Until roughly 2,000 years ago, what would become Zimbabwe was populated by ancestors of the San people. Bantu inhabitants of the region arrived and developed ceramic production in the area. A series of trading empires emerged, including the Kingdom of Mapungubwe and Kingdom of Zimbabwe. In the 1880s, the British South Africa Company began its activities in the region, leading to the colonial era in Southern Rhodesia.
Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozambique to the east. The capital and largest city is Harare, and the second largest is Bulawayo. A country of roughly 15 million people, Zimbabwe's largest and dominant ethnic group are the Shona, who make up 82% of the population, followed by the Northern Ndebele and other smaller minorities. Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, with English, Shona, and Ndebele the most common. Beginning in the 9th century, during its late Iron Age, the Bantu people built the city-state of Great Zimbabwe; the city-state became one of the major African trade centres by the 11th century, controlling the gold, ivory and copper trades with the Swahili coast, which were connected to Arab and Indian states. By the mid 15th century, the city-state had been abandoned. From there, the Kingdom of Zimbabwe was established, followed by the Rozvi and Mutapa empires.
The economy of Zimbabwe relies on the tertiary sector of the economy, also known as the service sector of the economy, which makes up to 60% of total GDP as of 2017. Zimbabwe has the second largest, by percentage, Informal economy in the world, with a score of 60.6%. Agriculture and mining largely contribute to exports. After continuous negative growth between 1999 and 2008, the economy of Zimbabwe grew at an annual rate of 34% from 2008 to 2013, making it the fastest-growing economy in the world. Growth since then has been volatile, but averaged 5% on an end-to-end basis.
Harare, originally known as Salisbury, is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan area in 2019. Situated in north-eastern Zimbabwe in the country's Mashonaland region, Harare is a metropolitan province, which also incorporates the municipalities of Chitungwiza and Epworth. The city sits on a plateau at an elevation of 1,483 metres above sea level, and its climate falls into the subtropical highland category.
The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup was the eighth Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya from 9 February to 23 March 2003. This edition of the World Cup was the first to be played in Africa.
Great Zimbabwe is a medieval city in the south-eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe, near Lake Mutirikwi and the town of Masvingo. It is thought to have been the capital of a great kingdom during the Late Iron Age, about which little is known. Construction on the city began in the 9th century and continued until it was abandoned in the 15th century. The edifices were erected by ancestors of the Shona and other groups located in Zimbabwe and nearby countries. The stone city spans an area of 7.22 square kilometres and could have housed up to 18,000 people at its peak, giving it a population density of approximately 2,500 per square kilometre. It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Zimbabwe Rhodesia, alternatively known as Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, also informally known as Zimbabwe or Rhodesia, and sometimes as Rhobabwe, was a short-lived sovereign state that existed from 1 June 1979 to 18 April 1980, though lacked international recognition. Zimbabwe Rhodesia was preceded by another state named the Republic of Rhodesia and was briefly under a British-supervised transitional government sometimes referred to as a reestablished Southern Rhodesia, which according to British constitutional theory had remained the lawful government in the area after Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965. About three months later, the re-established colony of Southern Rhodesia was granted internationally recognised independence within the Commonwealth as the Republic of Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) is a political organisation which has been the ruling party of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. The party was led for many years under Robert Mugabe, first as prime minister with the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and then as president from 1987 after the merger with the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and retaining the name ZANU–PF, until 2017, when he was removed as leader.
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No one definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and the physical geography definition based on the physical characteristics of the land.
The Zimbabwe national cricket team, also known as the Chevrons, represents Zimbabwe in men's international cricket and is overseen by Zimbabwe Cricket. Zimbabwe has been a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) since 1992. As of May, 2023, Zimbabwe is currently ranked 10th in Tests, 11th in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and 11th in Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) by the ICC.
The Zimbabwe national football team, represents Zimbabwe in men's international football and is controlled by the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), formerly known as the Football Association of Rhodesia. The team has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup finals, but has qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations five times. Zimbabwe has also won the COSAFA Cup a record six times. The team represents both FIFA and Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The Rhodesian Bush War, also called the Second Chimurenga as well as the Zimbabwe War of Independence, was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised country of Rhodesia.
White Zimbabweans, formerly called White Rhodesians until 1980, are people in Zimbabwe who are of European descent. In linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, these Zimbabweans of European ethnic origin are mostly English-speaking descendants of British settlers and a small minority of them are either Afrikaans-speaking descendants of Afrikaners from South Africa and/or those descended from Greek and Portuguese immigrants.
Econet, officially known as Econet Group, is a diversified telecommunications group with operations and investments in Africa, Europe, South America and the East Asia Pacific Rim, offering products and services in the core areas of mobile and fixed telephony services, broadband, satellite, optical fiber networks and mobile payment.
The Zimbabwe national rugby union team, nicknamed the Sables, represents nation of Zimbabwe in international competition, and is administered by the Zimbabwe Rugby Union. While sides representing the colony of Rhodesia have played as early as 1910, the modern day Zimbabwe rugby team did not play its first test until 1981, against Kenya. Zimbabwe has competed in two World Cups, in 1987 and 1991, in place of South Africa, who were sanctioned by the IRB at the time due to apartheid. Zimbabwe is categorized as Tier 3 Development One, which prioritizes Zimbabwe over other nations due to historical success as well as popularity of rugby in the nation.
The wildlife of Zimbabwe occurs foremost in remote or rugged terrain, in national parks and private wildlife ranches, in miombo woodlands and thorny acacia or kopje. The prominent wild fauna includes African buffalo, African bush elephant, black rhinoceros, southern giraffe, African leopard, lion, plains zebra, and several antelope species.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, and as a socialist after the 1990s.
The Zimbabwean dollar was the name of four official currencies of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 12 April 2009. During this time, it was subject to periods of extreme inflation, followed by a period of hyperinflation.
Zimbabwean English is a regional variety of English found in Zimbabwe. While the majority of Zimbabweans speak Shona (75%) and Ndebele (18%) as a first language, standard English is the primary language used in education, government, commerce and media in Zimbabwe, giving it an important role in society. Just under 5 percent of Zimbabweans are native English speakers and 89 percent of the population can speak English fluently or at a high level, second only to the Seychelles amongst African nations.
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FRELIMO 
ZAPU 
ANC 
Rhodesia 
South Africa 
Zimbabwe 
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DR Congo 
Angola 
Chad 
Namibia 
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