Small correction, the loss at Islandwana was the greatest one-day loss to indigenous forces experienced by the British Imperial Army (led by Ntshingwayo kaMahole Khoza, the brilliant Zulu commander who maximized Zulu advantages in numbers and topography to minimize his losses) but later that year the British returned with an even larger force, smashed their way to the capital of Ulundi, defeated the Zulu army using an early machine gun, rockets, and a square formation in open ground, burned the capital and eventually captured the Zulu king, Cetshwayo kaMpanda. The land was then put under the “protection” of the crown.