and on display at the
British Museum Ancient Tanzania is one of the oldest continuously inhabited areas on Earth. The
Olduvai Gorge, in the
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site, features a collection with remnants of tools that document the development and use of transitional
technology. The indigenous populations of eastern Africa are thought to be the
linguistically isolated Hadza and
Sandawe hunter-gatherers of Tanzania. The first wave of migration was by
Southern Cushitic speakers who moved south from
Ethiopia and
Somalia into Tanzania. They are ancestral to the
Iraqw,
Gorowa, and
Burunge. The people of Tanzania have been associated with the production of iron and steel. The
Pare people were the main producers of sought-after iron for peoples who occupied the mountain regions of north-eastern Tanzania. The
Haya people on the western shores of
Lake Victoria invented a type of high-heat
blast furnace, which allowed them to forge
carbon steel at temperatures exceeding more than 1,500 years ago.
Islam was practiced by some on the
Swahili Coast as early as the eighth or ninth century AD.
Medieval Bantu-speakers built farming and trade villages along the Tanzanian coast from the outset of the first millennium. Archaeological finds at
Fukuchani, on the north-west coast of Zanzibar, indicate a settled agricultural and fishing community from the 6th century CE at the latest. The considerable amount of daub found indicates timber buildings, and shell beads, bead grinders, and iron slag have been found at the site. There is evidence for limited engagement in long-distance trade: a small amount of imported pottery has been found, less than 1% of total pottery finds, mostly from the Gulf and dated to the 5th to 8th century. The similarity to contemporary sites such as
Mkokotoni and
Dar es Salaam indicate a unified group of communities that developed into the first centre of coastal maritime culture. The coastal towns appear to have been engaged in Indian Ocean and inland African trade at this early period. Trade rapidly increased in importance and quantity beginning in the mid-8th century and by the close of the 10th century Zanzibar was one of the central Swahili trading towns. Growth in Egyptian and Persian shipping from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf revitalised
Indian Ocean trade, particularly after the
Fatimid Caliphate relocated to Fustat (Cairo). Swahili agriculturalists built increasingly dense settlements to tap into trade, these forming the earliest Swahili city-states. The Venda-Shona Kingdoms of
Mapungubwe and Zimbabwe in South Africa and
Zimbabwe, respectively, became a major producer of gold around this same period. Economic, social, and religious power was increasingly vested in
Kilwa, Tanzania's major medieval city-state. Kilwa controlled a number of smaller ports stretching down to modern-day Mozambique.
Sofala became the major gold emporium and Kilwa grew rich off the trade, lying at the southern end of the Indian Ocean Monsoons. Kilwa's major rivals lay to the north, in modern-day Kenya, namely
Mombasa and
Malindi. Kilwa remained the major power in East Africa until the arrival of the Portuguese at the end of the 15th century.
Colonial , a
UNESCO World Heritage Site Claiming the coastal strip,
Omani Sultan
Said bin Sultan moved his capital to
Zanzibar City in 1840. During this time,
Zanzibar became the centre for the
east African slave trade. Between 65 and 90 per cent of the African population of
Zanzibar was enslaved. One of the most infamous slave traders on the East African coast was
Tippu Tip. The
Nyamwezi slave traders operated under the leadership of
Msiri and
Mirambo. According to
Timothy Insoll, "Figures record the exporting of 718,000 slaves from the Swahili coast during the 19th century, and the retention of 769,000 on the coast." In the 1890s, slavery was abolished. , In 1863, the
Holy Ghost Mission established an early reception center and depot at Zanzibar. In 1877, responding to appeals of
Henry Stanley following his
trans-Africa expedition, and permission being given to Stanley by
King Mutessa I of Buganda, the
Church Missionary Society sent missionaries
Edward Baxter and Henry Cole to establish inland missions. In 1885, Germany conquered the regions that are now Tanzania (minus Zanzibar) and incorporated them into
German East Africa (GEA). against
German colonial rule in 1905 The
Maji Maji Rebellion, between 1905 and 1907, was an uprising of several African tribes in German East Africa against the colonial authorities, in particular because of forced labour and deportation of certain tribes. It was the subject of a bloody repression, which combined with famine caused 300,000 deaths among the population, out of a Tanganyikan population of about four million. The Supreme Council of the
1919 Paris Peace Conference awarded all of GEA to
Britain on 7 May 1919, over the strenuous objections of Belgium. The conference's Commission on Mandates ratified this agreement on 16 July 1919. On 12 July 1919, the Commission on Mandates agreed that the small
Kionga Triangle south of the
Rovuma River would be given to
Portuguese Mozambique, During
World War II, about 100,000 people from Tanganyika joined the
Allied forces and were among the 375,000 Africans who fought with those forces. Tanganyikans fought in units of the
King's African Rifles during the
East African Campaign in Somalia and
Abyssinia against the Italians, in Madagascar against the
Vichy French during the
Madagascar Campaign, and in Burma against the
Japanese during the
Burma Campaign. In 1954,
Julius Nyerere transformed an organisation into the politically oriented
Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). TANU's main objective was to achieve national
sovereignty for Tanganyika. A campaign to register new members was launched, and within a year, TANU had become the leading political organisation in the country. Nyerere became Minister of British-administered Tanganyika in 1960 and continued as prime minister when Tanganyika became independent in 1961.
Modern British rule came to an end on 9 December 1961.
Elizabeth II, who had acceded to the British throne in 1952, continued to reign through the first year of Tanganyika's independence, but now distinctly as
Queen of Tanganyika, represented by the
governor general. which had become independent in 1963, the archipelago merged with mainland Tanganyika on 26 April 1964. The new country was then named the
United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. On 29 October of the same year, the country was renamed the United Republic of Tanzania ("Tan" comes from Tanganyika and "Zan" from Zanzibar). Following Tanganyika's independence and unification with Zanzibar leading to the state of Tanzania, President Nyerere emphasised a need to construct a national identity for the citizens of the new country. To achieve this, Nyerere provided what is regarded as one of the most successful cases of ethnic repression and identity transformation in Africa. With more than 130 languages spoken within its territory, Tanzania is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Africa. Despite this obstacle, ethnic divisions remained rare in Tanzania when compared to the rest of the continent, notably its immediate neighbour,
Kenya. Furthermore, since its independence, Tanzania has displayed more political stability than most African countries, particularly due to Nyerere's ethnic repression methods. In 1967, Nyerere's first presidency took a turn to the
left after the
Arusha Declaration, which codified a commitment to socialism as well as
Pan-Africanism. After the declaration, banks and many large industries were nationalised. Following Tanzania’s establishment of independence, Nyerere’s political philosophy enabled the nation to maintain an official, non-aligned position on foreign policy.
Ujamaa, the socialist ideology of Nyerere, allowed the nation to develop a new national policy. This emphasized collective ownership, rural development, and the idea that economic growth should benefit the population as a whole rather than a small elite group. It was distinctly an African form of socialism, rooted in traditional village life rather than the industrial, state centered models seen in the Soviet Union. Tanzania was unique in this sense as several other African nations had adopted these foreign ideologies during the
Cold War. This neutrality enabled the nation to accept foreign aid from the United States, The Soviet Union, and China. Each of these nations supplied Tanzania with aid despite the Tanzanian people never declaring allegiance to any of these supernations. Tanzania’s reception of aid largely went towards Nyerere’s goal of national development projects. From 1970 to 1975, China
financed and helped build the
TAZARA Railway from
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to
Kapiri Mposhi, Zambia. Nonetheless, from the late 1970s, Tanzania's economy took a turn for the worse, in the context of an international economic crisis affecting both developed and developing economies. In 1978, the neighbouring
Uganda, under the leadership of Idi Amin,
invaded Tanzania. This disastrous invasion would culminate in Tanzania invading
Uganda with the aid of Ugandan rebels and deposing Idi Amin as a result. However, the war severely damaged Tanzania's economy. Tanzania won its first Olympic medal at the
1980 Summer Olympics in
Moscow. The nation
received two silver medals; both in running events. Through the 1980s, conservation-oriented national parks such as
Serengeti and
Kilimanjaro, with
Mount Kilimanjaro as the tallest freestanding summit on Earth, were included on the
UNESCO World Heritage List. From the mid-1980s, the regime financed itself by borrowing from the
International Monetary Fund and underwent some reforms. Since then, Tanzania's gross domestic product per capita has grown and poverty has been reduced, according to a report by the World Bank. In 1992, the
Constitution of Tanzania was amended to allow multiple political parties. In Tanzania's first multi-party elections, held in 1995, the ruling
Chama Cha Mapinduzi won 186 of the 232 elected seats in the National Assembly, and
Benjamin Mkapa was elected as president. The presidents of Tanzania since independence have been
Julius Nyerere (1962–1985),
Ali Hassan Mwinyi (1985–1995),
Benjamin Mkapa (1995–2005),
Jakaya Kikwete (2005–2015),
John Magufuli (2015–2021), and
Samia Hassan Suluhu since 2021. After the long tenure of President Nyerere, the Constitution has a term limit: a president can serve a maximum of two terms. Each term is five years. Every president has represented the ruling party
Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). President Magufuli won a landslide victory and re-election in October 2020. According to the opposition, the
election was full of fraud and irregularities. On 17 March 2021, President
John Magufuli died in office. Magufuli's vice president,
Samia Suluhu Hassan, became Tanzania's first female president. A series of
demonstrations and civil unrest began in October 2025, coinciding with Tanzania's
general elections. President Suluhu was declared the winner with 98% of the vote. ==Geography==