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103-582: Tanganyika was a colonial territory in East Africa which was administered by the United Kingdom in various guises from 1916 until 1961. It was initially administered under a military occupation regime. From 20 July 1922, it was formalised into a League of Nations mandate under British rule. From 1946, it was administered by the UK as a United Nations trust territory . Before World War I , Tanganyika formed part of

206-762: A belief that the people of East Africa had been called upon to eliminate the Germans. German anthropologists recorded that he gave his followers war medicine that would turn German bullets into water. This "war medicine" was in fact water ( maji in Kiswahili) mixed with castor oil and millet seeds. Empowered with this new liquid, Bokero's followers began what would become known as the Maji Maji Rebellion. The followers of Bokero's movement were poorly armed with spears and arrows , sometimes poisoned. However, they were numerous and believed that they could not be harmed because

309-484: A cash crop for export. Each village was charged with producing a quota of cotton, despite the fact that the high water requirements of cotton made it impossible to grow in most of the country. The headmen of the village were put in charge of overseeing the production, which set them against the rest of the population. The German government also introduced laws to protect forests and wildlife. While these measures may have been desirable in theory, they led to great hardship for

412-638: A creation of new societal groups involving inter-marriage among communities and small groups moving to communities and small groups moving to new areas. After their movements from their original homeland in West Africa , Bantus also encountered in central east Africa peoples of Cushitic origin. As cattle terminology in use amongst the few modern Bantu pastoralist groups suggests, the Bantu migrants would acquire cattle from their new Cushitic neighbors. Linguistic evidence also indicates that Bantus most likely borrowed

515-708: A distinct geopolitical entity within East Africa. The East African Community , an economic and political bloc, currently includes the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Somalia, Burundi , Kenya, Rwanda , South Sudan , Uganda and Tanzania. Notably, the African Great Lakes region overlaps significantly with these countries. Inside of Somalia there are two unrecognised states; Somaliland and Puntland, although Puntland still wants to join back with Somalia, for now it

618-621: A first or second language, is an important trade language in the Great Lakes area. It has official status in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Maji Maji Rebellion Qadiriyya Brotherhood Matumbi Ngindo , Ngoni , Yao tribes The Maji Maji Rebellion ( German : Maji-Maji-Aufstand , Swahili : Vita vya Maji Maji ), was an armed rebellion of Africans against German colonial rule in German East Africa (modern-day Tanzania ). The war

721-448: A larger area of Africa than previously thought. East Africa is one of the earliest regions where Homo sapiens are believed to have lived. Evidence was found in 2018, dating to about 320,000 years ago, at the Kenyan site of Olorgesailie , of the early emergence of modern behaviors associated with Homo sapiens , including: long-distance trade networks (involving goods such as obsidian),

824-519: A millennia-long series of migrations eastward from their homeland around southern Cameroon. This Bantu expansion introduced agriculture into much of the African Great Lakes region. During the following fifteen centuries, the Bantu slowly intensified farming and grazing over all suitable regions of East Africa, in the process making contact with Austronesian - and Arabic -speaking settlers on southern coastal areas. The latter also spread Islam to

927-739: A protectorate in the area, named German East Africa (GEA), under the leadership of Carl Peters . When the Sultan of Zanzibar objected, German warships threatened to bombard his palace. Britain and Germany then agreed to divide the mainland into various spheres of influence, and the Sultan was forced to acquiesce. The Germans brutally repressed the Maji Maji Rebellion of 1905. The German colonial administration instituted an educational program for native Africans, including elementary, secondary, and vocational schools. The German colonial administrations developed

1030-520: A relatively weak hold on German East Africa. However, they maintained a system of forts throughout the interior of the territory and were able to exert some control over it. Since their hold on the colony was weak, they resorted to using violently repressive tactics to control the population. Germany levied head taxes in 1898 and relied heavily on forced labour to build roads and accomplish various other tasks. In 1902, governor of German East Africa, Gustav Adolf von Götzen ordered villages to grow cotton as

1133-503: A second column of 1,200 men advanced from the east. Some of these attackers were able to get within three paces of the firing line before they were killed. While this was the apex of the uprising, the Ngoni people decided to join in the revolt with a force of 5,000. The Gwangara Ngoni were relatively recent arrivals in the region, descendants of a remnant of the Ndwandwe confederation defeated by

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1236-521: A target for European exploration , exploitation and colonialization in the nineteenth century. Today, tourism is an important part of the economies of Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, and Uganda. The easternmost point of the continent, that is Ras Hafun in Somalia, is of archaeological , historical and economical importance. According to the CIA, as of 2017, the countries in the eastern Africa region have

1339-448: A total population of around 537.9 million inhabitants. Eastern Africa had an estimated population of 260 million in 2000. This was projected to reach 890 million by 2050, with an average growth rate of 2.5% per annum. The 2000 population is expected to quintuple over the course of the 21st century, to 1.6 billion as of 2100 (UN estimates as of 2017). In Ethiopia , there is an estimated population of 102 million as of 2016. In

1442-434: A unified movement but rather a series of revolts conducted for a wide range of reasons, including religion. The Ngoni chiefs were offered Christian baptism before execution. Many people in the area itself saw the revolt as one part of a longer series of wars continuing since long before the arrival of Germans in the region. They cite the alliance of some groups with the Germans to further their own agendas. The role of Islam in

1545-586: Is a region at the eastern edge of the African continent , distinguished by its geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the region is recognized in the United Nations Statistics Division scheme as encompassing 18 sovereign states and 4 territories. East Africa is acknowledged as the cradle of early modern humans , who first emerged around 200,000 to 300,000 years ago before spreading globally though Madagascar

1648-528: Is independent. Adjacent to these mainland territories are island nations and territories such as Socotra , Comoros , Mauritius , Seychelles , Réunion , Mayotte , and the Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean . Regions including portions of Mozambique and Madagascar , often aligned with Southern Africa , share significant historical and cultural connections with East Africa, particularly through

1751-548: Is now southern Tanzania . In March 1505, having received from Manuel I of Portugal the appointment of viceroy of the newly conquered territory in India , he set sail from Lisbon in command of a large and powerful fleet, and arrived in July at Quiloa ( Kilwa ), which yielded to him almost without a struggle. A much more vigorous resistance was offered by the Moors of Mombasa. However, the town

1854-477: The Abyei Area , and Abyei and South Kordofan's Nuba Hills both remained sources of tension between Juba and Khartoum as of 2011 . Some parts of East Africa have been renowned for their concentrations of wild animals, such as the " big five ": the elephant , buffalo , lion , black rhinoceros , and leopard , though populations have been declining under increased stress in recent times, particularly those of

1957-612: The East African Community . The country held its first elections in 1958 and 1959. The following year it was granted internal self-government and fresh elections were held. Both elections were won by the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), which led the country to independence in December 1961. The following year a presidential election was held, with TANU leader Julius Nyerere emerging victorious. In

2060-629: The Horn of Africa and Nile Valley , Afroasiatic languages predominate, including languages of the family's Cushitic (such as Beja , Oromo and Somali ), Semitic (such as Amharic , Arabic and Tigrinya ), and Omotic (such as Wolaytta ) branches. In the African Great Lakes region, Niger-Congo languages of the Bantu branch are most widely spoken. Among these languages are Kikuyu , Luhya , Kinyarwanda , Kirundi , Kisukuma , Luganda and many others. Swahili , with at least 80 million speakers as

2163-458: The Kingdom of Madagascar , which it initiated after persuading Britain to relinquish its interests in the island in exchange for control of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanganyika , an important island hub of the spices trade. The British also held a number of island colonies in the region, including the extended archipelago of Seychelles and the rich farming island of Mauritius , previously under

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2266-682: The Orthodox Empire of Ethiopia . By 1896, the war had become a total disaster for the Italians and Ethiopia was able to retain its independence. Ethiopia remained independent until 1936 when, after the Second Italo-Abyssinian War , it became part of Italian East Africa . The Italian occupation of Ethiopia ended in 1941 during World War II as part of the East African Campaign . The French also staked out an East African outpost on

2369-460: The Ottoman Turks , Portugal hoped to use the sea route pioneered by da Gama to break the once Venetian trading monopoly. Portuguese rule in the African Great Lakes region focused mainly on a coastal strip centered around Mombasa. The Portuguese presence in the area officially began after 1505, when flagships under the command of Don Francisco de Almeida conquered Kilwa , an island located in what

2472-576: The Puntland and Somaliland regions of Somalia, have seen relative stability. South Sudan peacefully seceded from Sudan in 2011, six and a half years after a peace agreement ended the Second Sudanese Civil War . South Sudanese independence was nearly derailed by the South Kordofan conflict , particularly, South Sudanese independence was nearly derailed by a dispute over the status of

2575-792: The Uganda Protectorate , which eventually became the independent countries of Kenya and Uganda, and the East African Postal Union, later the East African Posts and Telecommunications Administration . Cooperation expanded with those protectorates and, later, countries in a number of ways, leading to the establishment of the East African High Commission (1948–1961) and the East African Common Services Organisation (1961–1967), forerunners of

2678-512: The United Republic of Tanzania by creating a union between the mainland, and the island chain of Zanzibar. Zanzibar is now a semi-autonomous state in a union with the mainland which is collectively and commonly referred to as Tanzania . German East Africa, though very extensive, was not of such strategic importance as the British Crown's colonies to the north: the inhabitation of these lands

2781-623: The Zanzibar Revolution which saw the Arab rule of Zanzibar overthrown, Tanganyika merged with Zanzibar to become the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which later became known as the United Republic of Tanzania on 26 April 1964. 6°S 35°E  /  6°S 35°E  / -6; 35 East Africa East Africa , also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa ,

2884-485: The attempted coup d'état in 1982 and the 2007 election riots . Tanzania has known stable government since independence although there are significant political and religious tensions resulting from the political union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964. Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous state in the United Republic of Tanzania . Tanzania and Uganda fought the Uganda–Tanzania War in 1978–1979, which led to

2987-506: The slave trade and relocation of the Omani capital to Zanzibar in 1839 by Seyyid Said had the effect of consolidating the Omani power in the region. Arab governance of all the major ports along the Swahili coast continued until British interests aimed particularly at ending the slave trade and creation of a wage-labour system began to put pressure on Omani rule. By the late nineteenth century,

3090-511: The tsetse fly , however, prevented the donkey and agriculture from spreading southwards. Only in quite recent times has agriculture spread to the more humid regions south of the equator, through the spread of cattle , sheep and crops such as millet . Language distributions suggest that this most likely occurred from Sudan into the African Great Lakes region, since the Nilotic languages spoken by these pre-Bantu farmers have their closest relatives in

3193-616: The "Out of Africa" theory probably occurred in East Africa through the Bab-el-Mandeb . Today at the Bab-el-Mandeb straits, the Red Sea is about 12 miles (19 kilometres) wide, but 50,000 years ago it was much narrower and sea levels were 70 meters lower. Though the straits were never completely closed, there may have been islands in between which could be reached using simple rafts. Some of the earliest hominin skeletal remains have been found in

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3296-620: The 1880s. Between the 19th and 20th century, East Africa became a theatre of competition between the major imperialistic European nations of the time. The three main colors of the African country were beige, red, and blue. The red stood for the English, blue stood for the French, and the beige stood for Germany during the period of colonialism. During the period of the Scramble for Africa , almost every country in

3399-524: The 1975 independence of Mozambique. Omani Arab colonization of the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts brought the once independent city-states under closer foreign scrutiny and domination than was experienced during the Portuguese period. Like their predecessors, the Omani Arabs were primarily able only to control the coastal areas, not the interior. However, the creation of clove plantations , intensification of

3502-436: The African population, not least because of an increase in wild pigs, which did enormous damage to food crops. The German policies were very unpopular, as they had serious effects on the lives of local peoples. The social fabric of society was rapidly changing: as the roles of men and women were being changed, they had to adapt for the communities. Since men were forced away from their homes to work, women had to take on some of

3605-571: The British Royal Family's new family name, and "Victoria" after both the Lake and the Queen. The Colonial Secretary insisted that "a native name prominently associated with the territory" be selected. " Kilimanjaro ", analogous to "Kenya", named after the country's highest mountain, and " Tabora ", after the town and trading centre near the geographical centre of the country, were proposed and rejected. Then,

3708-651: The British colony of Aden on the Arabian Peninsula . With these territories secured, Britain was able to serve as gatekeeper of the sea lane leading to British India . In 1890, beginning with the purchase of the small port town of Asseb from a local sultan in Eritrea , the Italians colonized all of Eritrea. In 1895, from bases in Somalia and Eritrea, the Italians launched the First Italo–Ethiopian War against

3811-624: The European and Asian minority groups living within Tanganyika. This would have undermined the entire basis of Tanganyika independence. TANU installed a deep-rooted fear within the African population that the colonialists might still rule or have influence, even after independence. Although independence came peacefully for Tanganyika, the country suffered from similar problems with many other post-colonial African countries such as poor financial resources and inadequate levels of infrastructure. However, two of

3914-502: The French sovereignty . The German Empire gained control of a large area named German East Africa , comprising present-day Rwanda , Burundi and the mainland part of Tanzania named Tanganyika. In 1922, the British gained a League of Nations mandate over Tanganyika which it administered until Independence was granted to Tanganyika in 1961. Following the Zanzibar Revolution of 1965, the independent state of Tanganyika formed

4017-452: The German cantonment, which was defended by Lieutenant Theodor von Hassel with sixty native soldiers, a few hundred loyal tribesmen, and two machine guns . The two attacking tribes disagreed on when to attack and were unable to co-ordinate. The first attack was met with gunfire from 1000 meters; the tribesmen stood firm for about fifteen minutes, then broke and retreated. After the first attack,

4120-582: The German colony of German East Africa . It was gradually occupied by forces from the British Empire and Belgian Congo during the East Africa Campaign , although German resistance continued until 1918. After this, the League of Nations formalised control of the area by the UK, who renamed it "Tanganyika". The UK held Tanganyika as a League of Nations mandate until the end of World War II after which it

4223-484: The German government. Kaiser Wilhelm immediately ordered two cruisers with their Marine complements to the troubled colony. Reinforcements also arrived from as far away as New Guinea. When 1,000 regular soldiers from Germany arrived in October, Götzen felt he could go on the offensive and restore order in the south. Three columns moved into the rebellious South. They destroyed villages, crops, and other food sources used by

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4326-405: The Germans' bullets would turn to water. They marched from their villages wearing millet stalks around their foreheads. Initially, they attacked small outposts and damaged cotton plants. On 31 July 1905, Matumbi tribesmen marched on Samanga and destroyed the cotton crop as well as a trading post. Kinjikitile was arrested and hanged for treason. Before his execution, he declared that he had spread

4429-660: The Great Lakes region during the 17th century. The Omani Arabs posed the most direct challenge to Portuguese influence in the African Great Lakes region. By this time, the Portuguese Empire had already lost its interest on the spice trade sea route due to the decreasing profitability of that business. The Arabs reclaimed much of the Indian Ocean trade , forcing the Portuguese to retreat south where they remained in Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) as sole rulers until

4532-531: The Indian Ocean's maritime networks. Sudan is also sometimes included due in part because it is a member of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) free trade area. According to the theory of the recent African origin of modern humans , the predominantly held belief among most archaeologists, East Africa in the area of the African Great Lakes is where anatomically modern humans first appeared. There are differing theories on whether there

4635-452: The Portuguese built forts, and adopted measures to secure the Portuguese supremacy. Portugal's main goal on the Swahili coast was to take control of the spice trade from the Arabs . At this stage, the Portuguese presence in East Africa served the purposes of controlling trade within the Indian Ocean and securing the sea routes linking Europe to Asia. Portuguese naval vessels were very disruptive to

4738-600: The Zulus in 1818 (other Ngoni states were formed in Malawi, Zambia, and north-central Tanzania). German troops, armed with machine guns, departed from Mahenge to the Ngoni camp, which they attacked on 21 October. The Ngoni soldiers retreated, throwing away their bottles of war medicine and crying, "The maji is a lie!" Upon the outbreak of the fighting, Count Gustav Adolf von Götzen , governor of German East Africa, had requested reinforcements from

4841-419: The causes of the rebellion. Sunseri has summarised the results of the inquiry as follows: Ultimately members of the commission disagreed on the nature of the uprising, dividing between those who saw it as an irrational movement spawned by sorcerers and headmen making use of maji water medicine, disgruntled because they had been steadily losing influence since the advent of colonial rule, and those who dismissed

4944-403: The coastal belt, but most Bantu remained African Traditional Religion adherents. Over a period of many centuries, most hunting-foraging peoples were displaced and absorbed by incoming Bantu communities, as well as by later Nilotic communities. The Bantu expansion was a long series of physical migrations, a diffusion of language and knowledge out into and in from neighboring populations, and

5047-424: The colony through several means. Cultivation of several profitable cash crops such as cotton , sisal , cocoa and coffee was important to developing the colony as these resources were used for German consumers and industry. Sisal was especially valuable to rope production, and was one of German East Africa's largest exports. In 1893 there was only one sisal plantation in the country; by 1913 there were 54. In 1913,

5150-427: The colony. The attack on Ifakara, on 16 August, destroyed the small German garrison and opened the way to the key fortification at Mahenge . Though the southern garrison was quite small (there were but 458 European and 588 native soldiers in the entire area), their fortifications and modern weapons gave them an advantage. At Mahenge, several thousand Maji Maji warriors (led by another spirit medium; not Bokero) marched on

5253-501: The commerce of Portugal's enemies within the western Indian Ocean and were able to demand high tariffs on items transported through the sea due to their strategic control of ports and shipping lanes. The construction of Fort Jesus in Mombasa in 1593 was meant to solidify Portuguese hegemony in the region, but their influence was clipped by the British , Dutch and Omani Arab incursions into

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5356-437: The cotton scheme which the author had initiated," and he calls it "an account of atavistic conspiracy." The insurgents turned to magic to drive out the German colonizers and used it as a unifying force in the rebellion. A spirit medium named Kinjikitile Ngwale , who practiced folk Islam that incorporated animist beliefs , claimed to be possessed by a snake spirit called Hongo. Ngwale began calling himself Bokero and developed

5459-505: The country exported over 20,000 tons of sisal, 30% of total exports. To ensure that these resources could be moved easily, several railways were built. The most important of these was the Mittellandbahn ( Central Line , which connected much of the country with the port city of Dar es Salaam. This railroad is still in use today and has since been connected to other railways across the country. After Germany's defeat during World War I , GEA

5562-415: The cultivation of cash crops like coffee and tea , as well as for animal husbandry with products produced from cattle and goats, such as goat meat , beef and milk . Moreover, this area had the potential for a significant residential expansion, being suitable for the relocation of a large number of British nationals to the region. Prevailing climatic conditions and the regions' geomorphology allowed

5665-465: The custom of milking cattle directly from Cushitic peoples in the area. On the coastal section of the African Great Lakes region, another mixed Bantu community developed through contact with Muslim Arab and Persian traders, leading to the development of the mixed Arab, Persian and African Swahili City States . The Swahili culture that emerged from these exchanges evinces many Arab and Islamic influences not seen in traditional Bantu culture, as do

5768-495: The deputy undersecretary to the Colonial Secretary proposed "Tanganyika Protectorate" after Lake Tanganyika ; the name was modified after a "junior official suggested that 'Territory' was more in accordance with the [League of Nations mandate]" and that was adopted. The area that made up Tanganyika was commonly visited by Arabic traders who would come to the area to buy enslaved people and smuggle ivory. The island of Zanzibar

5871-604: The description of contemporary humans with the subspecies name Homo sapiens sapiens . Because of their early dating and unique physical characteristics idaltu and kibish represent the immediate ancestors of anatomically modern humans as suggested by the Out-of-Africa theory. In 2017 finds of modern human remains, dating to ca 300,000 years ago in Jebel Irhoud in Morocco, suggested that modern humans arose earlier and possibly in

5974-440: The emergence of Homo sapiens . In September 2019, scientists reported the computerized determination, based on 260 CT scans , of a virtual skull shape of the last common human ancestor to modern humans / H. sapiens , representative of the earliest Homo sapiens , and suggested that Homo sapiens arose between 350,000 and 260,000 years ago through a merging of populations in South and East Africa. The migration route of

6077-451: The establishment of flourishing European style settlements like Nairobi , Vila Pery , Vila Junqueiro , Porto Amélia , Lourenço Marques and Entebbe . The French settled the largest island of the Indian Ocean (and the fourth-largest globally), Madagascar , along with a group of smaller islands nearby, namely Réunion and the Comoros . Madagascar became part of the French colonial empire following two military campaigns against

6180-405: The governance of Tanganyika. The British also pursued an anti-German policy which was led by the head official in Tanganyika, Sir Horace Bryatt. Bryatt was an unpopular politician, and his policies of expelling Germans halved Tanganyika's European population. Many of the ex-German plantations were sold to European companies and mixed farms were given to new British owners. Much of Tanganyika's economy

6283-438: The interior together. In some areas, Islam became adopted by the native peoples, such as the Yao in the south of the country. Islam has continued to be a major religion within the area, with 36% of the Tanzanian population adhering to Islam. In the second half of the 19th century, European explorers and colonialists travelled through the African interior from Zanzibar . In 1885, the German Empire declared its intent to establish

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6386-400: The larger region to varying degrees became part of a European colonial empire. Portugal had first established a strong presence in southern Mozambique and the Indian Ocean since the 15th century, while during this period their possessions increasingly grew including parts from the present northern Mozambique country, up to Mombasa in present-day Kenya. At Lake Malawi , they finally met

6489-410: The leaders of German troops in the colony, Captain Wangenheim, wrote to von Götzen, "Only hunger and want can bring about a final submission. Military actions alone will remain more or less a drop in the ocean." Germany's tactics have been described as genocidal by scholars such as A. Dirk Moses and Klaus Bachmann . Not until August 1907 were the last embers of rebellion extinguished. In its wake,

6592-558: The locals were not sure about its meaning and conjectured that it meant something like "the great lake spreading out like a plain", or "plain-like lake". The name was chosen by the British with the Treaty of Versailles , and as such the name took effect when Britain was given control of Tanganyika in 1920. Britain needed a new name to replace "Deutsch Ostafrika" or "German East Africa". Various names were considered, including "Smutsland" in honour of General Jan Smuts (denied for being "inelegant"), "Eburnea", "New Maryland", "Windsorland" after

6695-623: The main factors that burdened Tanganyika's independence were its geography and its surrounding neighbours. The destabilising conflicts that bordered Tanganyika meant that refugees from the Congo , Burundi , and Rwanda often flooded into Tanganyika. The influx of refugees was a huge issue for Tanganyika so soon after independence. These challenges only emphasised the insecurities of Tanganyika and its people. In addition, Nyerere's growing emphasis on modernisation and his African socialist ideology known as Ujamaa saw many rural farmers' livelihoods destroyed by encroaching agriculturalists. In 1964, after

6798-399: The major drivers for decolonisation in Tanganyika was TANU which was founded in 1954, led by Julius Nyerere . In 1963, TANU opened its doors to all members of society within Tanganyika, whereas it had previously only been open to Africans. The success of TANU can be seen in the 1958 election under colonial rule where TANU candidates or TANU-supported candidates won every seat. The majority of

6901-468: The many Afro-Arab members of the Bantu Swahili people . With its original speech community centered on the coastal parts of Tanzania (particularly Zanzibar ) and Kenya —a seaboard referred to as the Swahili Coast —the Bantu Swahili language contains many Arabic loan-words as a consequence of these interactions. Its important to note that Kiswahili grammar and structure are purely African and Bantu even if its vocabulary has non African influence in

7004-445: The medicine of the rebellion throughout the region. On 14 August 1905, Ngindo tribesmen attacked a small party of missionaries on a safari; all five, including Bishop Spiss (the Roman Catholic Bishop of Dar es Salaam ) were speared to death. Soon the Yao tribes started participating and throughout August the rebels moved from the Matumbi Hills in the southern part of what is now Tanzania and attacked German garrisons throughout

7107-411: The mid-20th century, Tanganyika was the largest producer of beeswax in the world. The British state took control of the colony of Tanganyika as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. Once Britain took control of the colony, they wished it to be a "Black man's country", similar to Nigeria in terms of its state structure. And as the policy of colonial rule in Nigeria changed to indirect rule so too did

7210-438: The middle Nile basin. Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and the Red Sea coast of Sudan are considered the most likely location of the land known to the Ancient Egyptians as Punt . The old kingdom's first mention dates to the 25th century BCE. The ancient Puntites were a nation of people that had close relations with Pharaonic Egypt during the times of Pharaoh Sahure and Queen Hatshepsut . The Kingdom of Aksum

7313-503: The name for Tanzania . These early writings perhaps document the first wave of Bantu settlers to reach central east Africa during their migration. Between the 14th and 15th centuries, large African Great Lakes kingdoms and states emerged, such as the Buganda and Karagwe kingdoms of Uganda and Tanzania. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore the region of current-day Kenya , Tanzania , and Mozambique by sea. Vasco da Gama visited Mombasa in 1498. Da Gama's voyage

7416-480: The origin of the term for the 'Mau Mau rebellion' in Kenya five decades later. After the Scramble for Africa among the major European powers in the 1880s, Germany reinforced its hold on several formal African colonies. These were German East Africa (Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and part of Mozambique), German Southwest Africa (present-day Namibia), Cameroon, and Togoland (today split between Ghana and Togo). The Germans had

7519-573: The rebellion had left 15 Germans, 73 askaris, 316 ruga ruga , and tens or even hundreds of thousands of insurgents and local civilians dead. The Abushiri revolt of 1888–1889 and the Wahehe Rebellion of 1891–1898 are viewed by historians as precursors of the Maji Maji uprising. The suppression of the Maji Maji people changed the history of southern Tanzania . Tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of people died or were displaced from their homes. In

7622-570: The rebellion is a matter for debate. In a recent review of the evidence, Jörg Haustein concludes that the contention that Islam was a factor "is not warranted by historical sources and established scholarship about the Maji Maji War." John Iliffe interprets the rebellion as a "mass movement [which] originated in peasant grievances, was then sanctified and extended by prophetic religion, and finally crumbled as crisis compelled reliance on fundamental loyalties to kin and tribe". Patrick Redmond describes

7725-848: The rebels. They made effective use of their firepower to break up rebel attacks. A successful ambush of a German column crossing the Rufiji River by the Bena kept the rebellion alive in the southwest, but the Germans were not denied for long. By April 1906, the southwest had been pacified. However, elsewhere the fighting was bitter. A column under Lieutenant Gustav von Blumenthal (1879–1913, buried at Lindi ) consisting of himself, one other European and 46 Askaris fell under continuous attack as it marched in early May 1906, from Songea to Mahenge. The Germans decided to concentrate at Kitanda, where Major Kurt Johannes , Lieutenants von Blumenthal and Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau eventually gathered. Von Blumenthal

7828-486: The recently created British Protectorate of Nyasaland (nowadays Malawi ), which surrounded the homonymous lake on three sides, leaving the Portuguese the control of lake's eastern coast. The British Empire set foot in the region's most exploitable and promising lands acquiring what is today Uganda , and Kenya . The Protectorate of Uganda and the Colony of Kenya were located in a rich farmland area mostly appropriate for

7931-412: The region has never been successfully rebuilt." Later Tanzanian nationalists used it as an example of the first stirrings of Tanzanian nationalism, a unifying experience that brought together all the different peoples of Tanzania under one leader, in an attempt to establish a nation free from foreign domination. Later historians have challenged that view and claimed that the rebellion cannot be seen as

8034-400: The removal of Uganda's despotic leader Idi Amin . Burundi , Rwanda , and Uganda have each faced instability and ethnic conflict since independence, most notably, they experienced the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the 1993 Burundi genocide and the subsequent Burundian Civil War . Rwanda and Uganda continue to be involved in related conflicts outside the region. Djibouti , as well as

8137-586: The rhino and elephant. The geography of East Africa is often stunning and scenic. Shaped by global plate tectonic forces that have created the East African Rift , East Africa is the site of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya , the two tallest peaks in Africa. It also includes the world's second largest freshwater lake, Lake Victoria , and the world's second deepest lake, Lake Tanganyika . The unique geography and apparent suitability for farming made East Africa

8240-410: The role of spirit mediums and emphasized the burdens created by German administration. The governor's circle cultivated the image of an atavistic, superstitious movement rooted in traditional beliefs so as to insulate their policies from close scrutiny. In 1909 Götzen published a history of the rebellion. John Iliffe has said of this work that it is "remarkable for containing no reference whatever to

8343-446: The route to French Indochina . Starting in the 1850s, the small protectorate of Djibouti became French Somaliland in 1897. Since the end of colonialism, several East African countries have been riven with military coups, ethnic violence and oppressive dictators. The region has endured the following post-colonial conflicts: Kenya has enjoyed relatively stable governance. However, its politics have been turbulent at times, including

8446-474: The same way English remains a Germanic language regardless of its vocabulary being heavily influenced by Latin and French among other languages. The earliest Bantu inhabitants of the east coast of Kenya and Tanzania encountered by these later Arab and Persian settlers have been variously identified with the trading settlements of Rhapta , Azania and Menouthias referenced in early Greek and Chinese writings from 50 CE to 500 CE, ultimately giving rise to

8549-503: The slave trade on the open seas had been completely outlawed by the British and the Omani Arabs had little ability to resist the British navy's ability to enforce the directive. The Omani presence continued in Zanzibar and Pemba until the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964. However, the official Omani Arab presence in Kenya was checked by German and British seizure of key ports and creation of crucial trade alliances with influential local leaders in

8652-527: The time ruled by Zoskales , who also governed the port of Adulis . The Aksumite rulers facilitated trade by minting their own Aksumite currency . The state also established its hegemony over the declining Kingdom of Kush and regularly entered the politics of the kingdoms on the Arabian Peninsula , eventually extending its rule over the region with the conquest of the Himyarite Kingdom . Between 2500 and 3000 years ago, Bantu -speaking peoples began

8755-438: The traditional male roles. Also, the men's absence strained the resources of the village, and the people's ability to deal with their environment and remain self-sufficient. In 1905, a drought threatened the region. All that, as well as opposition to the government's agricultural and labour policies, led to open rebellion against the Germans in July. In the aftermath of the rebellion, Governor von Götzen initiated an inquiry into

8858-403: The use of pigments, and the possible making of projectile points. It is observed by the authors of three 2018 studies on the site, that the evidence of these behaviors is approximately contemporary to the earliest known Homo sapiens fossil remains from Africa (such as at Jebel Irhoud and Florisbad ), and they suggest that complex and modern behaviors had already begun in Africa around the time of

8961-483: The voters in Tanganyika were African, approximately two-thirds of the 28,500 registered voters, with them coming from across the country. There was some resistance, though, from the British settlers who established the United Tanganyikan Party (UTP) by Brian Willis in 1956. However, the party became redundant as it was clear that Nyerere and TANU were going to win the battle over Tanganyikan independence. UTP

9064-463: The wake of the war, the imperial government instituted administrative reforms under the governorship of Albrecht von Rechenberg . The rebellion became a focal point in the history of the region. Journalist John Gunther noted in 1953 that "even today the Southern Province of Tanganyika , the 'Cinderella Province,' has not fully recovered from the German terror half a century ago. The economy of

9167-601: The wider region, including fossils discovered in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia, as well as in the Koobi Fora in Kenya and Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The southern part of East Africa was occupied until recent times by Khoisan hunter-gatherers , whereas in the Ethiopian Highlands the donkey and such crop plants as teff allowed the beginning of agriculture around 7,000 BCE. Lowland barriers and diseases carried by

9270-670: Was a single exodus or several; a multiple dispersal model involves the Southern Dispersal theory. Some researchers have suggested that North Africa was the region of Africa from which modern humans who first trekked out of the continent. According to both genetic and fossil evidence, it has been posited that archaic Homo sapiens evolved into anatomically modern humans in the Horn of Africa around 200,000 years ago and dispersed from there. The recognition of Homo sapiens idaltu and Omo Kibish as anatomically modern humans would justify

9373-506: Was a trading empire centered Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. It existed from approximately 100–940 CE, growing from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period c.  4th century BCE to achieve prominence by the 1st century CE. The kingdom is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as an important market place for ivory , which was exported throughout the ancient world. Aksum was at

9476-576: Was based around cash crops , in particular coffee. British rule did have positives for the Asian community living in Tanganyika. Under Britain's protection, they were no longer attacked as they were during the war. Many of them were employed from the Indian administration to work for the Tanganyikan administration. This led to the Asian population in Tanganyika increasing from 8,698 in 1912 to 25,144 in 1931. One of

9579-418: Was declared a republic in 1962. The main leader of the independence movement was undoubtedly Nyerere, who led the party TANU, which was a socially diverse group which had shared demands for independence from Britain. TANU gained most of its political support through national issues. For example, TANU, discussed and promoted fears that the colonial state had attempted to give a disproportionate amount of power to

9682-411: Was difficult and thus limited, mainly due to climatic conditions and the local geomorphology. Italy gained control of various parts of Somalia in the 1880s. The southern three-fourths of Somalia became an Italian protectorate ( Italian Somaliland ). Meanwhile, in 1884, a narrow coastal strip of Somaliland came under British control ( British Somaliland ). This Somaliland protectorate was just opposite

9785-601: Was divided among the victorious powers under the Treaty of Versailles . Apart from Ruanda-Urundi (assigned to Belgium ) and the small Kionga Triangle (assigned to Portuguese Mozambique ), the territory was transferred to British control. "Tanganyika" was adopted by the British as the name for its part of the former German East Africa. In 1927, Tanganyika entered the Customs Union of the East Africa Protectorate and

9888-461: Was even taken as a part of the Sultanate of Oman ; when Seyyid Said came to power in 1806, Omani interests in Tanzania began to increase. During the early 19th century, with British support, Oman began developing in the region more closely to prevent French growth in the Indian Ocean and grow Oman's wealth and influence. Trade caravans began venturing further into the continent, connecting the coast and

9991-497: Was held as a United Nations trust territory. In 1961, Tanganyika gained its independence from the UK as Tanganyika , joining the Commonwealth . It became a republic a year later. Tanganyika now forms part of the modern-day sovereign state of Tanzania . The name of the territory was taken from the large lake in its west . Henry Morton Stanley had found the name of "Tanganika", when he travelled to Ujiji in 1876. He wrote that

10094-528: Was less effective due to the £4,000 annual salary for Willis which limited the party's effectiveness, as they lacked funds to campaign effectively. Tanganyika eventually gained its independence on 9 December 1961, after Nyerere had met a British government representative to arrange the steps to be taken on the road to independence. The British colony of Tanganyika gained independence on 9 December 1961, with Julius Nyerere becoming its first prime minister in 1960 under British rule, and then president when Tanganyika

10197-644: Was only settled 3000 years ago. In a narrow sense, particularly in English-speaking contexts, East Africa refers to the area comprising Kenya , Tanzania , and Uganda , largely due to their shared history under the Omani Empire and as parts of the British East Africa Protectorate and German East Africa . Further extending East Africa's definition, the Horn of Africa —comprising Djibouti , Eritrea , Ethiopia , and Somalia —stands out as

10300-593: Was successful in reaching India , which permitted the Portuguese to trade with the Far East directly by sea. This in turn challenged the older trading networks of mixed land and sea routes, such as the spice trade routes which utilized the Persian Gulf , Red Sea , and camel caravans to reach the eastern Mediterranean. The Republic of Venice had gained control over much of the trade routes between Europe and Asia. After traditional land routes to India had been closed by

10403-466: Was taken and destroyed, and its large treasures went to strengthen the resources of Almeida. Attacks followed on Hoja (now known as Ungwana, located at the mouth of the Tana River ), Barawa , Angoche , Pate and other coastal towns until the western Indian Ocean was a safe haven for Portuguese commercial interests. At other places on his way, such as the island of Angediva , near Goa , and Cannanore ,

10506-500: Was then sent along the Luwegu River, partly by boat. The southeast campaign degenerated into a guerrilla war that brought with it a devastating famine. The German scorched earth policy deliberately caused famine among the population. Von Götzen was willing to pardon the common soldiers who gave up their weapons, leaders and traditional healers. However, he also needed to flush out the remaining rebels and so chose famine. In 1905, one of

10609-555: Was triggered by German colonial policies designed to force the indigenous population to grow cotton for export. The war lasted from 1905 to 1907, during which 75,000 to 300,000 died, overwhelmingly from famine. The end of the war was followed by a period of famine , known as the Great Hunger ( ukame ), caused in large part by the scorched-earth policies used by governor von Götzen to suppress the rebellion. These tactics have been described by scholars as genocidal . The name may have been

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