Zwide's invasions very nearly obliterated the Ngwane state. Sobhuza was forced to flee far to the north to escape successive Ndwandwe attacks, and was only able to return after Zwide became embroiled in new conflicts in the south. Zwide was eventually defeated by Shaka in 1819, but Sobhuza had no intention of reliving the nightmare with a newly triumphant Zulu power. He chose rather to colonise the north, absorbing a diverse collection of Sotho, Tsonga and Nguni chiefdoms into a restructured Ngwane state. By the end of his reign Swaziland had begun to assume its modern form. This chapter concerns itself with the early vicissitudes of Sobhuza, the construction of a transformed Swazi state and the external policies that Sobhuza initiated to protect his new realm.

Zwide's invasions shook the Ngwane state to its core. Sobhuza is usually pictured in Swazi historiography as executing a tactical withdrawal to a sanctuary in the north, from the security of which he quickly reconstructed the Ngwane state. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rather than resuming a barely interrupted career of expansion, he was obliged to abandon the bulk of his followers to Zwide, and to lead the life of a rootless refugee whom Zwide hounded further and further north.