Tongaland, or Amatongaland, existed in southeast Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, lastly as a district of Zululand

Zulu Kingdom

The Zulu Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire or, rather imprecisely, Zululand, was a monarchy in Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to Pongola River in the north....

, forming the northern neck of Zululand. Bordered on the west by the Lebombo Mountains

Lebombo Mountains

The Lebombo Mountains, also called Lubombo Mountains, are an 800km long, narrow range of mountains in Southern Africa stretching from Hluhluwe in KwaZulu-Natal in the south to Punda Maria in the Limpopo Province in South Africa in the north. Part of the mountains are found in South Africa,...

, the area comprised 1280 mi² (2060 km²). The inhabitants were the Amatonga, a part of the Zulu people.

The possession of Tongaland was strongly desired by the Boer

Boer

Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...

s since it furnished them an outlet to the sea and a safe haven, too. In order to disrupt that plan, Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 placed Tongaland under British protection on 11 June 1895; it was annexed to Zululand on 27 December 1897, and along with Zululand promptly annexed to Natal three or four days later.