History

Early History

Some of the oldest human settlements in East Africa have been unearthed by archaeologists in Tanzania. These finds include fossils of early ape-like creatures in and around the Olduvai Gorge near the Serengeti National Park, dating back 1.75 million years. Khoisan-speakers were the first modern people known to inhabit Tanzania, followed by Bantu-speaking groups from central Africa. The East African coast was visited by traders from Arabia and Persia around the first century A.D., and by the 13th century, a string of thriving Omani trading ports such as Lamu, Zanzibar, and Kilwa had been established. The KiSwahili language developed; it's a mixture of mostly African and Arabic words, but also other languages as the trade net was flung as far east as India and China. Meanwhile, Islam imported from the Arabian Peninsula became the dominant religion along the coast.

The Portuguese arrived in the 16th century on their way to India during their eager attempt to be part of the rich trade route around the Indian Ocean. They battled with the Omani sultans for dominance of the coast, but they lost their foothold early in the 18th century as a result of an alliance between the coastal Arabs and the ruler of Muscat in Oman. By then, Zanzibar had become so important as a slaving and spice port that the Sultan of Oman, Seyyid Said, moved his capital there from Muscat in 1840. The sultans controlled the coast until the colonialists arrived in the 19th century.

Colonial Carve-Up

European explorers began arriving in the middle of the 19th century, and in 1848, German missionaries were the first to lay eyes on Kilimanjaro. The famous explorers Richard Burton and John Speke had mapped Lake Tanganyika by 1858, and in 1862 Speke had confirmed that the River Nile rose in Lake Victoria. They were followed by David Livingstone, whose intention was to open up legitimate trades routes into the interior of Africa to expose and quell the slave trade. Those immortal words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume" were uttered by journalist Henry Morton Stanley on meeting Livingstone on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in 1871, near present-day Kigoma, where today there's a plaque and museum marking the spot.

Colonist interest grew, and missions were established, which lent to the early mapping of mainland Tanganyika. In 1885, German gunboats arrived at Zanzibar to demand that Sultan Barghash (Seyyid Said's successor) relinquish the administration of East Africa to them in order to put a stop to the slave trade. But in the age of the telegraph, gunboat diplomacy was not necessary, and by 1886 the Sultan had agreed to denounce the slave trade and let the Europeans carve up the region. The Germans got Tanganyika, which became German East Africa, while the British got Kenya, which was administered by the Imperial British East Africa Company. In 1894, the British also proclaimed a protectorate over neighboring Uganda.

The Colonial Years

The Germans introduced sisal (a plant used to make rope) in 1892, and marked the beginning of the territory's most valuable industry, which was assisted by the development of the railway from the new capital of Dar es Salaam to Lake Tanganyika. Another railway that ran from Tanga on the coast to Moshi on the lower slopes of Kilimanjaro promoted the growing of coffee in the latter's fertile climate. However, with German defeat in World War I, the German colony was short-lived and under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, Britain received a League of Nations Mandate to administer the territory. The British policy was to rule indirectly through African leaders, and by 1926, Africans were admitted to the Legislative Council, which reported to the British Governor.

In 1954, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) was founded by Julius Nyerere, who was known as "Mwalimu" ("teacher" in KiSwahili), not only because he was a former high school teacher, but also because he was a long-term advocate of the importance of literacy and education in promoting development in Tanzania. With the cooperation of the British, Tanganyika was granted full independence in 1961 with Nyerere as president. In 1963, Zanzibar achieved independence from Britain in the form of a constitutional monarchy under the Sultan, but a popular revolt in 1964 against the Sultan soon led to the unification of Zanzibar with Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanzania. The Sultan was replaced by the Afro-Shirazi Party on Zanzibar.

Independence

Nyerere was enthusiastic about the welfare of his people and had great visions for the future, but his policies were often misguided and unrealistic. By the late 1960s, he had embarked on African socialist policies, which were heavily influenced by the Chinese communist model. He implemented a collectivized agricultural system, known as Ujamaa (meaning "familyhood"). By bringing villages under state control and nationalizing farmland, he believed that peoples' lives would revert back to traditional rural existences as they had lived before the arrival of the colonists and that capitalism would be forgotten. However, this was far from realistic and farm production fell drastically under the collective system, while state assistance to the rural regions such as irrigations schemes, potable water, clinics, and schools wasn't enough to sustain the system. Tanzania went from the largest exporter of agricultural products in Africa to the largest importer of agricultural products in Africa. By 1977, the country was on the verge of bankruptcy and the policies for Ujamaa had all but been abandoned.

Tanzania took another knock when Uganda invaded the northern regions in 1978. The invasion could have been a result of Tanzania's support of exiled groups who were hostile to Idi Amin's regime, but more likely it was simply a diversion by Amin to prevent mutiny in his own country. It took months for Tanzanians to mobilize an army but when they did, they successfully pushed out the Ugandan forces, which led to a quick defeat of Amin's government in Uganda and the exile of the dictator. Despite his failures, Nyerere was a larger-than-life person, seemingly incorruptible and was liked by the people. He's still today referred to as the "Father of the Nation." He was a committed Pan-Africanist and his foreign policies supported the liberation struggles in (among others) Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Nyerere willingly announced his retirement before the presidential elections in 1985, leaving the country to enter a free-market era under the leadership of Ali Hassan Mwinyi. During his retirement, Nyerere continued to meet with the world's heads of state as an advocate for poor countries; one of his last major roles was as mediator during the 1996 Burundi conflict.

Today

Ali Hassan Mwinyi became president of Tanzania in 1985, and retained control until multi-party elections in 1995, which TANU/CCM won comfortably; Benjamin Mkapa was sworn in as president. The official capital of Tanzania moved from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma in the middle of the country in 1996, but since then officialdom has been slow to make the move as Dodoma is literally in the middle of nowhere. In 2005, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete was elected the fourth president of the country. While being part of the overall government, Zanzibar is semi-autonomous and the Zanzibar House of Representatives can make laws for Zanzibar without the approval of the government as long as it does not involve union-designated matters. Interestingly, Tanzania's constitution allows for 20% of the seats of the party in power to be allocated to women.

Although many people live below the poverty line, Tanzania's economy has grown steadily and successfully in recent years. However, it has come under pressure from the influx of refugees from conflicts in Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has swelled Tanzania's population by 1 million and has had a serious impact on the environment around the refugee camps in the north of the country. With the need for food, water, and fuel, wildlife has been depleted, trees have been chopped down, and the land is now suffering from semi-desert conditions.