Politics

       But as time passed, great Zimbabwe did decline. The way that great Zimbabwe declined is unknown, and is debated among historians. One way they believe the empire fell was by the overuse of land by cattle, causing a shortage of materials, and well as a drought, which caused the people to flee. Another theory is that the people took advantage of the shifting trade networks, by leaving great Zimbabwe. By the 1500 great Zimbabwe was unpopulated.

          But that wasn’t the end of the Shona Empire. A man named Mutota, left great Zimbabwe, and traveled north near the year 1440 looking for land and salt, according to Shona oral tradition. On his trip he found a valley. The valley carried a surplus of wood, rainfall and fertile soil. Later on Mutota, was trying to build a new empire, one way he did this was by leading an army, which captured the land of other states.

          Mutota had many strategies of growing and expanding the area. One way was that he built a strong army that was able to capture a lot of land including much of what is Zimbabwe today.

This is a drawing of what Mutota was thought to look like