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Zimbabwe’s history runs from Stone Age hunter-gatherers, who painted the rock shelters of the Matobo Hills thousands of years ago, through the stone-walled states of Great Zimbabwe, Mutapa and the Rozvi, the Ndebele kingdom, 90 years of colonial rule, and a liberation war, to independence on 18 April 1980. The country takes its name from Great Zimbabwe; zimbabwe is a Shona word meaning “stone houses”. This page is a scannable timeline. Each era links to a longer guide. Written by Bryan Fawcett.
Last reviewed: 25 October 2026 against UNESCO World Heritage Centre listings, Encyclopaedia Britannica, the BBC’s Zimbabwe timeline, South African History Online and peer-reviewed archaeology (Chirikure and others, Antiquity, 2013). Where historians disagree on dates or numbers, we give the range.

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History of Zimbabwe at a glance

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Stone Age and rock art

  • At least 500,000 years ago: archaeological evidence shows people living in the Matobo Hills, south of Bulawayo, according to UNESCO.
  • At least 13,000 years ago: the oldest dated rock paintings in the Matobo Hills. Most of Zimbabwe’s rock art is the work of San (Bushmen) hunter-gatherers and their ancestors.
  • Iron Age: farming communities, who herded cattle, grew crops and worked metal, gradually replace the foraging way of life. UNESCO describes Matobo as showing “the way agricultural societies came to replace” hunter-gatherers.
See our rock art guide and the Matobo Hills page for sites you can visit.

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Precolonial states (c. 900–1830s)

  • c. 900–1300: Mapungubwe, at the meeting of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers, where Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa now meet, grows into the largest kingdom in the region. It exports gold and ivory through East African ports and is abandoned around 1300, when the climate becomes drier (UNESCO).
  • c. 1100–1450: Great Zimbabwe, near present-day Masvingo, is built and becomes the capital of a Shona state on the gold-rich plateau. UNESCO dates it to the 11th–15th centuries. A 2013 radiocarbon study puts the start of stone walling in the late 12th or early 13th century, with a peak in the 14th and 15th centuries and some occupation into the 16th and probably 17th century.
  • 14th century: the Great Enclosure is built. Great Zimbabwe probably had 10,000–20,000 people at its height. Imports found there include Chinese porcelain, Persian glass beads and a coin from Kilwa on the Swahili coast.
  • c. 1450: the main power centre shifts away from Great Zimbabwe. Two successor states rise: Mutapa in the north, towards the Zambezi, and Torwa, with its capital at Khami near Bulawayo, in the south-west.
  • 1505: the Portuguese settle at Sofala on the Mozambique coast, the port for the inland gold trade.
  • From the 1530s: Portuguese traders move inland and set up trading markets in Mutapa territory.
  • 1629: after a failed attempt to expel the Portuguese, the Mutapa ruler is deposed and his successor is forced to grant them trading and mining privileges (Britannica).
  • 1680s–1690s: the Rozvi state under Changamire Dombo conquers the Torwa state and drives the Portuguese from their inland markets.
  • 1820s–1830s: Nguni-speaking groups moving north during the Mfecane break up the Rozvi state.
Full story: Precolonial kingdoms of Zimbabwe.

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Ndebele kingdom (late 1830s–1893)

  • 1822–23: Mzilikazi, a Khumalo leader, breaks with the Zulu king Shaka and leads his followers north.
  • 1836–37: defeated by Voortrekker and allied forces in the Transvaal, the Ndebele cross the Limpopo. They settle in what becomes Matabeleland around 1838–40 (sources differ on the exact year).
  • September 1868: Mzilikazi dies. He is buried at Entumbane in the Matobo Hills.
  • 1870: after a succession dispute, Lobengula becomes king and founds his capital, kwaBulawayo (Old Bulawayo).
  • 1881: Lobengula moves his capital to the site of today’s Bulawayo.
  • 30 October 1888: the Rudd Concession grants Cecil Rhodes’s associates exclusive rights to metals and minerals. Lobengula later rejects it, saying he was misled about its terms.
  • 1893: British South Africa Company forces invade. Lobengula burns his capital and flees north. He probably died in late 1893 or early 1894.
Full story: The Ndebele kingdom.

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Colonial rule (1890–1965)

  • October 1889: the British South Africa Company (BSAC) receives a royal charter.
  • 12 September 1890: the Pioneer Column reaches the site of present-day Harare and names it Fort Salisbury.
  • 1895: the Company’s territories are formally named Rhodesia.
  • 1896–97: the First Chimurenga (Shona: uprising), known in isiNdebele as Umvukela. The Ndebele rise in March 1896 and the Shona join a few months later. Both are defeated.
  • April 1898: the spirit mediums Mbuya Nehanda (Charwe Nyakasikana) and Sekuru Kaguvi are hanged in Salisbury.
  • 1922–23: Company rule ends. White settlers vote for self-government rather than joining South Africa, and Southern Rhodesia becomes a self-governing British colony in 1923.
  • 1930: the Land Apportionment Act divides land by race and restricts Black Africans’ access to land.
  • 1953–63: the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (Central African Federation) joins Southern Rhodesia with today’s Zambia and Malawi. It is dissolved on 31 December 1963.
  • Early 1960s: nationalist parties form, including ZAPU under Joshua Nkomo and, in 1963, ZANU.

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UDI and the liberation war (1965–1979)

  • 11 November 1965: Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Front government issues a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). Britain calls it illegal, and the UN imposes sanctions in 1966, extended in 1968.
  • 28 April 1966: ZANLA guerrillas fight Rhodesian forces near Sinoia (now Chinhoyi). This is often cited as the first battle of the Second Chimurenga, the liberation war.
  • 1970s: the war intensifies. ZANU’s army, ZANLA, operates mainly from Mozambique; ZAPU’s army, ZIPRA, mainly from Zambia.
  • 1976–77: Rhodesian forces raid camps in Mozambique, including Nyadzonia (August 1976) and Chimoio (November 1977). Many of those killed were refugees; casualty figures are still disputed.
  • 1978–79: an “internal settlement” produces Zimbabwe Rhodesia under Bishop Abel Muzorewa in 1979, but it is not internationally recognised and the war continues.
  • 21 December 1979: the Lancaster House Agreement is signed in London, ending the war. Britain resumes temporary control.
Full story: Colonial era and independence.

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Independent Zimbabwe (1980 to the present)

  • February 1980: British-supervised elections. ZANU-PF wins 57 of the 80 seats not reserved for white voters.
  • 18 April 1980: Zimbabwe becomes independent, with Robert Mugabe as prime minister. 18 April is Independence Day.
  • 1983–87 (some sources say 1982–87): after Joshua Nkomo is dismissed from the cabinet in 1982, the army’s Fifth Brigade is deployed in Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands. In what is known as Gukurahundi (Shona: “the rain that washes away the chaff”), thousands of civilians are killed. The 1997 report Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe and the Legal Resources Foundation documented the violence. Estimates of the death toll vary, and figures of up to 20,000 are widely cited.
  • December 1987: the Unity Accord merges ZANU-PF and PF-ZAPU. Mugabe becomes executive president.
  • 2000: a draft constitution is rejected in a referendum. Large-scale seizures of white-owned commercial farms begin under the government’s land reform programme.
  • 2008: hyperinflation peaks. Disputed elections lead to a power-sharing agreement.
  • 2009: the government allows foreign currencies, mainly the US dollar, to be used (“dollarisation”). A unity government is formed, with Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister.
  • 2013: voters approve a new constitution in a March referendum. It is signed into law in May and limits presidents to two five-year terms.
  • November 2017: after the military takes control, Mugabe resigns on 21 November. Emmerson Mnangagwa is sworn in as president on 24 November.
  • 2019: Robert Mugabe dies, aged 95. In June the Zimbabwe dollar becomes the sole official currency, although foreign currencies are legalised again in 2020.
  • August 2023: Mnangagwa is declared the winner of the presidential election. The opposition rejects the result.
  • April 2024: the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introduces a new currency, Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG), backed by gold and foreign currency reserves. The US dollar is still widely used. See our money guide.
  • 2024–25: the government launches a chiefs-led Gukurahundi community engagement programme in July 2024. Community hearings begin in Matabeleland in mid-2025.

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Historic sites to visit

Great Zimbabwe

Khami Ruins

Matobo Hills

UNESCO World Heritage sites

Historic sites

About Zimbabwe

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Sources

Last modified on October 25, 2026