 |
Tanzania Safaris
Lodge safaris
Camping Safaris
Mt Kilimanjaro Climbing
Migration Safaris
Zanzibar safaris
Excursions
Wedding Safaris
Honeymoon
Safari
About Tanzania
PEOPLE
Northern
Tanganyika's famed Olduvai Gorge has provided rich evidence of the area's
prehistory, including fossil remains of some of humanity's earliest
ancestors. Discoveries suggest that East Africa may have been the site of
human origin.
Little is known of the history of Tanganyika's interior during the early
centuries of the Christian era. The area is believed to have been inhabited
originally by ethnic groups using a click-tongue language similar to that of
Southern Africa's Bushmen and Hottentots. Although remnants of these early
tribes still exist, most were gradually displaced by Bantu farmers migrating
from the west and south and by Nilotes and related northern peoples. Some of
these groups had well-organized societies and controlled extensive areas by
the time the Arab slavers, European explorers, and missionaries penetrated
the interior in the first half of the 19th century.
The coastal area first felt the impact of foreign influence as early as the
8th century, when Arab traders arrived. By the 12th century, traders and
immigrants came from as far away as Persia (now Iran) and India. They built
a series of highly developed city and trading states along the coast, the
principal one being Kibaha, a settlement of Persian origin that held
ascendancy until the Portuguese destroyed it in the early 1500s.
The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama explored the East African coast in
1498 on his voyage to India. By 1506, the Portuguese claimed control over
the entire coast. This control was nominal, however, because the Portuguese
did not colonize the area or explore the interior. Assisted by Omani Arabs,
the indigenous coastal dwellers succeeded in driving the Portuguese from the
area north of the Ruvuma River by the early 18th century. Claiming the
coastal strip, Omani Sultan Seyyid Said (l804-56) moved his capital to
Zanzibar in 1841.
European exploration of the interior began in the mid-19th century. Two
German missionaries reached Mt. Kilimanjaro in the 1840s. British explorers
Richard Burton and John Speke crossed the interior to Lake Tanganyika in
1857. David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary-explorer who crusaded
against the slave trade, established his last mission at Ujiji, where he was
"found" by Henry Morton Stanley, an American journalist-explorer, who had
been commissioned by the New York Herald to locate him.
German colonial interests were first advanced in 1884. Karl Peters, who
formed the Society for German Colonization, concluded a series of treaties
by which tribal chiefs in the interior accepted German "protection." Prince
Otto von Bismarck's government backed Peters in the subsequent establishment
of the German East Africa Company.
In 1886 and 1890, Anglo-German agreements were negotiated that delineated
the British and German spheres of influence in the interior of East Africa
and along the coastal strip previously claimed by the Omani sultan of
Zanzibar. In 1891, the German Government took over direct administration of
the territory from the German East Africa Company and appointed a governor
with headquarters at Dar es Salaam.
Although the German colonial administration brought cash crops, railroads,
and roads to Tanganyika, European rule provoked African's resistance,
culminating in the Maji Maji rebellion of 1905-07. The rebellion, which
temporarily united a number of southern tribes and ended only after an
estimated 120,000 Africans had died from fighting or starvation, is
considered by most Tanzanians to have been one of the first stirrings of
nationalism.
German colonial domination of Tanganyika ended after World War I when
control of most of the territory passed to the United Kingdom under a League
of Nations mandate. After World War II, Tanganyika became a UN trust
territory under British control. Subsequent years witnessed Tanganyika
moving gradually toward self-government and independence.
In 1954, Julius K. Nyerere, a school teacher who was then one of only two
Tanganyikans educated abroad at the university level, organized a political
party--the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). TANU-supported
candidates were victorious in the Legislative Council elections of September
1958 and February 1959. In December 1959, the United Kingdom agreed to the
establishment of internal self-government following general elections to be
held in August 1960. Nyerere was named chief minister of the subsequent
government.
In May l961, Tanganyika became autonomous, and Nyerere became Prime Minister
under a new constitution. Full independence was achieved on December 9,
1961. Mr. Nyerere was elected President when Tanganyika became a republic
within the Commonwealth a year after independence.
Zanzibar
An early Arab/Persian trading center, Zanzibar fell under Portuguese
domination in the 16th and early 17th centuries but was retaken by Omani
Arabs in the early 18th century. The height of Arab rule came during the
reign of Sultan Seyyid Said, who encouraged the development of clove
plantations, using the island's slave labor.
The Arabs established their own garrisons at Zanzibar, Pemba, and Kilwa and
carried on a lucrative trade in slaves and ivory. By 1840, Said had
transferred his capital from Muscat to Zanzibar and established a ruling
Arab elite. The island's commerce fell increasingly into the hands of
traders from the Indian subcontinent, whom Said encouraged to settle on the
island.
Zanzibar's spices attracted ships from as far away as the U.S. A U.S.
consulate was established on the island in 1837. The United Kingdom's early
interest in Zanzibar was motivated by both commerce and the determination to
end the slave trade. In 1822, the British signed the first of a series of
treaties with Sultan Said to curb this trade, but not until 1876 was the
sale of slaves finally prohibited.
The Anglo-German agreement of 1890 made Zanzibar and Pemba a British
protectorate. British rule through a Sultan remained largely unchanged from
the late 19th century until after World War II.
Zanzibar's political development began in earnest after 1956, when provision
was first made for the election of six nongovernmental members to the
Legislative Council. Two parties were formed: the Zanzibar Nationalist Party
(ZNP), representing the dominant Arab and "Arabized" minority, and the Afro-Shirazi
Party (ASP), led by Abeid Karume and representing the Shirazis and the
African majority.
The first elections were held in July 1957. The ASP won three of the six
elected seats, with the remainder going to independents. Following the
election, the ASP split; some of its Shirazi supporters left to form the
Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party (ZPPP). The January 1961 election resulted
in a deadlock between the ASP and a ZNP-ZPPP coalition.
On April 26, 1964, Tanganyika united with Zanzibar to form the United
Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, this was renamed the United Republic of
Tanzania on October 29, 1964.