Rozvi Empire

The Rozvi Empire was a Shona state established on the Zimbabwean Plateau by the warrior leader Changamire Dombo in the late seventeenth century, after his forces broke the Portuguese trading presence in the interior and displaced the weakened Mutapa state's authority over much of the plateau. Its name derives from the Shona term kurozva, meaning to plunder or to conquer, reflecting the reputation of the Rozvi as the most formidable military power in the region during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Rozvi state maintained control over trade routes and tribute from surrounding Shona chiefdoms for close to two centuries. It collapsed in the 1830s under invasion from Nguni groups migrating north during the regional upheavals of the Mfecane.