The first groups of Voortrekkers move into the southern Highveld, skirting the powerful Lesotho kingdom of Moshoeshoe to the east, and pasture their herds on lands between the Orange River and the Vaal River.

A large group moves farther north to the grasslands beyond the Vaal River into territory where Mzilikazi had recently established a powerful Ndebele state.

Competing for the same resources—pasturelands, water, and game—the Voortrekkers and the Ndebele soon come into conflict.

In 1836 the Voortrekkers fight off an Ndebele attempt to expel them from the Highveld.

In the following year, the northern Voortrekkers ally with the Rolong and the Griqua, who are known for their fighting skills.

This time the northern Voortrekkers succeed n defeating Mzilikazi and forcing him and most of his followers to flee north into present-day Zimbabwe, where he conquers the Shona and establishes a new state.

The Mfecane (the "Crushing"), as the the period of regional warfare and forced migrations in In southern Africa is known, had begun in the early nineteenth century.

Zwangendaba, king of the Ngoni people from approximately 1815, had led his people, at this time called the "Jere", on a migration of more than a thousand miles lasting more than twenty years after being driven from the eastern region of what is now South Africa, near modern Swaziland, by the Zulus during the Mfecane.

Using many of Shaka's methods of rule such as rigid discipline in military and social organization, he has knitted his tribe and the unfortunate people abducted along the way into a cohesive unit.

With his people he has migrated north into tropical Africa, in 1822 crossing into what is now southern Mozambique.

Defeated there in 1831 by other fleeing tribes, he followed the Zambezi River into what is now Zimbabwe in 1835 and helps to bring to an end the three hundred-year-old Rozwi empire.

Zwangendaba is believed to have destroyed many of the structures at Great Zimbabwe on passing through.

The Ndwandwe, a Nguni-speaking people, had been forcibly dispersed also by the Zulus.

Under the leadership of Mzilikazi, a former general in Shaka's army, armed bands of the Ndebele, (Matabele) a branch of the Zulus who had split from King Shaka in the early 1820s, had migrated northward, invading the Rozwi Empire.

The Ndwandwe armies of Nxaba and Zwangendaba devastate the empire, and in the early 1830s, the last Rozwi ruler is killed in his capital of Khame.

The Zimbabwe region comes under control of Ndebele chief Lobengula in 1834.

Many of the Shona people of the defunct Rozwi Empire have been incorporated; the rest of the Shona groupings have been made satellite territories that pay tribute to the Ndebele Kingdom.

Mzilikazi calls his new nation Mthwakazi, a Zulu word which means something that became big at conception, in Zulu "into ethe ithwasa yabankulu.”

The territory will come to be known as Matabeleland.

Mzilikazi organizes this ethnically diverse nation into a militaristic system of regimental towns and establishes his capital at Bulawayo.

Ndebele king Mzilikazi and his tribe, after losing their remaining South African lands in 1840, permanently settle in the southwest of present-day Zimbabwe in what became known as Matabeleland, establishing Bulawayo as their capital.

Mzilikazi now organizes his society into a military system with regimental kraals, similar to those of Shaka, which is stable enough to repel further Boer incursions.

Mzilikazi dies in 1868; following a violent power struggle, his son Lobengula succeeds him.

Lobengula’s claim to the Matabele throne on the death of hs father, founding king Mzilikazi, in 1868, is challenged by a half-brother, Nkulumane, who is supported by Europeans and dissident Ndebeles.

The izinduna, or chiefs, offer the crown to Lobengula, one of Mzilikazi's sons from an inferior wife.

Several impis (regiments) dispute Lobengula's assent and the question is ultimately decided by the arbitration of the assegai, with Lobengula and his impis crushing the rebels.

Lobengula's courage in this battle leads to his unanimous selection as king.

Lobengula’s coronation takes place at Mhlanhlandlela, one of the principal military towns.

The Matabele nation assembles in the form of a large semicircle, performs a war dance, and declares their willingness to fight and die for Lobengula.

A great number of cattle are slaughtered and the choicest meats are offered to Mlimo, the Matabele spiritual leader, and to the dead Mzilikazi.

Great quantities of millet beer are also consumed.

About ten thousand Matabele warriors in full war costume attend the crowning of Lobengula.

Their costumes consist of a headdress and short cape made of black ostrich feathers, a kilt made of leopard or other skins and ornamented with the tails of white cattle.

Around their arms they wear similar tails and around their ankles they wear rings of brass and other metals.

Their weapons consisted of one or more long spears for throwing and a short stabbing-spear or assegai (also the principal weapon of the Zulu).

For defense, they carry large oval shields of ox-hide, either black, white, red, or speckled according to the impi (regiment) to which they they belong.

The Matabele maintain their position in the region due to the greater size and tight discipline in the army, to which every able-bodied man in the tribe owes service.

The Ndebele army, consisting of fifteen thousand men in forty regiments, is based around Lobengula's capital of Bulawayo.