The Washing of the Spears (1973, 1989, 1992, 1994) By Donald R. Morris
 
THE WASHING OF THE SPEARS is the definitive account of a tragic and awe-inspiring story; the rise of the Zulu nation in southern Africa and its fall under Cetshwayo in the Zulu war of 1879. For more than a century after the European landing at Capetown in the C17th, the Boers had advanced unopposed into the vast interior of Africa. It was not until 1824 that Europeans came face to face with another expanding and imperial power, the Zulus - the most formidable nation in black Africa. That confrontation eventually culminated in a bitter war between the Zulu warriors and Victoria's British Army. It was the last despairing effort of Africans to stem the tide of white civilization. The result was a dramatic, legendary, and bloody defeat at Isandhlwana for the British; the aftermath was the defeat and fall of the remarkable Zulu nation.
 
Filled with colorful characters, dramatic battles like Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift, and an inexorable narrative momentum, this unsurpassed history details the sixty-year existence of the world's mightiest African empire; from its brutal formation and zenith under the military genius Shaka , through its inevitable collision with white expansionism, to its dissolution under Cetshwayo in the Zulu War of 1879.
 
Hard Cover With Dust Jacket and Soft Cover (1973, 1992, 1994) Options
655 Pages
In Good Condition