History of Tanzania

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History of Tanzania
Timeline
Pre-colonial period
Oldowan stone tool culture Olduvai Gorge Laetoli footprints Mumba Cave hunter-gatherers Cushitic expansion Luxmanda Bantu expansion Nilotic expansion Indian Ocean trade History of Zanzibar Menouthias Rhapta Urewe culture Swahili culture Kilwa Sultanate Engaruka
Colonial period
Vasco da Gama and Portuguese expansion Omani Empire East African slave trade Sultanate of Zanzibar Zanzibar slave trade Scramble for Africa German East Africa Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty Maji Maji Rebellion East African Campaign British East Africa Tanganyika Territory
Modern history
Tanganyika Zanzibar Revolution Julius Nyerere Ujamaa Uganda–Tanzania War 1998 United States embassy bombings East African Community COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania
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The modern-day African Great Lakes state of Tanzania dates formally from 1964, when it was formed out of the union of the much larger mainland territory of Tanganyika and the coastal archipelago of Zanzibar. The former was a colony and part of German East Africa from the 1880s to 1919 when, under the League of Nations, it became a British mandate. It served as a British military outpost during World War II, providing financial help, munitions, and soldiers. In 1947, Tanganyika became a United Nations Trust Territory under British administration, a status it kept until its independence in 1961. The island of Zanzibar thrived as a trading hub, successively controlled by the Portuguese, the Sultanate of Oman, and then as a British protectorate by the end of the nineteenth century.

Julius Nyerere, independence leader and "baba wa taifa" (father of the nation) for Tanganyika, ruled the country for decades, while Abeid Amaan Karume, governed Zanzibar as its president and Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania. Following Nyerere's retirement in 1985, various political and economic reforms began. He was succeeded in office by President Ali Hassan Mwinyi.