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The History of Tanzania started with the European Colonialists. The 8th
century saw the growth of city states along the coast after settlement
by Arabs as a nation from Oman.
It was seven centuries later in 1499
that the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama visited the island of
Zanzibar. Another 100 years later in the 16th century, the Portuguese
occupied Zanzibar. Their occupation did not last for long as in 1699 the
Portuguese were ousted from Zanzibar by Arabs of Oman who had returned
to make it their own. So in the 18th century the Sultan of
Oman reasserted Arab overlord ship of the East African coast, which
became subordinate to Zanzibar.
By 1840 when Sultan Seyyid bin
Sultan moved his capital from Oman to Zanzibar, trade in slaves and
ivory flourished. In 1861, the Sultanates of Zanzibar and Oman
separated on the death of Seyyid. During the 19th century, Europeans
started to explore inland, closely followed by Christian missionaries.
In 1884 the German Colonization Society began to acquire territory on
the mainland in defiance of Zanzibar and 1890 Britain obtained
protectorate status over Zanzibar, abolished the slave trade, and
recognised German claims to the Mainland. German East Africa was
formally established as a colony in 1897.
The 1905-07 Majimaji revolt was brutally
suppressed by German troops. World events then took over with the
outbreak of the First World War, and far as it was from Europe, German
East Africa was not immune from the fighting, though effective fighting
was short lived due to the successful 1916 Conquest of German East
Africa by the British. In 1919, the League of Nations gave Britain a
mandate to administer part of German East Africa, known as Tanganyika.
In 1946 Tanganyika became a UN trust territory.
A Legislative Council was set up in
1926; it was enlarged in 1945 and restructured in 1955 to give equal
representation to Africans, Asians and Europeans, sitting as 30
"'un-officials" with the 31 "officials". In 1954, a schoolteacher,
Julius Nyerere, founded the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU),
which promoted African nationalism and won a large public following
campaigning for independence. The colonial authorities responded with
constitutional changes increasing the voice of the African population
while reserving seats for minority communities.
Elections were held in 1958 and again in
1960. The result was an overwhelming victory for TANU, which was by
this time campaigning for independence as well as majority rule. The new
government and British Government agreed at a constitutional conference
in London to full independence for Tanganyika in December 1961.
Zanzibar achieved independence in 1963 as a separate and sovereign
country, under the al-Busaidy Sultan.
Tanganyika became a republic in December
1962, one year after achieving independence, and the direct
presidential election brought TANU’s leader, Julius Nyerere, to the
presidency. In 1965 the Constitution was changed to establish a
one-party system. Meanwhile, in Zanzibar, a revolution had overthrown
the Arab Sultan on 12th January 1964. One month after independence the
Constitution was abrogated; Abedi Amani Karume was declared the first
African President of Peoples’ Republic of Zanzibar and the country
became a one-party state under the Afro-Shirazi Party.
On 26th April 1964 Tanganyika and
Zanzibar united as the United Republic of Tanzania, with Julius Nyerere
as President and the head of state, while Karume as his Vice President,
retained at the same time the Presidency of Zanzibar. In 1971 Karume was
assassinated in Zanzibar and Aboud Jumbe succeeded him as President of
Zanzibar and Vice President of Tanzania. The political union between
Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania has weathered more than four decades of
change. Zanzibar has its own parliament and president.
In an effort to create socially
equitable and rapid development, it became in early proponent of African
socialism, Ujamaa (roughly meaning Togetherness), launched in 1967
under the banner of Arusha Declaration, with nationalisation of banking,
finance, industry and large-scale trade, marketing through boards, and
the resettlement of peasants in communal villages, Vijiji vya Ujamaa ,
created out of large estates
In 1977, the two ruling parties: TANU
and Afro Shirazi Party, merged to form the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM)
which continues to rule the country after consecutive successful
elections.
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