The British lost heavily in the war with the Zulu people.

On January 11, 1879, the British colonists launched a long-planned war against the Zulu Kingdom after Zulu leader Ketchiwayo refused his "ultimatum". Lord Chelmsford led a British colonial army of 13,000 men across the Buffalo and Tugela rivers and launched a large-scale attack on the Zulu Kingdom. The Anglo-Ancestral War broke out.

The advancement of the weapons did not completely determine the course of the war, and although the end was unfortunate, the Zulu rebellion also made the British unfortunate.