Mswati II

Who was Mswati II?

Mswati II was the king of Swaziland between 1840 and 1868. He was also the eponym of Swaziland. Mswati is considered one of the greatest fighting kings of Swaziland. Under his kingship, the territorial boundaries of Swaziland were greatly increased. Mswati was the son of Sobhuza I and Tsandzile Ndwandwe who after ruling as Queen Mother became Queen Regent after the death of her son. After the death of Sobhuza, Mswati inherited an area which extended as far as present day Barberton in the north and included the Nomahasha district in the Portuguese territory of Mozambique. Mswati’s military power initially suppressed by infighting with his brothers Fokoti, Somcuba and Malambule was increased in the late 1850s and later on. When Mswati's armies attacked organized forces of other Bantu tribes or nations, the goal was initially plunder in the form of cattle and captives, rather than incorporation into one political unit. The arrival of Trekboers in what would become the Transvaal republic marked the first contact with Swazis and European settlers occurred during this period. Mswati greatly extended the boundaries of the Swazi territory beyond that of the present state with military outposts and royal villages outposts such as Mbhuleni, on the upper Komati River at the foot of the Mkongomo Mountains, south of Badplaas, Mekemeke which is east of the Mbayiyane Mountains, situated east of Mantibovu. The death of Mswati II in July 1868 ended the era of Swazi conquest, territorial expansion and resulted in unification of various people into one nation.