History of Zimbabwe: Pre-colonial Societies, Colonial Rule and the Liberation Struggle
Pre-colonial societies
Zimbabwe's pre-colonial story includes early iron-working farming communities, the Mapungubwe state and then Great Zimbabwe (roughly 1100–1450 CE). Great Zimbabwe's mortarless dry-stone walls, soapstone birds and imported Chinese and Persian pottery show a powerful state trading gold and ivory with the Swahili coast. Its successors were the Mutapa (Munhumutapa) Empire in the north-east and the Torwa/Rozvi state centred on Khami. In the south-west, Mzilikazi founded the Ndebele state in 1838 after leaving Zululand, and his son Lobengula ruled from Bulawayo.
Colonial rule
The Rudd Concession (1888) and the Royal Charter (1889) gave Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company sweeping powers, and the Pioneer Column occupied Mashonaland in 1890. The Ndebele were defeated in the 1893 war, and Shona and Ndebele rose together in the First Chimurenga (1896–97); the spirit mediums Nehanda and Kaguvi were hanged in 1898. Settlers won self-government in 1923, joined the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1953–63), and Ian Smith declared UDI in 1965.
The liberation struggle
ZAPU (1961) and ZANU (1963) led the Second Chimurenga. Its first major battle was at Chinhoyi in 1966, and guerrillas of ZANLA and ZIPRA fought until the Lancaster House Agreement (1979). Independence was won on 18 April 1980.
Trap: questions deliberately swap the two Chimurengas - 1896–97 is the First, 1966–79 the Second. Another trap is crediting Great Zimbabwe to outsiders; it was built by local African societies.
Rule of thumb: keep one ordered timeline in your head. Almost every date question can be answered by asking "where does this event sit on my line?"