Grade 7, Lesson Outline: Chapter 6, Lesson 3

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Lesson at a Glance Outline

Chapter 6, Lesson 3: The Rise of the Zimbabwe State (pp. 145-148)

I. The Builders of Great Zimbabwe

A. On the Zimbabwe Plateau of south-central Africa, Bantu-speaking people called the Shona founded a prosperous kingdom.

B. Between A.D. 1000 and 1300 they built the walled city of Great Zimbabwe.

C. The Shona were farmers and cattle raisers.

II. The Gold Mines of Zimbabwe

A. Originally the Shona made jewlery from the gold they found in rivers, but they found they could exchange gold for imported goods from coastal traders.

B. The Shona became skilled at mining gold underground after the 1100s.

C. Through mining and trading gold, the Shona of Zimbabwe created a wealthy kingdom.

D. Great Zimbabwe was Zimbabwe's capital and thriving trade center.

III. The Breakup of Zimbabwe

A. In about 1450, the chiefs of Zimbabwe's gold-producing provinces declared independence from Great Zimbabwe and created a new empire called Monomutapa.

B. Eventually, civil wars weakened and split the new empire.

C. Portuguese traders sought to control Monomutapa's mines and trade.

D. By the late 1600s, Portuguese interference so weakened the empire that it was conquered by its southern neighbors.

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