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It is believed that it was the Mbire who were the founders of the Mutapa Empire as well as the Rozvi Empire which was destroyed by the various Nguni tribes that passed through the land of Zimbabwe during the Mfecane wars. Namely, the Ndebele tribe, who now occupy southwest Zimbabwe, and the Shangane tribe in the southeast of Zimbabwe. The Hungwe settled in Zimbabwe for probably two to three hundred years before the Mbire arrived.

It is important to note that the difference between the present day Mbire (which refers to the Marondera — Wedza district and the people whose totem is Soko), and the 1500 AD Mbire. In about 1500 AD the term referred to all the members of the invading family which took over the land from the Hungwe.

The Mbire took over the land of Zimbabwe around somewhere between 1000 and 1050 AD.
Their invasion from across the Zambezi river marked the beginning of the dynasty of the Mbire empire which is commonly known as Mutapa Empire (state).

The Mutapa Empire or Mbire Empire covered most pasts of present day Zimbabwe.
The empire incorporated most of the whole of Mozambique, South of the Zambezi river and north of the Sabi river down to the sea.
Some of the present day South Africa tribes are known to have been segmented from the Shona (best known ones are the Venda and Lovendu). The expansion of Mbire Empire, include the following shona tribes Barwe, Manyika, Ndau, Korekore, Shangwe, and Guruuswa.
The Mwanamutapa  (or Monomatapas) were the first major civilisation to become established in Zimbabwe. The Mwanamutapa empire, headed by a ruler of the same name, was founded about 1420 among the Karanga people and was centred at Great Zimbabwe. By the mid 1440’s, the empire included almost all of the Zimbabwean plateau and extensive parts of what is now Mozambique.

The empire was ruled in pyramidal fashion, with the Mwanamutapa appointing regionally based vassals. The wealth of this empire was based on small-scale industries, for example iron smelting, textiles, gold and copper, along with agriculture.

At the height of Mwanamutapa state, it was part of a gold trade network that extended as far as China.
In about 1490 the empire split into two parts — Changamire in the south (including Great Zimbabwe) and Mwanamutapa in the north.
The latter stretched from the Indian Ocean in the east to present-day central Zambia in the west and from central Zimbabwe in the south to the Zambezi River in the north.

The regular inhabitants of the empire’s trading towns were the Arab and Swahili merchants with whom trade was conducted.
The empire was an important source of gold and ivory, the area attracted Swahili traders from the east coast of Africa (in modern Tanzania). When the Shirazis founded Sofala (in present-day Mozambique), the Karanga empire acquired an export market for its mining production.

The ‘Monomotapa’, the Karanga leader, imposed a tributary relation on the neighbouring Muslim nation as he had done with other minor cultures of the area.

Thus, Karanga supremacy was established over a region including parts of present-day Malawi. The area around Great Zimbabwe became the trading capital of the wealthiest and most powerful society in south-eastern Africa of its era.

The hilltop acropolis at Great Zimbabwe came to serve not only as a fortress but as a shrine for the worship of Mwari, the pre-eminent Shona deity.

In the early 16th century the Portuguese arrived in the form of traders and soldiers from Mozambique, and established contact with the empire.

Between 1509 and 1512 António Fernandes travelled inland and visited the Mwanamutapa kingdom, which controlled the region between the Zambezi and Save rivers and was the source of much of the gold exported at Sofala. Soon after, Swahili traders resident in Mwanamutapa began to redirect the kingdom’s gold trade away from Portuguese-controlled Sofala and toward more northern ports.
Thus, Portugal became interested in directly controlling the interior. In 1531, posts were established inland at Sena and Tete on the Zambezi, and in 1544 a station was founded at Quelimane.

The Mutapa empire started its decline around 1500 AD, power struggles among the Mbire resulted in the fall of the Mutapa state and the founding of the Rozvi Empire in the South West of present day Zimbabwe.

Further splits resulted in the fragmentation of these empires, which led to the innumerable autonomous Shona tribes found in present day Zimbabwe.

In 1560 and 1561 Gonçalo da Silveira, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, visited Mwanamutapa, where he quickly made converts, including King Nogomo Mupunzagato.

However, the Swahili traders who lived there, fearing for their commercial position, persuaded Nogomo to have Silveira murdered.
The presence of the Portuguese had a serious impact that affected some of its trade and there had been a series of wars which left the empire so weakened that it entered the 17th century in serious decline.

By the mid-17th century the Portuguese controlled Mwanamutapa empire.
By 1690 the Portuguese had been forced off the plateau and much of the land formerly under Mwanamutapa  was controlled by the Rozwi. The Shona dynasties fractured into autonomous states, many of which later formed the Rozvi empire.

Peace and prosperity reigned over the next two centuries and the centres of Dhlo-Dhlo, Khami, and Great Zimbabwe reached their peaks. The Mwanamutapa citadel and palace were taken over by the Rozvi, whose Changamira (king) extended his control over the mining area.
The Rozvi empire did not however succeed in controlling an area as vast as the ancient Karanga had done.

As a result of the mid-19th century turmoil in Transvaal and Natal, the Rozvi Empire came to an end, this was due to the fact that The Matebeles led by Mzilikazi came and devastated the region.

The Rozvi emigrated westwards; cities and farmlands, palaces and irrigation canals were abandoned and grass began to grow over the ancient walls of Great Zimbabwe.

It was not until the late 19th century that the peoples speaking several mutually intelligible languages were united under the Shona name.

There are five main language clusters: Korekore, Zezuru, Manyika, Ndau, and Karanga.
The last of these groups was largely absorbed by the Matebeles (Ndebele) when they moved into western side of present day Zimbabwe. — bulawayo1872.com