Independence Years British Trading Tanzania

Pre-independence - Tanzania's long coastline and its exotic islands - Zanzibar and Pemba, have been luring foreign traders, explorers to its shores for well over a thousand years. Little is known about Tanzania's early or prehistory, though important early archaeological finds have been located in the Olduvai Gorge. Essentially though, 'Tanganyika' as the mainland was known before formal unification with its two islands - was largely unexplored by outsiders until the late 1700's.

The first trading posts on Tanganyika's coast were set up by Arab traders as far back as the 1st Century AD with minimal intrusion and relatively peaceful relations between Arab and Swahili neighbours.

Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese - Following the arrival of navigator Vasco da Gama on Zanzibar's shores in 1499, the Portuguese established trade posts of their own and over the next two hundred years, gradually came to dominate East Africa's coastal routes. Europeans made few attempts to penetrate Tanganyika's hinterlands until the late 1700's, when excitement over the emerging slave trade raised French, Arab and Portuguese hopes about the economic possibilities of plundering Tanganyika. Traders soon shrugged off their initial fears about Tanganyika's wild interior and the ripping out of the country's ivory and slave resources began in earnest.

The arrival of the Sultan of Oman - The transport and trading of all this booty meant that both Tanganyika's coast and its offshore island Zanzibar, soon became huge international trading posts for spices, slaves and ivory. Amidst the vicious rivalries of 17th and 18th Century European mercantile, maritime and colonial expansion, Zanzibar's location along major world trading routes made the island a particularly attractive and strategic trading post. By 1840, Zanzibar had become such an important trading hub, that the Omani Sultan moved his court to the island to keep ahead of Portuguese, French and now also British rivals.

Then the British - Fifty years of political and maritime wheeling and dealing ensued and, in 1890, Zanzibar was placed under the control of the British, who had already colonised Uganda and Kenya to the north. This non-stop drawing and redrawing of colonial boundaries was occurring right across Africa - usually with little thought to the realities of geography or to the political or social organisation of the indigenous populations on the ground. Driven by commercial greed, territorial ambition and political rivalry, the European 'scramble for Africa" culminated in the continent's formal partition at the Berlin Conference in 1884-5.

…and the Germans - Back in mainland Tanganyika, European explorers were pushing their way into the heart of the country. The most famous of these, Livingstone and Stanley met at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika with that famous and oh-so British of phrases 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?' Though the slave trade was outlawed in the late 1870's, Germany was still keen to get a piece of the Tanganyika's spoils and after negotiating a string of trade-offs with the British, formally colonised the mainland in 1891.

and finally independence - Governed directly from Germany, Tanganyika underwent a decade of infrastructural development and yet more intensified trading until the outbreak of war in 1914. Despite the extraordinary efforts of General von Lettow-Vorbeck to maintain German control of East Africa, Tanzania was mandated back to the British by the League of Nations as part of post-war reparations settlements. Britain controlled Tanganyika and Zanzibar until their respective independence in 1961 and 1963 when Tanganyika, Zanzibar and Pemba united to create modern day Tanzania.

modern day Tanzania - Tanzania came to independence in 1961 with a severely underdeveloped economy and limited infrastructure. Under German rule, agricultural production had been largely geared towards the production of sisal, a purely industrial crop. British rule of some forty years then followed. Knowing however that, as a 'mandate' rather than a formal colony, Tanzania could technically declare independence at any time so perhaps as a consequence of this the Brits were reluctant to invest heavily in the country's roads, communications or economy.

Tanzania's first president - It was out of this sense of historic reluctance to give anything back to the country or to its people that Tanzania's nationalist movements were first formed. In the mid 1950's through to the early 1960's, talk of independence and a shared sense of optimism - and anger - spread like wildfire across Africa. In what was one of Africa's very few peaceful transitions to independence, Julius Nyerere, radical socialist, became Tanzania's first President in 1961.

Villigisation - Nyerere embarked upon sweeping economic, social and political reforms aimed at redistributing wealth amongst Tanzanian's, including nationalisation of the economy, the forced 'villagisation' of the rural population into communal villages and the promotion of high-yield seeds and modern irrigation schemes. For the first few years of independence, Tanzanians enjoyed a freedom and economic growth on their own terms that they had not enjoyed since the Portuguese first set foot on their land some 450 years before.

Economic decline - Despite direct funding from China for projects that included the impressive TAZARA railway, lack of sustained investment, corruption and resentment by ordinary Tanzanians soon resulted in the failure of many of these schemes. Throw in one year-long drought and two oil crises and economically speaking, Nyerere certainly had his work cut out for him. His strong financial support for guerrilla independence movements in Angola, Mozambique, Rhodesia, Uganda, the Comoros and Seychelles, though ideological motivated, did nothing to improve Tanzania's financial status. Despite his best intentions, (and foreign aid between 1971-1981 of an incredible $2.7 billion) after twenty years of socialist rule, Nyere had effectively bankrupt Tanzania, taking Zanzibar, once one of Africa's richest countries, with it. In 1985 he stepped down as President.

rebuilding the economy - Since then, Nyere's successors have accepted the realities of modern economics and with the help of World Bank and IMF assistance, attempted to rebuild Tanzania more in line with the demands of modern capitalism. Economically, the country still relies heavily on its agriculture which accounts for half of its GDP, provides 85% of exports and employs 80% of the work force - all this on the 4% of Tanzania's land climatically or topologically suitable for commercial cultivation. However, over the last decade, industrial production has increased significantly (particularly the development of oil and gas exploitation), as has the extraction of minerals - above all, gold.

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