1939-1961







Independence, since 1961



In 1961, TANGANYIKA was proclaimed independent. JULIUS NYERERE became the country's first president. Soon after the British Protectorate of Zanzibar was proclaimed independent, it's democratically elected government was ousted by an armed coup, the Sultan forced into exile, many of the island's Arab inhabitants jailed (many others left the country) and the island merged with Tanganyika, to form the state of TANZANIA.
The new Republic of Tanzania was dominated by Tanganyika, the capital DARESSALAAM. Tanganyika/Tanzania became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and joined the EAST AFRICAN COMMON SERVICES (KUT, Kenya-Uganda-Tanzania) in 1961, upgraded into the EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY in 1967. It began to fail in 1972 and disintegrated in 1977. In 1966, the East African Currency Union was dissolved; Tanzania introduced a national currency, the Tanzanian Shilling.
Nyerere pursued a philosophy of African socialism called UJAMAA, defined in the ARUSHA DECLARATION of 1967. In countryside Tanzania, the village rather than the individual was to own land and to make decisions according to it's use. Tanzania declared the SERENGETI a national park; Tourism became a major source of income.
In 1967 the EAST AFRICAN CURRENCY UNION was established, the currency being the East African Shilling. It functioned until 1977.
Zanzibar, with it's economic history as a trading country, pursued an economic policy of it's own, often in confrontation with national policy. In 1972, the governor of Zanzibar, Abeid Amani Karume, was assassinated.
In 1975, plans to move the capital to DODOMA were announced. Actually, capital functions today are shared by Daressalaam and Dodoma.
In 1978, Ugandan forces under notorious dictator Idi Amin occupied Tanzanian territory in the northeast, Uganda annexing 700 square miles of Tanzanian territory. In 1979, Tanzanian troops invaded Uganda and purged Idi Amin, installing a new government. The Tanzanian troops quickly withdrew. The East African Community collapsed over these tensions in 1977.

Since independence, the population of Tanzania has more than doubled. The economic development was seriously affected by the oil crisis of the 1970es, as well as by a drop in world market prices for plantation crops. Tanzania economically lags behind it's northern, non-socialist neighbours Kenya and Uganda.
There is a separatist organization seeking the independence of Zanzibar & Pemba.




EXTERNAL
FILES 		The History of Tanzania : Independence, Socialist Tanzania, from nyenzi.com (official source)
Articles from Infoplease : Tanzania
History of Tanzania, from geographia.com and from Living Encyclopedia for Tanzania
History of Daressalaam, from daressalaam.com
Zanzibar Page at UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
Links on Tanzanian history from Looksmart
Timeline of Tanzanian History, from timelines.ws, mainly on period since independence; based on US newspaper reports
EAC in Brief, from EACHQ
History of the East African Community, from EAC
Tanzania : Development of Exports (S.M. Wangwe, Exporting Africa, 1995), posted by UNU
African Mutinies, Tanganyika 1964, from Britain's Small Wars
DOCUMENTS Flags of Tanganyika, Tanzania, from FOTW
The Arusha Declaration (1967), by Julius Nyerere, from Dept. of Pan-African Studies
Magazine Reports on Recent Tanzanian History, from World History Archives
TEXTES sur l'Afrique : Decolonisation : Tanzanie, from cliotexte, scroll down
O.A. Odinga, Not yet Uhuru, 1969, printed in R.O. Collins, African History in Documents, Vol.II : Eastern African History, pp.218-221
The Arusha Declaration (1967), printed in R.O. Collins, African History in Documents, Vol.II : Eastern African History, pp.222-234
Paper Money of the East African Currency Board, from African Banknotes
REFERENCE W.T.S. Gould, Regional Labour Migration Systems in East Africa : Continuity and Change, in : in : Robin Cohen, The Cambridge Survey of World Migration, Cambridge : UP 1995, KMLA Lib.Sign. 304.809 C678c
Article Tanganyika, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1963 pp.776-777, 1964 p.798 [G]
Article Tanzania, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1965 pp.791-792, 1966 pp.724-725, 1967 pp.716-717, 1968 pp.724-725, 1969 pp.712-713, 1970 pp.718-719, 1971 pp.698-699, 1972 p.656, 1973 pp.648-649, 1974 pp.647-648, 1975 pp.654-655, 1976 p.644, 1977 pp.645-646, 1978 pp.658-659, 1979 pp.651-652, 1980 pp.651-652, 1981 pp.646-647, 1982 pp.652-653, 1983 pp.647-648, 1984 pp.649-650, 1985 pp.477-478, 791, 1986 pp.473, 790, 1988 pp.400-401, 710, 1989 pp.401, 710, 1990 pp.418, 726, 1993 pp.373-374, 727, 1994 pp.371-372, 727, 1995 pp.481-482, 727 [G]
Article : Tanzania, in : Statesman's Yearbook 1970-1971 pp.446-452, 1975-1976 pp.492-497, 1978-1979 pp.1159-1163, 1980-1981 pp.1164-1168, 1983-1984 pp.1168-1172, 1984-1985 pp.1164-1168, 1985-1986 pp.1165-1169, 1987-1988 pp.1168-1172, 1988-1989 pp.1172-1176, 1989-1990 pp.1179-1183, 1990-1991 pp.1179-1183, 1991-1992 pp.1183-1187, 1992-1993 pp.1265-1269, 1993-1994 pp.1269-1273, 1994-1995 pp.1268-1272, 1995-1996 pp.1255-1259, 1996-1997 pp.1236-1240, 1997-1998 pp.1234-1238, 1998-1999 pp.1347-1352, 2000 pp.1513-1518, 2001 pp.1481-1486, 2002 pp.1536-1541, 2003 pp.1536-1541, 2004 pp.1555-1560, 2005 pp.1565-1570 [G]
Article : Tanzania, in : The World in Figures 1st ed. 1976 pp.99-100, 2nd ed. 1978 pp.99-100, 4th ed. 1984 pp.98-99 [G]
Entry : United Republic of Tanzania, Cabinet, p.90, in : Countries of the World and their Leaders Yearbook, 2003 [G]
Article : Tanganyika, in : Americana Annual 1962 pp.749-750, 1963 pp.666-667, 1964 pp.648-649 [G]
Article : Tanzania, in : Americana Annual 1965 pp.674-675, 1967 pp.667-668, 1968 pp.656-657, 1969 p.667, 1970 p.667, 1971 p.658, 1972 p.657, 1973 p.656, 1974 pp.575-576, 1976 pp.71-72, 531, 1989 p.518, 1990 pp.507-515, 1992 p.512, 1993 pp.522-523, 1994 p.523 [G]
Entry : Tanzania, pp.964-969 in : IMF, International Financial Statistics Yearbook 2001 [G]
Entry : Tanzania, in : The Commonwealth Yearbook 1989 pp.356-363 [G]
History of Tanganyika, pp.9-11; Tanganyika pp.81-105, in : Year Book and Guide to East Africa 1963 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on May 1st 2008

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