Traces of early man dating back millions of years have been found in East Africa, and the region has witnessed great migrations of Africa's earliest inhabitants over the centuries. The region is a melting pot of cultures and languages and home to a variety of indigenous ethnic groups, of which the most striking are the Masai who wear red robes and beaded jewelry. The coastal area has been the subject of a lot of maritime rivalry, first between the Portuguese and Arab traders and later among various European powers during the colonial carve-up of Africa. It was a German colony from the 1880s, and then was under the British from the First World War until independence in 1961. The name of modern Tanzania was derived from joining the name of the original colonial mainland, Tanganyika, with that of the Zanzibar islands off its east coast. Tanganyika united with Zanzibar in 1964, and was renamed the United Republic of Tanzania.
Julius Nyerere was Tanzania's first president and almost bankrupted the country with some unrealistic policies, though as a global statesman he supported liberation struggles across Africa. While rural poverty is still a concern, today Tanzania's economy is going from strength to strength; tourism in particular is big business, employing hundreds of thousands of people and accounting for 25% of the country's gross domestic product. There are hundreds of tour operators and most are dedicated to taking people on safari, although Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar are crowd pullers, too.
