History

According to the paleoanthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey, Tanzania may be the site of origin for the world's oldest human beings. The first ancestors of man to walk erect inhabited this region nearly three million years ago, obtaining food by hunting and gathering. Early rock paintings have also been found in central Tanzania that lends support to the Leakey's theories.

Although Tanzania's interior has a number of important prehistoric sites, including Olduvai Gorge, evidence of the history of Tanganyika before the 19th century is primarily found in the coastal area, where contact with outsiders was more frequent. Trade between Arabia and the east African coast dates to the 1st century AD; there is also evidence of early connections with India. According to 9th century Arabic sources, the indigenous peoples of the coast were Cushitic language speakers, though some evidence of Bantu language speakers has also been found. The earliest outsiders, according to these sources, arrived at the coast in the ninth and tenth centuries A.D.; by the 12th century, a number of trading posts and settlements were functioning on the coast and the offshore islands. At the end of the 12th century, Kilwa had become an important town for commerce. Its development coincided with the arrival of the Shiraz people from the coast of southern Somalia coast, who established themselves as dynastic rulers both at Kilwa and on Mafia Island.

In the middle of the 13th century, a power struggle erupted between the Shiraz dynasty and the Shanga people from the Island of Shanje Ya Kati to the south of Kilwa. In the end, the Shiraz prevailed. By the end of the 13th century, Kilwa had gained control of the Sofala gold trade to the south. By the 14th century, Bantu speakers were predominant among the nonArab coastal and Island population. Their dialects supplied the Bantu base of Swahili, the mother tongue of the inhabitants of Zanzibar and Pemba together with most of the inhabitants of the coastal towns of the mainland.

Europeans first arrived on the coast of East Africa when Vasco Da Gama's ships landed in 1498. Two years later, the Portuguese forced Kilwa to pay tribute, and in 1505 they sacked Kilwa and Mombasa, and took Sofala, with its gold trade. By 1506, Portugal commanded the entire coast and controlled trade on the Indian Ocean. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Portuguese shifted their efforts to Mombasa in Kenya. Omanis replaced the Portuguese in the 18th century and eventually made the island of Zanzibar their capital. The Omani rule had as its economic base the export of ivory, cloves and slaves.

In the mid-19th century, Ngoni peoples migrated from southern Africa and reached the Ufipa River in southwest Tanzania. After the death of their leader Zwangendaba in 1845, the Ngoni were unable to maintain their unity and dispersed into two groups under Mtambalika and Mpangalala. They traveled west to Lake Victoria and then farther west to the country of an indigenous people called the Nyamwezi. Other Ngoni settled in eastern Zambia and Malawi. The arrival of the Ngoni in Tanzania led to the disintegration and migration of some native peoples, but it favored the growth of already powerful polities.

Led by the chief Nyamweezi king, Mirambo, a small band of soldiers conquered the adjacent chiefdom of Uyowa in 1860. Eventually Mirambo extended his rule to the north as far as Sumbwa to Sukuma in the east, Nyaturu in the south and Tongwe in the west. He gained control of the trade route between Ujiji to Tabora, and in 1876 defeated the Arabs in battle at Tabora, forcing them to pay tribute to him. After these victories, he replaced conquered chiefs with leaders chosen from local noble families.

The British presence on the coast of East Africa increased steadily through the 19th century to the point that competition with Germany for control of East Africa was inevitable. In 1890, the two European nations worked out the agreement that the British would establish a protectorate over Zanzibar (as they had Uganda and Kenya) and that Tanganyika would become a German colony. The British had, by comparison, an easier time with Zanzibar; following a policy employed in other parts of Africa, they installed a governor, set up courts on an English model, allowing the current Sultan to continue his rule so long as he cooperated with imperial authorities. The Germans had a more exacting task in imposing their government on the mainland, with its 130 different ethnic groups. When a rebellion broke out among the Magi Magi in Madaba and the Matumbi Hills, the Germans carried out a series of expeditions during 1905/6 to restore their rule which did not end until 1907 and which led to many indigenous casualties. There were also border conflicts with the British when World War I was declared. Initially, the Germans were victorious, defeating British forces at Tanga in November 1914, but at the end of the war, Germany was subjected to costly defeats both in Africa and in Europe. At the Versailles peace talks, the Supreme Council conferred all of the GEA to Britain. It was only after World War II, however, after the British mandate was changed to a United Nations Trusteeship that Britain began to invest significant resources in the territory.

Opposition to British rule took several forms. They involved forces aligned with traditional tribal authority and those opposed to both British and traditional indigenous power. Resistance to colonial and traditional tribal authority developed first among cooperative farmers, members of the colonial bureaucracy, and an emerging trade union movement. The Tanganyika African Association (TAA) was established in 1929 to give a forum to trade unionists and cooperative farmers who opposed British rule. Other opposition movements developed in response to specific Colonial policies. In 1951 British authorities began to implement a program to remove African homesteaders to make way for post-war British settlers, a policy that swelled an incipient nationalist movement.

In 1953 Julius Nyerere, later Tanzania's first president, was elected president of TAA (soon to be renamed the Tanganyika African National Union or TANU). TANU won wide support in the country's first general elections in 1958-59; the successful candidates later formed the administration that assumed responsibility for internal self-government in May 1961. Tanganyika was proclaimed an independent nation on Dec. 9, 1961 and a republic one year later. Zanzibar was granted independence from England on December 10, 1963. One month later, the Sultan of Zanzibar was overthrown and replaced by representatives of the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) with Karume as its head of state. Karume signed an Act of Union with Nyerere and combined the two countries later that year to form the modern nation of Tanzania.

Soon after Tanzania was formed, a one-party system was implemented, along guidelines announced in the 1965 constitution. The 1967 Arusha Declaration announced a program of "Socialism and Self-reliance" for the United Republic. A strict code separating political and economic interests required all political leaders to divest themselves of private income. Rural development was to be reorganized, moving farmers to new locales and establishing cooperative UJAMAA villages. In 1975, the government made public plans to relocate the capital to Dodoma in the Central Highlands. In September 1975, the TANU and ASP announced an agreement to combine the two ruling parties. Two years later, the two parties were formally abolished and a one-party system announced, directed by a new party named Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), "the Party of the Revolution," and chaired by Nyerere. In October, 1984, two important amendments were added to the party constitution. First, term limits of five years were imposed on the presidency. Second, an attempt was made to address the power imbalance between the mainland and Zanzibar by stipulating that Tanzania would have two vice presidents. One of these was to be a Zanzibari if the president were from the mainland, and vice versa. That year Salim Ahmed Salim, Minister of Foreign Affairs, was elected Prime Minister. In 1985, when Nyerere's final term of office came to an end, Ali Hassan Mwnyi was elected to replace him and Idris Abdul Wakil succeeded Mwinyi as president of Zanzibar. In 1987, Nyerere was re-elected chairman of the CCM for another five year term; Mwinyi became vice-chairman and Rashid Kawawa secretary-general. The Third CCM Congress approved a 15-year party program calling for the consolidation of the state sector and the cooperatives.

In 1989, questions about the nature of the Tanzanian Union were raised when Mwinyi dismissed calls for a referendum on whether Zanzibar and Pemba might secede. Zanzibar's Chief Minister seconded this dismissal with an announcement of his own. In November 1990, Mwinyi was re-elected for a second five-year term on a platform fighting corruption and reaffirming economic reforms. Salim Amour, running unopposed, was reappointed chief minister together with a new revolutionary council of ministers. In August 1990, Mwinyi became CCM chairman upon President Nyerere's resignation. A move toward a multi-party system was afoot. In 1991 a commission was established to sound out the public's views on a change to a multi-party system. On May 7, 1992, a draft Law for multi-party elections was adopted and registration began on July 28 for six new parties. These included the Party for Democracy and Development (Chadema); the Union for Multi-party Democracy (UMD); the National Convention for Construction and Reform (NCCR); and the Party of Democratic Alliance (PDA).

In December 1992 Mwinyi was reelected as Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the National League for Democracy (NLD), with John Malecela as Prime Minister and Dr. Salmin Amour from Zanzibar as Vice-Chairmen. The first multi-party legislative and presidential elections, held on October 1995, gave victory to Mr. Mkapa, winning 62% of the vote. A former prime minister, Joseph Warioba, was appointed to chair a presidential commission of inquiry into corruption among officials. The report of this commission, presented in December 1996, was candid and led swiftly to the resignation of the minister of tourism, Juma Ngasongwa. While the movement toward a multi-party government has broad support in Tanzania, the dismantling of the single-party system has loosened some of the bonds that held the nation together. While most Tanzanians applaud changes that led to the end of political restrictions, many are concerned over emerging divisions in the country: between the mainland and the islands; between Muslims and Christians; between indigenous and Asian communities; between Zanzibaris of African and Arab ancestry; as well as among indigenous ethnic groups on the mainland.

Since the 90's, tourism has been given top priority, with a much improved infrastructure. Some government rules are quite strict, and you can indeed be arrested for photographing anything that might be of use to the military. So please do not take any photos of the airport; it is illegal. As a matter of courtesy, ask permission before photographing local people, and do not be surprised if they ask for money.