History of Mutapa

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MUTAPA STATE DURING 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES Mutapa-Portuguese relations were also characterized by intrigue and conspiracies that ultimately led to conflict within the Mutapa and with outsiders. Portuguese attempts to Christianise the locals in the 1560s sparked conflict within the state as they opposed by traditional religious authorities who feared the loss of their own influence over the rulers and subjects in general. They also bred a rivalry with Swahili traders based at the court. The latter feared that this would result in the loss of their privileged trading position in the state. The Swahili then conspired with the traditional religious authorities to have the Portuguese priest Father Goncalo da Silveira assassinated in 1561. The murder only aggravated tensions in the Mutapa state. It fuelled Portuguese demands for the expulsion of all the Swahili traders from the state and the surrender of Mutapa gold mines to the king of Portugal. The Portuguese had clearly found a pretext to conquer the state. Between 1569 and 1575 they organised three abortive expeditions to conquer the Mutapa State and to control the gold. In 1561 Gonçalo da Silveira, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, visited Mutapa, where he quickly made converts, including the Mutapa Negomo Mupuzangutu murdered. The presence of the Portuguese had a serious impact that left the empire so weakened that it entered the 17th century in serious decline. By the mid-17th century the Portuguese controlled Munhumutapa Empire. Origins Around 1425, Mutota, king of the Shona, embarked on conquest of the inland plateau, the region located between the Zambezi River and the Limpopo River, to the coast of Mozambique. Matope, son of Mutota completed the conquest and expansion started by his father. The empire was the most powerful political entity in the region for most of the 1470s. In 1480, Matope died,
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