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Tanzania
TANU mobilisation under Nyerere led to independence in 1961; Tanganyika united with Zanzibar in April 1964.
- Independence
- December 9, 1961
- Before
- Tanganyika
- Metropole
- United Kingdom
- Leader
- Julius Nyerere
- Transition
- Negotiated
- Movement
- Tanganyika African National Union (TANU)
“Independence cannot be real if a nation depends upon gifts and loans from another for its development.”
— Julius Nyerere (for TANU), Arusha Declaration, 5 February 1967
German Conquest and Maji Maji
German claims to the mainland date from 1885, when the German East Africa Company obtained an imperial charter; Berlin took direct control in 1891. The Maji Maji rising of 1905–07 united many peoples of the south against forced cotton cultivation. German forces crushed it with a scorched-earth campaign, and the resulting famine brought deaths commonly estimated at between 75,000 and 300,000.
Mandate, Trusteeship and TANU
After the First World War Tanganyika became a British League of Nations mandate and, from 1946, a UN Trust Territory. Julius Nyerere, a teacher, founded TANU on 7 July 1954 from the older Tanganyika African Association. Trust status gave him a platform at the UN Trusteeship Council, which he addressed in 1955, and Kiswahili gave TANU a shared language across more than 120 ethnic groups.
Elections and Peaceful Transfer
TANU and its allied candidates won the 1958–59 elections and all but one seat in 1960, when Nyerere became Chief Minister. Tanganyika became independent on 9 December 1961 with Nyerere as Prime Minister, largely without violence, and a republic a year later with Nyerere as President. After Zanzibar's January 1964 revolution, the two states united in April 1964, taking the name Tanzania that October.
Chronology
- 1905–1907 — Maji Maji rising against German rule
- 7 July 1954 — Nyerere founds TANU
- March 1955 — Nyerere addresses the UN Trusteeship Council
- 9 December 1961 — Tanganyika becomes independent
- 12 January 1964 — Zanzibar Revolution
- 26 April 1964 — Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar
- 5 February 1967 — Arusha Declaration proclaimed
Aftermath
Nyerere's 1967 Arusha Declaration committed TANU to socialism and self-reliance (Ujamaa). Tanzania hosted the OAU Liberation Committee and gave bases to FRELIMO, ZANU, the ANC and SWAPO, among others. Nyerere stepped down as president voluntarily in 1985.
Legacy
Kiswahili and Nyerere's nation-building policies fostered an unusually strong national identity, and Tanzania avoided the large-scale ethnic conflicts seen in several neighbours. It was also a vital sanctuary for southern African liberation movements, though Ujamaa villagisation brought serious economic hardship.