Pre-20th century

Although a Tanzanian gorge recently yielded a few bits of our old mate Homo erectus, little is known about the country's really early history. Recorded history begins around the first century BC, when various migrating tribes from West Africa first reached East Africa. While the country's coastal area had long witnessed maritime squabbles between Portuguese and Arabic traders, it wasn't until the middle of the 18th century that Arabic traders dared venture into the country's wild interior. European explorers began arriving in earnest in the mid-19th century, the most famous being Stanley and Livingstone. The famous phrase 'Dr Livingstone, I presume', stems from the duo's meeting at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika.

As the 20th century loomed, Germany got busy colonising Tanganyika - as the mainland was then known - by building railways and going commerce crazy. If not for the pesky little tsetse fly, the area could have become one vast grazing paddock for the fatherland. But losing the war didn't help the German cause much either, and the League of Nations soon mandated the territory to the British. The Brits had already grabbed the offshore island of Zanzibar, which for centuries had been the domain of Arab traders.

Modern history

Nationalist organisations sprang up after WWII, but it wasn't until Julius Nyerere took the reins of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) in 1953 that they found their real voice. Tanganyika won independence in 1961 with Nyerere as the country's first president. Zanzibar was stuck with its British stiff upper lip for another two years, after which the mainland forged a union together with Zanzibar and the nearby island of Pemba. Thus Tanzania was born.

But unity and a charismatic first president weren't enough to overcome the country's basic lack of resources. Nyerere's secret ingredient was radical socialism, a brave concept considering the communist paranoia of potential aid donors such as the USA. Under the leader's Chinese-backed reforms, the economy was nationalised, as were great swathes of rental properties, and the better-off were taxed heavily in an attempt to redistribute wealth. The early 1960s saw Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda linked in an unlikely economic threesome. Their currencies became freely convertible and there was free and easy movement across borders. But predictable political differences brought such cosiness to a halt in 1977, leaving the Tanzanians worse off than ever.

Many factors have contributed to the woes of modern Tanzania, and not all have been self-inflicted. The incorporation of Zanzibar created some additional problems. Adopting a multi-party political system doesn't seem to have helped much either. Zanzibar and the neighbouring island of Pemba have occasionally experienced violent unrest and political scare-mongering, especially since an election squabble divided mainland and the islands. Meanwhile, the mainland has had to cope with a flood of Rwandan refugees fleeing fighting in their homeland. In late 1996 the government of then-president Benjamin Mkapa issued a statement backed by the United Nations declaring that Rwandan refugees were to leave Tanzania, although many still remain.

In August 1998, terrorists bombed the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, killing over 250 people and injuring more than 5000. Despite all the bumps, however, Tanzania has managed to remain an oasis of relative peace in a region often torn by tribal clashes.

Recent history

In 2000 President Mkapa was re-elected president, and under his leadership Tanzania has continued its relatively stable course, even managing something of an economic upturn. This has been maintained under President Jakaya Kikwete, who took over the reins in early 2006.

Recent years have been marked by greater political and economic ties between Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, and by the growth of opposition parties, although the long-dominant CCM still sits firmly in the driver's seat. The recent opening of the Songosongo natural gas field off the southern coast, combined with tourism, which is booming, have given the economy major boosts. Although 13 people were killed in the December 2004 tsunami, damage along the Tanzanian coastline was minimal.