The Kingdoms of the Nkore and Toro in Uganda

Kingdom of the Nkore

In the early 18^th century, the Bunyoro invaded the Kingdom of Nkore and the mugabe, Ntare IV was forced to flee but eventually won back control of their territory. This invasion forced Ntare to implement changes to strengthen his kingdom. Ntare reorganized his army and extended the boundaries of his kingdom to the Katonga river. The Kingdom continued to expand especially in the 19^th century during the rule of Mugabe Mutambuka.

However, the kingdom suffered some setbacks in the later part of the 1890s as colonialism was beginning. Colonialists brought rinderpest and smallpox which decimated both the human and animal population of the kingdom and weakened them. The kingdom of the Nkore was made up of the Hima who were pastoralists and the Iru who were agriculturalists. The two groups cooperated mutually benefitted from each other. The Hima who kept and valued cattle would supply meat, milk, hides and manure. The Iru on the other hand as agriculturalists would supply food and iron goods. The Hima became the ruling class but the Iru were not excluded from the ruling class. The two groups were not always distinguishable.

Kingdom of the Toro

After Prince Kaboyo realized that he would not inherit the Bunyoro throne he established the kingdom of Toro in present day Uganda. His kingdom was able to survive his lifetime but soon after was plagued with succession wars from the 1850s to the 1870s which weakened the newly formed kingdom.

Kaboyo was succeeded by Nyaika I but during his reign the kingdom was invaded and captured by the Kabarega of Bunyoro. However, Captain Lugard of the British East Africa Company intervened to reestablish the independence of the Kingdom of the Toro. In the early 1890s, he placed Kasagama as ruler of the Kingdom and thus no longer under the Bunyoro.