1. Central Rwanda on the eve of the emergence of the kingdom
The country and its inhabitants
Fields and herds: subsistence activities
The foundation of the kingdom
Subsequent military campaigns: conquest or raids?
Government: the ritual institutions
Instruments of government: the corporations
3. Toward the centralization of power
The seizure of the herds and the land
At the hub: court, king, and elites
The recasting of royal ideology during Rejugira's reign
4. Government in the eighteenth century
Government from Gisanura to Rwaka
Government under Rujugira and Ndabarasa
Foreign relations under Gisanura and Mazimpaka
Foreign relations under Rujugira and Ndabarasa
5. Social transformations in the nineteenth century
The transformations of society
6. The triumph of the great families and its consequences
Civil war and the supremacy of the elites
Struggles for power at Gahindiro's and Rwogera's courts
Expansion of the kingdom eastward and international trade
A spontaneous expansion toward Lake Kivu and the land of the volcanoes?
7. Nightmares: the age of Rwabugiri (1867-1897)
Political crisis and wars from 1867-1889
Isolation breached and the hatching of a coup d'Etat
The nightmare of violence used as a political tool
