History of Southern Africa Changamire






History of the Mwanamutapa Kingdom



In the 1400s, the MWANAMUTAPA KINGDOM (also spelled Momomutapa) was established by the KARANGA branch of the Shona people, in what is Zimbabwe today. It included GREAT ZIMBABWE, believed to be constructed in the 11th century. The kingdom traded, via the port of SOFALA (which did not belong to it) with Swahili traders; among the export products were gold and ivory. About 1490, the kingdom split in two, Mwanamutapa in the north and CHANGAMIRE, with Great Zimbabwe, in the south.
In the early 1500es the Portuguese established themselves along the coast of modern Mocambique and along the banks of the lower Zambezi river, determined to monopolize Mwanamutapa's trade. Two Portuguese attempts to conquer Mwanamutapa in 1569-1572 and 1574 failed. Early in the 17th century the Portuguese managed to gain influence at the Mwanamutapa court; the kingdom again and again suffered from civil strife. The Kingdom continued to exist until into the late 19th century, by then only a shadow of itself, frequent targetted by slave raiders.





HISTORIC MAPS Map of Africa 1808, from R. Brookes, General Gazetteer, 1808, from Perry Castaneda Library Collection at UTexas, shows Monomotapa
Map of Southern Africa (Aethiopia Inferioris) from Blaeu 1635, from Yale Univ. Library much of Southern Africa's interior was believed to belong to Monomotapa



EXTERNAL
FILES 		Links to the History of Zimbabwe, from Looksmart
History of Zimbabwe, from Infoplease
History of Zimbabwe, from Discovery Channel's A to Z Geography
History of Mocambique, from Infoplease (period of early Portuguese rule closely related to Mwanamutapa)
Mwanamutapa, from Infoplease; Great Zimbabwe from Infoplease
DOCUMENTS Image of Great Zimbabwe, from zimweb
REFERENCE



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on November 7th 2004

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