Kingdom of Zimbabwe

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This article is about the pre-colonial African kingdom. For the modern-day Republic of Zimbabwe, see Zimbabwe.
Kingdom of Zimbabwe


Zimbabwe Bird

Capital Great Zimbabwe
Religion Cult of Mwari
Government Monarchy
Mambo Rusvingo (first)
Unknown (last)
 -  Abandonment of Mupungubwe for Zimbabwe 1220
 -  Zimbabwe conquest of Mutapa 1430
 -  Abandonment of Zimbabwe for Mutapa 1450

The Kingdom of Zimbabwe (1220–1450) was a kingdom located in the territory of modern-day Zimbabwe. It is famous for its capital, Great Zimbabwe, the largest stone structure in southern Africa until recent times.[when?]


Main article: Name of Zimbabwe

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


The creators of the Zimbabwe kingdom immigrated to the Zimbabwe plateau from the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in southern Africa in the early 13th century

Culture and expansion[edit]

Towers of Great Zimbabwe.

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.[1] They established rule over a wider area than Mapungubwe, Butua or Mutapa.


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.

Mutapa conquest and decline[edit]

Around 1430, a prince from Zimbabwe travelled north in search of salt among the Shona-Tavara. The prince was Nyatsimba Mutota, and the land he conquered would become the Kingdom of Mutapa. Within a generation, Mutapa eclipsed Zimbabwe as the economic and political power in Zimbabwe. By 1450, the capital and most of the kingdom had been abandoned.


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 stonemasonry 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[edit]


  1. ^ Owomoyela, page 7


  • Wieschhoff, H. A. (2006). The Zimbabwe-Monomotapa Culture in Southeast Africa. Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing. p. 116. ISBN 1-4286-5488-7. 
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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
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