United Republic of Tanzania

United Republic of Tanzania Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania
Flag Coat of arms
Capital	Dodoma
Largest city	Dar es Salaam
Official languages	Swahili English
Dominant mode of production	Capitalism
Area
• Total	947,303 km²
Population
• 2023 estimate	65,642,682

Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa bordering Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique. It was originally a German colony before being occupied by the British in the First World War.

History

Early history

Prehistoric human habitation in the area of what is now Tanzania stretches back to include not only anatomically modern humans, but also archaic human ancestors and predecessors dating back millions of years. For example, Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania contains various fossils and artefacts associated with some of the earliest human ancestors, including early hominid footprints dating back 3.6 million years.

Approximately 10,000 years ago, Tanzania was populated by hunter-gatherer communities who spoke Khosian, joined about 5000 years ago by Cushitic-speaking people. About 2000 years ago, Bantu speaking people began arriving from western Africa in a series of migrations. Later, Nilotic pastoralists began arriving in the region.

By 1500, most of the people of western Tanzania were ruled by chiefs, who, in general, were responsible for making political decisions, handing down legal rulings, and keeping the community safe.

Tanzania's eastern side is coastal, lying on the Indian Ocean. This position made the area a point of contact between many different cultures and nations for many centuries via trade routes, which has had various impacts on the region's history. Trade along the East African coast by Bantu speaking peoples living there in the first centuries of the 1st millennium during the region's Iron Age resulted in people moving in greater numbers to the coast, spreading influence in art and architecture, along with the Bantu language of Swahili.

Over time, a number of city-states had arisen on the East African coast. The influence of Islam and Arabic came to the coast with Arab traders in the 7th century. At the height of their influence in the 12th-15th century, the coastal city-states traded with African tribes extending to inland locations (such as to Great Zimbabwe via Sofala), as well as extended to Arabia, Persia, India, and China across the Indian Ocean.

Portuguese disruptions

When the Portuguese arrived in the region, they aimed to achieve total control of the Indian Ocean trade networks. The Portuguese sank ships, destroyed cities, built forts, and exploited rivalries between states, creating major disruptions in the long-established trade networks, as well as attempting to move inland and causing similar disruptions to other peoples, such as targeting the Mutapa state in what is now Zimbabwe. Over time, the Portuguese shifted much of their focus to what is now Mozambique, the southern neighbor of modern Tanzania.

Colonization

The Portuguese disrupted and colonized the Tanzanian coast for approximately two centuries (circa 1500-1700) until they were ousted by a coalition of the local people and the Omani Arabs. Following this, the Omani Arabs occupied Zanzibar and the coast as well as claiming some inland areas.

By the 1800s, there was an increase of British, French, and German activity in the region. The British were active in the Indian Ocean trade. The French were purchasers of slaves for their colonies in the region (though the French officially banned the slave trade in 1822). Europeans began exploring the interior of the country in the mid-1800s, including groups of Christian missionaries. Germany began to establish their presence on the mainland in the late 1800s, largely through the efforts of the German Colonization Society founded by future colonial governor, Dr. Karl Peters.

Tanzania underwent two periods of formal colonial rule by European powers, first by Germany as part of German East Africa from 1888-1919, and second by Britain from 1919-1961. The region was made a League of Nations mandate after Germany's defeat in the First World War, with colonial control transferred to the British. Under British rule the region was renamed to Tanganyika Territory. Following the Second World War, Tanganyika became a "trust territory" under UN monitoring, with Britain as its administering power.

German rule

Germany ruled the mainland of Tanzania as "German East Africa" until the end of the First World War, while Zanzibar became a British protectorate. Initially, German colonial rule was via the imperial charter of the German East Africa Company, but by 1891, governance was changed over to the German government itself.

The Germans used forced labor to construct infrastructure such as roads and railway systems, and instructed villages to grow cotton as a cash crop instead of traditionally grown food crops, and subjected the population to high taxation, enforced through repression and violence. The policies and practices of German rule were extremely unpopular with the local people, and the German colonizers were met with significant resistance.

Maji Maji Uprising

The Maji Maji Uprising (also called the Maji Maji War or Rebellion) occurred from 1905-1907. It was a significant resistance to the invasion by the Germans, with tensions boiling over after a drought worsened the already harsh conditions created by German rule. The uprisings began with attacks on German outposts and destroying cotton crops.

The rebellion spread all throughout the colony, eventually involving 20 ethnic groups who wanted to oust the colonizers. In August 1905, several thousand warriors attacked a German stronghold, but failed to overrun it. The German response was brutal, killing men, women, and children and adopting famine as a weapon. It is estimated that between 75,000 and 120,000 Africans were killed and many more were displaced from their homes during this two-year period of revolt against German rule.

Although the uprising was ultimately unsuccessful, the German government was pressured to institute some reforms. Furthermore, the uprising would become an inspiration for later freedom fighters against European colonial rule.

First World War

After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, British and Belgian troops occupied most of German East Africa. With the defeat of Germany, the League of Nations gave Britain control of the region that is now Tanzania, while the areas that are today Rwanda and Burundi were handed over to Belgian rule.

British rule

When Britain took over control of part of former German East Africa following the First World War, they renamed it to Tanganyika. Like most of their colonies, the British established control of Tanganyika under the policy of "indirect rule" wherein colonial administrators ruled through local leaders. An article by the African Studies Center at Michigan State University summarizes indirect rule and its effects in Tanganyika as follows:

Basically stated, indirect rule was a way for colonial administrators to rule through local African leaders. In this way the British could exert their authority over a colony with minimal resources and also avoid direct confrontation with the larger African population. This approach, however, assumed that all groups being governed had a centralized, hierarchical system of political organization, that is to say a leader or governing structure with authority over the whole group. This was not the case with all ethnic groups in Tanganyika. Consequently, the British had to impose an invented hierarchy on these groups, and this led further destabilization in the colony.

As was described in a paper by Jwani Timothy Mwaikusa, "Colonialism [...] distorted and altered the role and functions of indigenous institutions and traditional authorities to serve colonial purposes [...] even the sentiments against colonial rule sometimes manifested themselves in forms of defiance against tribal institutions and authorities."

The Native Authority Ordinance of 1926 established "Native Authorities" considering traditional chiefs to be rulers of their tribes and giving them some powers of legal authority in their jurisdictions. As one modern-day Tanzanian government pamphlet describes, "The chiefs were groomed in such a way as to prop the colonial government."

Trust territory under British rule

Workers in the shipping, post, diamond, and rail industries led a series of strikes in 1958 to win independence from Britain.

United Republic of Tanzania

In the early 1960s, Tanzania did not largely intervene with small farmers besides improving irrigation.

Arusha Declaration (1967)

In 1967, President Julius Nyerere announced the creation of a socialist state in the Arusha Declaration. He nationalized key industries while developing agriculture and industry. He merged all unions into the National Union of Tanganyika Workers.

Nyerere encouraged all peasants to move to collective ujamaa villages. This system failed to deal with the patriarchal relations of the countryside and often relied on force because it did not take time to persuade the peasantry.