A Brief History of Zimbabwe

Pre-colonial Zimbabwe

9th century: Shona-speaking communities establish farming and trading societies in fertile, resource-rich areas. These societies rely on iron tools, herding, and agriculture, creating the foundation for trade. Archaeological discoveries of pottery and traded goods suggest connections with nearby regions. 
11th–15th century: The Great Zimbabwe Empire emerges as a dominant power renowned for its dry-stone architecture, including the Great Enclosure. The empire thrives on farming, herding, and trade, leveraging its mineral wealth to connect with Indian Ocean markets.
Great Zimbabwe: This trade hub exports not only gold and ivory but also copper and iron. Exchanges with Indian Ocean merchants introduce exotic items like Chinese porcelain and Persian glass.
15th century: Great Zimbabwe faces environmental pressures, including overpopulation, deforestation, and resource depletion. Reduced rainfall and exhausted gold mines undermine its economic base. Shifting trade routes lead to the rise of new powers like the Mutapa Empire.

Colonial encounters and influence

1450–1760: The Mutapa Empire succeeds Great Zimbabwe, governing vast territories and maintaining lucrative trade networks. Portuguese merchants influence trade dynamics by monopolising gold and ivory exports and introducing new goods.
Portuguese influence: European arrivals bring firearms and Christianity. Firearms alter warfare, while missionary activities encourage cultural shifts and tensions, with some elites adopting Christian governance principles.

Colonial era

1888: Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company (BSAC) secures mining rights through treaties like the Rudd Concession, exploiting indigenous leaders to gain exclusive control over mineral resources and paving the way for extensive colonisation.
1890: The BSAC Pioneer Column establishes Salisbury (modern Harare), marking the start of formal European settlement and administration.
1893–1897: The Shona and Ndebele peoples resist colonial expansion during the Matabele Wars and the First Chimurenga Rebellion. Colonial forces brutally suppress these uprisings.
1900s: Infrastructure such as railways, roads, and telegraph lines expands, facilitating trade and governance but marginalising local communities. Indigenous lands are often seized for these projects.

Towards self-governance

1923: Southern Rhodesia adopts self-governance under British sovereignty. The settler government enacts policies favouring the white minority and marginalising the African majority. The Land Apportionment Act of 1930 allocates fertile land to Europeans.
1930s–1940s: Settler agriculture, particularly tobacco farming, flourishes, making Rhodesia a prominent exporter. However, these developments primarily benefit European settlers, leaving indigenous populations with limited opportunities. English becomes a unifying official language, facilitating governance while systematically eroding indigenous cultural identity and linguistic heritage.
1948: Urban centres like Bulawayo and Harare expand, offering improved services, although primarily serving white Rhodesians. Western education and healthcare systems are introduced alongside an independent judiciary, although these benefits remain unevenly allocated. 
1953: Southern Rhodesia joins the Central African Federation with Zambia and Malawi. While the Federation aims to foster regional economic collaboration, its structure heavily favours Southern Rhodesia.

Struggle for independence

1960s: Nationalist movements like ZANU and ZAPU gain momentum, advocating for African self-rule amid rising tensions with the settler government.
1965: Ian Smith declares a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), rejecting British pressure for majority rule. This move entrenches minority rule in Rhodesia, sparking international condemnation and further isolating the regime.
1966: The first conflicts of the Second Chimurenga begin as guerrilla forces challenge the white-controlled government.
1972–1979: The liberation war intensifies, driven by land dispossession, political repression, and systemic exclusion of African majority rule. Mozambican and Zambian support for Zimbabwe's guerrilla fighters and aid from China and the USSR bolster the liberation movement.
1978: An Internal Settlement Agreement attempts to establish a multiracial government, but it fails to address systemic inequalities or dismantle the entrenched structures of settler colonialism. The agreement’s limited inclusivity and inability to guarantee genuine power-sharing make it a superficial solution that fails to gain domestic and international legitimacy.
1979: The Lancaster House Agreement ends the war, establishing a framework for majority rule and democratic elections. While it marks a significant step towards independence, the agreement involved compromises, particularly on land reform.

Post-independence challenges

1980: Zimbabwe gains independence, with Robert Mugabe becoming Prime Minister after ZANU-PF’s electoral victory. The country faces the immense challenge of post-independence nation-building, grappling with deep economic inequalities rooted in colonial policies.
1982–1987: The Gukurahundi conflict devastates Matabeleland as government forces suppress perceived opposition, resulting in an estimated 20,000 civilian deaths. The campaign is carried out by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, targeting the Ndebele-speaking population. Efforts for justice and reconciliation are hindered by political sensitivities and lack of accountability. Emmerson Mnangagwa (Minister of State Security at the time) is widely implicated in the Gukurahundi conflict.
1987: Mugabe consolidates power, abolishing the Prime Minister role to become Executive President. Over time, governance becomes increasingly authoritarian, with decisions driven by a narrow circle of elites loyal to Mugabe.
1990s: Land redistribution initiatives begin but face significant financial and logistical hurdles, compounded by international pressure and the imposition of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) by global financial institutions.

21st-century turmoil and reform

2000: Mugabe initiates fast-track land reforms aimed at addressing historical injustices in land ownership by redistributing white-owned farms to landless black Zimbabweans. While the policy seeks to rectify colonial-era inequities, its implementation is chaotic and marred by corruption, with many farms ending up in the hands of political elites. 
Agricultural crisis: The abrupt nature of the reforms, coupled with the lack of support for new farmers, disrupts agricultural production, leading to severe economic decline and food insecurity.
2005: Operation Murambatsvina displaces hundreds of thousands of urban poor, ostensibly as part of an urban renewal initiative. The operation is widely criticised for its socio-political motivations, which include targeting opposition strongholds and suppressing dissent. 
2008: In the midst of a global financial crisis, hyperinflation collapses the Zimbabwean dollar, prompting the use of foreign currencies to stabilise the economy. While the adoption of the US Dollar and South African Rand curbs inflation and restores basic functionality to the financial system, it also leaves the country vulnerable to external economic pressures and limits its ability to control monetary policy.
2009–2013: A power-sharing government introduces reforms, but political tensions persist between ZANU-PF and MDC factions.
2013: Mugabe wins re-election amid widespread allegations of electoral fraud, as economic challenges deepen. 
2017: Mugabe is ousted in a military coup after nearly four decades in power, with Emmerson Mnangagwa assuming leadership.

Contemporary Zimbabwe

2019: The RTGS dollar becomes the national currency, but economic instability, unemployment and corruption continue to plague Zimbabwe. Efforts to stabilise the currency include tighter monetary policies and international debt negotiations.
2020s: Zimbabwe faces ongoing challenges, including inflation and public scepticism toward economic policies. Attempts at stabilisation, such as the introduction of a gold-backed currency in 2024, have seen mixed results. While the currency aims to restore confidence in the monetary system, its effectiveness has been undermined by significant devaluation and limited public trust.