Page 62 - Safari Serengeti: Tanzania Lodge & Tented Safari

Historical Overview of Tanzania

Tanzania is home to the Olduvai Gorge, the site where some of the earliest human remains
on earth have been discovered. For hundreds of thousands of years, hunter-gatherer societies
inhabited the area, though details about them are lost in the mists of time. More recently, the
interior of the country has been occupied by pastoral and agricultural societies.

The cattle-herding Maasai are notable among these. They are known to have settled as far
south as Dodoma by the early 19th century, and they live around Tanzania’s game parks to
_ST^ OLd 4Y _SP [L^_ _ST^ _]TMPɪ^ ]P[`_L_TZY L^ ʭP]NP bL]]TZ]^ VP[_ LbLd YPTRSMZ]TYR _]TMP^ LYO
Arab traders, and neither the slave trade nor tribal warfare had much impact in their territory.
Today, many Maasai proudly continue their traditional way of life with few inroads from
modern civilization, especially in the northern part of the country.
Over one thousand years ago, sea-borne traders established a strong Arab presence on
Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast, which includes the island of Zanzibar. Sultans of Oman ruled
Zanzibar by the 18th century, and in 1832 Sultan Seyyid Said located his capital city there.
Because of this history, Islam continues to be the dominant religion on Zanzibar today.

Rivalry among European colonial powers brought historic change to the area in the 19th
NPY_`]d 7TaTYR^_ZY LYO >_LYWPd bP]P LXZYR _SP ʭ]^_ 0YRWT^SXPY _Z L]]TaP TY _SP TY_P]TZ]
where Stanley’s famous “Dr. Livingston, I presume” was uttered at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika.
The British made Zanzibar their protectorate in 1890. On the mainland, however, Britain
yielded to Germany after German explorer Carl Peters laid the groundwork for colonial
exploitation of the country by the German East Africa Company. The two countries signed an
agreement giving the Germans what was then known as Tanganyika, while Britain got Kenya
and Uganda. World War I, during which Germany and Britain fought intense land and naval
battles in Tanganyika, ended this arrangement. Following Germany’s defeat in Europe, Britain
was put in charge of the League of Nations mandate for Tanganyika.

In the 20th century, the movement to end colonialism in Tanganyika took shape among
farmers’ unions and cooperatives. Julius Nyerere led the political party that grew out of this
XZaPXPY_ LYO MPNLXP _SP NZ`Y_]dɪ^ ʭ]^_ []P^TOPY_ bSPY T_ XLOP L [PLNPQ`W _]LY^T_TZY _Z
independence in 1961. The island of Zanzibar gained independence in 1963, in a transition that
involved a bloody revolution during which the bulk of the Arab population was expelled. In
$! ?LYRLYdTVL ELYeTML] LYO ;PXML LYZ_SP] Zʬ^SZ]P T^WLYO UZTYPO _Z MPNZXP _SP @YT_PO
Republic of Tanzania.

Tanzania’s leaders stood at the forefront of African liberation movements during the 1970s
and the early 1980s. They allowed Mozambique nationalists to use Tanzanian territory for
training and attack bases as they fought for independence from the Portuguese. In 1979,
Tanzanian troops helped overthrow the regime of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. President
Nyerere also played a key role in the negotiations for ending white rule in Zimbabwe. Although
it maintained good relations with the West, Tanzania followed a strongly socialist path in the
decades immediately following independence.

62