Kingdom of Zimbabwe

Kingdom of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
1220–1450
Zimbabwe Bird
Capital		Great Zimbabwe
Religion		Belief in Mwari
Government		Monarchy
Mambo		Rusvingo (first)
		Unknown (last)
History
•	Abandonment of Mapungubwe for Zimbabwe	1220
•	Zimbabwe conquest of Mutapa	1430
•	Abandonment of Zimbabwe for Mutapa	1450
Preceded by Succeeded by Kingdom of Mapungubwe Kingdom of Mutapa Kingdom of Butua

Towers of Great Zimbabwe.

Part of a series on the
History of Zimbabwe
Ancient history Mapungubwe Kingdom c.1075–1220 Zimbabwe Kingdom c.1220–1450 Mutapa Kingdom c.1450–1760 Torwa dynasty c.1450–1683
White settlement pre-1923 Rozwi Empire c.1684–1834 Matabeleland 1838–1894 Rudd Concession 1888 BSA Company rule 1890–1923 First Matabele War 1893–1894 Second Matabele War 1896–1897 World War I involvement 1914–1918 Colony of Southern Rhodesia 1923–1980 World War II involvement 1939–1945 Malayan Emergency involvement 1948–1960 Federation with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland 1953–1963 Rhodesian Bush War 1964–1979 Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) 1965 Rhodesia under UDI 1965–1979 Zimbabwe-Rhodesia June–Dec 1979 Lancaster House Agreement Dec 1979 British Dependency 1979–1980 Zimbabwe 1980–present Gukurahundi 1982–1987 Second Congo War 1998–2003
Zimbabwe portal

The Kingdom of Zimbabwe (c. 1220–1450) was a medieval kingdom located in modern-day Zimbabwe. Its capital, Great Zimbabwe, is the largest stone structure in precolonial Southern Africa.

Name

Zimbabwe is the modern name issued to the most prominent pre-colonial civilization in southern Africa. The name is derived from one of two possible terms: the Shona (dzimba dza mabwe or "great stone houses") or Kalanga (Nzi we mabwe or "Homestead of Stone").

Origin

Although the Kingdom of Zimbabwe was formally established during the medieval period, archaeological excavations in the region suggest that state formation here was considerably more ancient. In the early 11th century, people from the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in Southern Africa are believed to have settled on the Zimbabwe plateau. There, they would establish the Kingdom of Zimbabwe around 1220. 16th century records left by the explorer João de Barros indicate that Great Zimbabwe appears to have still been inhabited as recently as the early 1500s.^[1]

Culture and expansion

The rulers of Zimbabwe brought artistic and stonemasonry traditions from Mapungubwe. The construction of elaborate stone buildings and walls reached its apex in the kingdom. The institution of mambo was also used at Zimbabwe, along with an increasingly rigid three-tiered class structure. The kingdom taxed other rulers throughout the region. The kingdom was composed of over 150 tributaries headquartered in their own minor zimbabwes.^[2] They established rule over a wider area than the Mapungubwe, the Butua or the Mutapa.

Economy

The Kingdom of Zimbabwe controlled the ivory and gold trade from the interior to the southeastern coast of Africa. Asian and Arabic goods could be found in abundance in the kingdom. Economic domestication, which had been crucial to the earlier proto-Shona states, was also practised. The Great Zimbabwe people mined minerals like gold, copper and iron. They also kept livestock, as it is explained by its theory of cattle hypothesis.

Rise of Mutapa and decline of Zimbabwe

In approximately 1430 prince Nyatsimba Mutota from the Great Zimbabwe travelled north to the Dande region in search of salt. He then defeated the Tonga and Tavara with his army and established his dynasty at Chitakochangonya Hill. The land he conquered would become the Kingdom of Mutapa. Within a generation, Mutapa eclipsed Great Zimbabwe as the economic and political power in Zimbabwe. By 1450, the capital and most of the kingdom had been abandoned.

Aftermath

The end of the kingdom resulted in a fragmenting of proto-Shona power. Two bases emerged along a north-south axis. In the north, the Kingdom of Mutapa carried on and even improved upon Zimbabwe's administrative structure. It did not carry on the stone-masonry tradition to the extent of its predecessor. In the south, the Kingdom of Butua was established as a smaller, but nearly identical, version of Zimbabwe. Both states were eventually absorbed into the largest and most powerful of the Kalanga states, the Rozwi Empire.

See also

• Great Zimbabwe
• Kingdom of Mapungubwe
• History of Zimbabwe
• Kingdom of Butua
• Kingdom of Mutapa
• Khami
• Danangombe

References

Sources

• Peters, Carl (1902). The Eldorado of the Ancients. London: C. Arthur Pearson. 
• Griffith, Francis Llewellyn (1903). Archæological Report. Egypt Exploration Fund. 
• Böhmer-Bauer, Kunigunde (2000). Great Zimbabwe: eine ethnologische Untersuchung. R. Köppe. ISBN 389645210X. 
• Oliver, Roland & Anthony Atmore (1975). Medieval Africa 1250–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 738. ISBN 0-521-20413-5. 
• Owomoyela, Oyekan (2002). Culture and Customs of Zimbabwe. Westport: Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-31583-1. 
• Stewart, John (1989). African States and Rulers. Jefferson: McFarland. p. 395. ISBN 0-89950-390-X. 
• Wieschhoff, H. A. (2006). The Zimbabwe-Monomotapa Culture in Southeast Africa. Whitefish: Kessinger. p. 116. ISBN 1-4286-5488-7.