Great Zimbabwe (9-15th century) - House of Stone

Social:

The Shona people made up the populus.

Political:

• 200 smaller settlements or trading posts across Namibia to Mozambique

• Conical tower to represent the King’s power

Interactions with Environment:

Located in Southern Africa

• Traded across the Indian Ocean

• Connected to growing trade with the Eastern Swahili Coast – Great Zimbabwe gains the resources to construct a stone kingdom

Economy:

• Traded with Islam, India, and China

• Had gold and cattle

• Connected to growing trade with the Eastern Swahili Coast – Great Zimbabwe gains the resources to construct a stone kingdom

Technology:

• Great Enclosure: Built in curved walls - evidence of great urban planning

• Conical tower to represent the King’s power

• Walls

  • Granite stacked precisely, no mortar used to hold them in place

  • They weathered it down to fit the right shape into a regular block

• Iron Metallurgy

Additional Notes:

• Europeans used it as a means of colonization, claiming that they owned this land first or that it was part of biblical times, even throwing out artifacts that denied their claims.

• Downfall: Decrease in mining output, cattle overgrazing, and depleted resources

• In the 1960s and 1970s – white minority historians share that Great Zimbabwe was made from foreign people

• In the 1980s Zimbabwe achieved independence and spoke that this was a creation by Africans

Context:

After 1000 CE, larger kingdoms grew in prominence in Sub Saharan Africa because of trade bringing wealth, the increase of political power, and cultural diversity.

Significant Changes

• African political structures replace kin-based communities because of wealth accumulated from trade.