# Zimbabwean–Portuguese conflicts

The Zimbabwean–Portuguese conflicts were a series of military engagements between Portuguese forces and Zimbabwean forces from the 16th to 20th century.

## Background

Prior to the engagements between the Zimbabwean kingdoms and Portugal, Portuguese explorers had already established contact with the Kingdom of Mutapa. Pero de Anaia led early military efforts to locate the gold mines of Ophir. However he died of fever, which was soon followed by a massacre of local villagers.
Later, between 1514 and 1515, António Fernandes undertook expeditions with the same objective. He returned with reports of the goldfields of Matabeleland.
Another expedition took place fifty years after Anaia's death, led by Francisco Barreto, to avenge the death of Portuguese missionary Gonçalo da Silveira, who was killed in 1561. Barreto, commanding three ships and a thousand men, demanded control of the land around Tete and Sena as compensation.

## Hostilities
### Francisco Barreto's expedition, 1569–1573

Pressured by a Jesuit priest, Francisco Barreto took an indirect route via the Zambezi River, which caused delays and illness, leading to nearly a hundred deaths. Barreto's forces of 650 men eventually encountered 10,000 Mongas and successfully repelled them, though at great cost to their artillery and forces.
Afterward, Barreto and his weakened army reached Sena in November, but his forces had been reduced to 450 men, many sick. Returning to Mozambique, he was betrayed by the governor and fell ill, dying shortly after. Only 180 men survived, still sick and dying. Vasco Fernandes Homem, the new commander, eventually reached the gold mines in Sofala, but found them abandoned with only a few workers. The expedition ended in failure, with the Portuguese retreating.

### Portuguese interventions, 1607–1610

By 1607, the Mwenemutapa Gatsi Rusere faced rebellions from vassals who wanted to control the gold trade. Many rulers in the east, such as Manyika, Barwe, and Danda, had broken away, weakening the kingdom. The Portuguese at Tete seized this opportunity to expand their influence. From 1607 to 1609, they sent armies with musketeers and African auxiliaries to fight the rebellious vassals. They defeated many rebellious vassals by building new fortifications.
In 1610, the Portuguese constructed a permanent fort at Massapa and stationed their soldiers. However, after regaining his power, Gatsi turned against the Portuguese. He tricked them into searching for silver by burying ores in his lands and exploited their divisions against each other.

### Portuguese attack on Mussapa, 1614

After driving out the Portuguese from the gold mines, Gatsi Rusere demanded the kuruva tax from them, just like he had from the Swahili. In 1614, the Portuguese gathered an army and attacked Mussapa, however the attack failed. By the time Gatsi died in 1623, Mutapa had recovered most of its lost lands, and the Portuguese influence had been weakened.

### Portuguese interventions, 1624–1629

After Gatsi Rusere's death in 1624, his son, Nyambo Kapararidze, became king, but his rule was contested by Mavura Mhande Felipe, the son of Gatsi's predecessor, and the state was once again in civil war. The Portuguese, who backed Mavhura, directly interfered with Mutapa's court politics and took advantage of this conflict. In 1628, when Kapararidze had a Portuguese envoy executed for violating travel protocol, the Portuguese responded by sending an invasion force of 15,000 to 30,000 troops and 250 musketeers in May 1629. This force drove Kapararidze out and installed Mavhura as the ruler.
The 1629 treaty between the Portuguese conquistadors and Mavura Mhande Felipe, whom they had aided in his struggle against Mutapa Kapararidze for the throne, changes the state's history. As a result, the Mutapa became a vassal of Portugal. The treaty granted Portuguese traders and missionaries unrestricted freedom to operate without taxes, gave them exclusive rights to the gold and potential silver mines in Mutapa, expelled Swahili traders who were in competition, and resulted in the entire court converting to Catholicism. This conversion was received with great enthusiasm by the papacy in Rome.
By 1630 the Portuguese presence in the interior had increased considerably.

### Anti–Colonial revolt, 1630–1631

The people of Mutapa opposed Portuguese control and rallied under Kapararidze, launching an anti–colonial revolt between 1630 and 1631. They attacked nearly all Portuguese settlements, killing 300–400 settlers, with only a few dozen surviving in Tete and Sena. The rebellion spread to Manica, Maravi, and laid siege to Ouelimane, pushing survivors back to the coast. The rebels also captured and executed the Dominican priests who had converted Mavhura.

### Portuguese counterattack, 1632

In a counterattack, the Portuguese sent a force in 1632 led by Diogo Meneses, consisting of 200–300 musketeers and 12,000 African auxiliaries. Meneses regained control over Quelimane and Manica, advancing into Mutapa, where he and his army defeated Kapararidze's forces and reinstalled Mavhura.

### Battle of Maungwe, 1684

In 1684, Changamire Dombo, ruler of the emerging Rozvi kingdom, achieved a victory over the Portuguese at Maungwe. The Portuguese were backed with musketeers and thousands of African auxiliaries, but Dombo's archers held their ground and defeated the Portuguese, seizing their firearms and trade goods. He then moved south, conquering Naletale and Danangombe, the latter becoming the capital of the Rozvi kingdom.

### Destruction of Dambarare, 1693

In 1693, Dombo's armies attacked and completely destroyed the Portuguese settlements in Dambarare. The devastation was so severe that the remaining Portuguese, along with others across the kingdom, fled to Tete and Sena.

### Sacks of Manica, 1695

In 1695, Dombo's armies sacked Portuguese settlements in Manica, forcing them to retreat to Sena.
At the peak of Rozvi's power in the eighteenth century, they confined the Portuguese to the Zambezi region.

### Operation Flotilla, 1968

On 23 May, the Rhodesian forces launched Operation Flotilla from Nyamapanda, but Major Peter Rich's patrol found no insurgents, only tracks near the Mozambican side of the Mazoe River. The insurgents hadn't crossed into Rhodesia, prompting a Portuguese counter–insurgency that led to two arrests and three deaths by 8 June. On 27 June, the remaining insurgents ambushed the Portuguese, killing three soldiers. The group then split, with five staying in Mozambique and six crossing into Rhodesia.

### Operation Birch, 1970

On 9 February, during Operation Birch, the Portuguese arrested a member of Gang 3 in Mozambique, but after no further developments, Operation Birch ended on 5 March 1970.

## Aftermath

After the fall of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, diplomatic relations between Zimbabwe and Portugal were established in April 18, 1980.