Before Shaka became king of what is now Zululand, there were no tribes or nations as such in the region. There were only clans. Men from each clan would marry women from another clan. The woman would then become part of her husband's clan. Shaka's clan (the Zulu) originally numbered only a few thousand people. However, he embarked on a series of conquests, incorporating nearly 300 clans and welding them into one nation, the Zulu nation which took its name from Shaka's clan.