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About Tanzania

Geography

Capital Dodoma
Area (land) 947.303 Km2
Population 57.797.000
Population growth pr. year 2.95% (2020)
Languages Kiswahili; English
Time GMT +3 (Denmark is GMT + 1 during winter time and GMT +2 during summer time)

Source: Britannica.com

Economy

GDP (USD)  1122,1 (2019)
GDP per capita growth (annual %)  2.7 (2019)
Currency  Tanzanian Shilling (TZS)

Source: Worldbank.org

Government

Form of government  Presidential republic
President of Tanzania  Samia Suluhu Hassan (since 19.03.2021)
Vice President of Tanzania  Philip Mpango
President of Zanzibar  Hussein Mwinyi (since 03.11.2020)
 

 

History

Pre-colonial times
Tanzania is home to some of the oldest human settlements that archaeologists have found. The area Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania is often referred to as “The Cradle of Mankind” because fossils found there are thought to be over 2 million years old. The Laetoli footprints, which are thought to be as old as 3.6 million years, are found in the same area.

The national language Kiswahili has roots in precolonial Bantu tribes and spread along the coastal regions as the language of the emerging trade empire. These tribes introduced iron forging technics and new ideas of organisation, and through that created a trade network linking East Africa with trade partners throughout the Indian Ocean.

Colonial times
The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reached the East African coast in 1498. Few years later, Portugal captured Zanzibar. The Portuguese ruled Zanzibar for about 200 years until the Omani sultan Seyyid Said established a stronghold on the island, moved his capital from Muscat to Zanzibar and made it the centre of Arab slave trade. The sale of slaves was prohibited in 1876 and in 1890 Britain took over the control of Zanzibar.
European exploration of the interior country began in the mid-19th century and German colonial interests began around the 1880es. In the beginning of the 1890es chief Mkwawa led a guerrilla war against the Germans, but was eventually defeated. 
The German colonial rule ended in 1919 with the end of the 1. World War. 
During World War 1 Great Britain invaded mainland Tanzania (known as Tanganyika at the time) which established the beginning of British colonial rule. Under British rule efforts were taken to fight malaria, the tsetse fly and bilharzias.

Modern times
In 1954, the teacher Julius Nyerere led the formation of the Tanganyika African National Union. Nyerere was elected prime minister after Tanganyika’s independence in 1961 and president in 1962 under the country’s new republican constitution.
Zanzibar gained independence from Britain in December 1963 and in 1964, the two nations formed, the United Republic of Tanzania. Nyerere is considered the Father of the Nation and ruled the country according to his concept of African Socialism; Ujamaa. He governed Tanzania until 1985 where he handed over power to Ali Hassan Mwinyi.  In 1992 the multiparty system was introduced.