Final answer:
The Bantu capital city in present-day Zimbabwe was called Great Zimbabwe. It was a crucial hub in the trade network that connected inner Africa to the Indian Ocean and flourished as an empire from the 1st to the 15th century.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Bantu capital city in present-day Zimbabwe was called Great Zimbabwe. This was the greatest of the zimbabwes, fortresses built of stone that served as protection against military attacks and as residences for the ruling class. Great Zimbabwe became the center of a vast commerce network, connecting inner Africa to trading communities around the Indian Ocean.
It was established by Bantu speakers and thrived as a gold producing area from the first century CE until the fifteenth century, when it began to decline due to soil exhaustion. The trading connections tied mostly to gold and ivory, extending even to China, were essential in making Great Zimbabwe a prosperous and influential empire. Situated near the head of the Sabi River valley, Great Zimbabwe was ideologically positioned to partake in and even control the long-distance trade that connected the goldfields to the east coast's Swahili trading centers, like Sofala.
Interestingly, the site was unknown to Europeans until the nineteenth century when a German explorer named Adam Renders documented the ruins, revealing an advanced civilization that had once dominated the South African region. Archaeologists have discovered various ancient items at the site, including Indian coins and Chinese ceramics, emphasizing the significant extent of its trade network.