his capital and fled with a few of his elite warriors. The British moved into the remains of Gubulawayo, establishing a base, which they renamed Bulawayo and then sent out patrols to find Lobengula. The most famous of these the patrols, the Shangani Patrol, managed to find Lobengula, only to be trapped and wiped out in battle.
The British soldiers were vastly outnumbered throughout the war, but their superior armaments, most notably the Maxim gun, proved to be too much for the Ndebele. In an attempt to reach a peace accord with the British, a band of Lobengula's warriors brought a large sum of gold to two British soldiers to be delivered to their superiors. The two soldiers instead decided to keep the gold for themselves and the incident went undiscovered for many months. Lobengula died shortly afterwards and was buried secretly. This ended the war.
Read more about this topic: Northern Ndebele People
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