The history of Tanzania dates back to the 1964 when it was created from the union of the extensive mainland territory of Tanganyika and coastal Zanzibar Archipelago. The former (Tanganyika) existed as a colony and part of the German East Africa from 1880ss-1919. This was under the League of Nations when it turned to be British mandate.
Tanganyika became a United Nations Trust Territory in 1947 under the British administration. It served as a United Nations Trust Territory till 1961 when it gained her independence. The Zanzibar Island grew rapidly and became a trading hub and it was largely run by the Portuguese, the Sultanate of Oman and later, as a British Protectorate towards the end of 19th century.
Julius Nyerere became the independence leader in Tanzania also best referred to as the father of the Tanganyika Nation. Zanzibar was run by Abeid Amaan Karume. Nyerere retired in 1985, resulting into the rise of many political and economic reforms.
The pre-history
Tanzania is a home to one of the earth’s oldest hominid settlements. The country hosts fossil remains of humans and hominids dating back to over 2 million years. These were discovered by archaeologists in 1931 (Louis Leakey) at Olduvai Gorge in the Northern part of Tanzania an area also best known as the Cradle of Mankind. In 1959, Mary Leakey discovered the first hominid skull within Olduvai Gorge.
The hunter-gatherers in Tanzania
Over 10,000 years ago, Tanzania hosted several of the Cushitic and Khoisan speaking people. These are hunter-gatherer communities and bantu speaking people. Khoisan speaking people joined the Cushitic speaking people from the North and they came with basic techniques of faring, food production and cattle keeping. It is believed that about 2000 years back, the Bantu speaking people started arriving from Western Africa and developed ironworking skills. They were later joined by the Nilotic pastoralists and they kept migrating into the area up to the 18th century.
The merchants from Western India and Persian Gulf started visiting the East African Coast in the early first millennium AD. By the start of the second millennium AD, the coastal Swahili towns began to conduct trade between Africa and the rest of the world especially at the Indian Ocean border. Kilwa Town on the Southern coast of Tanzania turned a hub for what was referred to as Golden Age of Swahili civilization Island that is from 1200 to 1500 CE.