The earliest known inhabitants of the land that is now Zimbabwe were the hunter-gatherer San communities. Around the 5th century A.D., Bantu-speaking farming groups moved into the region, and by the 9th century, Shona-speaking societies had begun to emerge in the Limpopo Valley and the Zimbabwean highlands.

These communities developed extensive trade networks with Arab merchants along the Indian Ocean coast and eventually organized under the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in the 11th century. Mapungubwe was followed by several influential Shona states built on regional trade, including the Kingdom of Zimbabwe (circa 1220–1450), the Kingdom of Mutapa (circa 1450–1760), and later the Rozwi Empire.

The Rozwi expelled Portuguese settlers from the plateau, but in 1838 the Ndebele, led by Mzilikazi after the upheavals of the Mfecane, conquered much of the territory.