Pre-Colonial Zimbabwe
Before Zimbabwe was colonized by the British in 1923, Zimbabwe had an interesting culture and history. Zimbabwe was originally settled by Khoisan and Bantu peoples from Central Africa. Archealogists working in Zimbabwe have found several different arrays of Stone Age tools in the country, hinting at the fact that Zimbabwe has been inhabitated for thousands of years. In addition, several different ruins have been found in the country, including the famous Great Zimbabwe. This ruin is one of the most important findings in the area and shows that the Zimbabwe area was highly developed at the time it was built. It was built somewhwere around the 9th and 13th centuries and discovered in 1531 by a Portuguese explorer named Vincente Pogado. The ruin is gigantic, and has lots of structures inside it that would be advanced technology for its time period (i.e. stairs.) The size and innovation shown in this ruin gave people a clue that Zimbabwe was an important power in the area at the time. In fact, the country is named after the ruin. The national flag also features a bird motif that represents one of the sculptures at the ruins.
And, as many people guessed, Zimbabwe was a major power at the time. A little bit about how they got to where they did:
The Mapungubwe
Since the Stone Age, the Khoisans who had been living in the area were pushed out by the Mapungubwe peoples. The Mapungubwe were the first to partition sections of their kingdoms and separate them into subdivisions. Their kingdom has been described as "one of the most complex cultures in Africa at the time."
One thousand years ago, Mapungubwe in Limpopo province was the center of the largest kingdom in the subcontinent, where a highly sophisticated people traded gold and ivory with China, India and Egypt.
Read more: http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/mapungubwe.htm#.UYF8ZLWsiSo#ixzz2S4jIFgUX
Although it may have been one of the most complex cultures at the time, daily life still revolved around subsistence farming and family traditions, like many other civilizations in Southern Africa and even the world. However, the Mapungubwe kingdom differed from other African kingdoms in the fact that they clearly defined kings as higher than commoners in the kingdom, something that would later develop into a much more advanced form of central leadership. The Mapungubwe also utilized pottery and ceramics for goods and, as the quote from earlier in this paragraph states; traded with China, India, and Egypt. This kingdom eventually developed into the Kingdom of Zimbabwe (which is much more famous) but at the time it was one of the biggest powers in Africa.
Great Zimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe was perhaps the pinnacle of precolonial Zimbabwe. This is the time where culture flourished, great fortresses of stone were built across the kingdom, and trade expanded all across the Indian Ocean. But, if Great Zimbabwe was located in Zimbabwe, then that means it's landlocked. Right? How could they expand to get all the way to the ocean. There's a simple answer, and that's the fact that the kingdom was that big. So, how did they get that power and that much land? Well, Zimbabwe began as a group of immigrants leaving the Mapungubwe kingdom described earlier. They decided to build stone structures, as the knowledge was given to them by the kingdom they were previously part of. So they began to build large stone structures like the ones seen at the Great Zimbabwe site, Khami, and other locations. They also were closer to the Indian Ocean, making trade more easy for Zimbabwe than the Mapungubwe state. Zimbabwe also had large amounts of gold and ivory in stock for trade. As Zimbabwe became richer and richer off the goods Mapungubwe didn't have, Zimbabwe slowly began to eclipse the Mapungubwe's power. Zimbabwe took the place of Mapungubwe as the dominant state in the region. Now, many interesting things were happening in Africa at the time. In the north, states like Ghana, Mali, Axum, Songhai, and Kush were developing rapidly. However, down in Southern Africa there was virtually no competition. This made Zimbabwe the only major power in the area. It also made the kingdom last over 200 years until 1450. At that time, a prince from Zimbabwe called Nyatsimba Mutota had sailed up through Eastern Africa to look for more trade opportunities. As he looked, he established a small kingdom named Mutapa, and slowly that began to eclipse Zimbabwe just as it had eclipsed the Mapungubwe. However, Great Zimbabwe is embedded in Modern Zimbabwe's culture in its national emblem, currency, flag, and more.
The Mutapa Kingdom
The Mutapa Kingdom was the antecessor of Great Zimbabwe, founded by a prince of Zimbabwe named Nyatsimba Mutota. The Mutapa Kingdom was initially very small and without power. So how did it somehow become the superior of Zimbabwe? The answer is location. The Mapungubwe Kingdom was located on the South African-Zimbabwean Border. Because Great Zimbabwe's location was closer to the Indian Ocean (Near the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border,) it eclipsed the Mapungubwe economically. Then, the Mutapa Kingdom was founded even closer to the Indian Ocean in Mozambique. Like Zimbabwe's predecessor, the kingdom was eclipsed by the Mutapa Kingdom and failed. Well, Zimbabwe did technically live on until 1683 via a small state called the "Butua Kingdom." But that state didn't do much and was basically just a mirror image of Zimbabwe. As the Mutapa kingdom technically is more of Mozambique's culture, I won't go into it too much. The most important fact about the kingdom is that it came into contact with Portugal, which caused an explosion of trade and eventually the Mutapa Kindgom's downfall. The Butua kingdom, somewhat isolated from the Portuguese eventually established a new, truly Zimbabwean state.
The Rowzi Dynasty
The final phase Zimbabwe went through before Europeans began to be involved in the country was the Rowzi Dynasty, which lasted from 1684 to 1834. In 1683, the aforementioned Butua Kingdom made itself a new state under the leadership of Changamire Dombo. This state existed comfortably for about ten years until 1693, when Portuguese explorers attempted to invade the "Empire." Why? Zimbabwe had still retained its gold and riches it had when it was Great Zimbabwe, and somehow the Portuguese found out about it. Nevertheless, the Rowzi defeated the Portuguese and drove them out of the plains on which they settled. After that, the Rowzi amalgamated several tribes from all over Southern Africa, including the Shona. Because of the unification of all the different tribes of Africa, the Mutapa kingdom eventually lost its power as more and more tributary states of it joined the Rowzi Empire. The Empire lasted for about 200 years due to the unification the previous states didn't have until the beginning of the colonial period of Zimbabwe. Now, here's the colonial history of Zimbabwe.