Seeds of Zimbabwe's land conflict were planted more than a century ago

The great Shona dynasties of southern Africa, ruling from the plateaus that would later be known as Zimbabwe, were the wealthiest and most powerful in the region for the first half of the second millennium. But by the 15th century, the Shona dynasties had dissolved into a number of autonomous states, many of which eventually reformed into the Rowzi state -- more than half of present-day Zimbabwe.

The Rowzi, however, were displaced by Nbedele raiders from the south in 1834, followed closely by European gold seekers and ivory hunters.

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Cecil John Rhodes, a British imperialist who made a fortune in diamond mines and launched the de Beers diamond cartel, was one of those. He championed to Queen Victoria the idea of a "civilized" corridor between the Cape of Good Hope and Cairo. When Victoria sanctioned the concept, Rhodes led thousands of white settlers into the areas now known as Zambia and Zimbabwe (Northern and Southern Rhodesia, respectively), eventually uniting them under his British South Africa Company.

The Nbedele and Shona staged a near-constant run of revolts and raids in the latter part of the 19th century, but the war for liberation known as the "Chimurenga" ground to a near-standstill in 1897 when the revolt movement's leaders were captured and hanged.

Rhodes -- who eventually left most of his fortune to Oxford University, endowing the Rhodes scholarship -- did everything within his power to keep the Nbedele and Shona disenfranchised, denying them the right to vote in 1892 and limiting the amount of land they could own in 1894.

The British colonists practically assured the present-day conflict over land ownership in the 1920s and 1930s when their legislature passed laws barring blacks from owning the best farmland.

When Ian Smith was elected president of Rhodesia in 1964, he began a push for independence. But Britain's price for independence gave blacks more power in the nascent nation than whites wanted, so in 1968, Smith unilaterally declared independence, a move that Britain declared illegal.

But U.N. sanctions against Smith's Rhodesia went largely ignored, and the Africans turned to guerrilla warfare, known as the second Chimurenga. Eventually, Smith called for a non-racial election, won by African National Congress member Abel Muzorewa.

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher became British prime minister and decided to end the conflict over Zimbabwe. Smith, Muzorewa and other officials hashed out a constitution.

Robert Mugabe, a staunch Marxist, won election as the country's first president, a post he has held ever since. Mugabe, in turn, used intimidation and brutality to quell any challenges to his rule.

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