8/6/2019 Zimbabwe Notes
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zimbabwe notes
portuguese
early 16th century AD the Portuguese arrived, destroyed Mutapa's
trade with SwahiliPortuguese started wars which left the empire so
weakened that it was near colla
pse in the early 17th centuryKalanga communities came together
to form the Rozwi Empire1690 they forced the Portuguese off the
plateau and the RozwiWith relative peace and prosperity for the
next two centuries, the Kalanga centres of Dlodlo, Khami, and Great
Zimbabwe reached their peaksNdebele peoples migrating from the
Mfecane came to the Kalanga Rozwi Empire andmade war with it. They
conquered it and assimilated the inhabitants.
British
The British entered Matabeleland in the 1880s, under the
leadership of Cecil Rhodes, who extracted mining rights from King
Lobengula of the Ndebele
1.2.John Moffat, son of the missionary Robert Moffat, who was
trusted by Lobengula, to persuade the latter to sign a treaty of
friendship with Britain1.2.Rudd assured Lobengula that no more than
ten white men would mine in Matabeleland, but left this stipulation
out of the document which Lobengula signed1.2.Rudd Concession. It
stated that the mining companies could do anything necessary to
their operations1.2.When Lobengula discovered later what the
concession really declared, he tried to renounce it, but the
British Government ignored him1.Rhodes used the concession to
persuade the British government to grant a royalcharter to his
British South Africa Company (BSAC) over Matabeleland and its
su
bject states, such as Mashonaland4.In 1895 the BSAC adopted the
name 'Rhodesia' for Zambesia and in 1898 'Southern Rhodesia' was
officially adopted for the part south of the Zambezi River,[4]
w
hich later became Zimbabwe.To the east was Mashonaland, and as
the Shona were at the time subjects of Lobengula, they were covered
by the Rudd Concession1890 Rhodes used this fact to justify sending
the Pioneer Column of white settlers, protected by well-armed
British South Africa Police (BSAP), the BSAC's own paramilitary
forceRhodes said they hoped to start a "new Rand" from the ancient
gold mines of Mashonaland. The gold had been largely depleted, and
the settlers became farmers1.Rhodes declared that Lobengula had
never really conquered the Shona, so he proclaimed Mashonaland as
independent of Matabeland, exploiting tribal rivalries tocement the
British settlers' occupation
Rhodes provoked the neighbouring Ndebele into war, and the BSAP
defeated them in
the First Matabele War (1893-94)Lobengula won the battle of the
Shangani Patrol but he died while fleeing north;with the Ndebele
defeat, immigration of more Europeans increased greatly
1.British government suspected that Rhodes knew that the gold
was depleted and that Rhodes' primary aim was to settle Mashonaland
and Matabeleland all along5.after the Jameson Raid, the Ndebele and
Shona rose up in rebellion against theencroachment on their native
lands by white settlers, a struggle known in Zimba
bwe as the First Chimurenga. Europeans called it the Second
Matabele War (1896-97)American scout Frederick Russell Burnham
killed Mlimo, the Ndebele leader of therebellion
6.Rhodes entered unarmed into the Ndebele stronghold in Matobo
Hills and persuaded the impi to lay down their arms, effectively
ending the Second Matabele War
sources1.^ a b c d Parsons, Neil (1993). A New History of
Southern Africa, Second Editi
