Eastern Africa · TZA
Tanzania
The story · 11 chapters
How it was drawn
Swahili city states, Portuguese raids and Omani Zanzibar, then German East Africa, British Tanganyika, and in 1964 a union of the mainland with the islands of Zanzibar.
Play the story Take the first lessonThrough the ages
Rivals in history
The kingdoms, empires and states Tanzania fought or stood against, from the first to today.
- Portuguese Empire1505 to 1698
Portuguese fleets sacked Kilwa and Mombasa in 1505 and taxed the Swahili coast for two centuries. Omani forces fought them from the 1650s and, after taking Fort Jesus at Mombasa in 1698, pushed them back south of the Ruvuma river.
- German Empire1885 to 1918
Germany conquered the mainland against fierce resistance: the coastal rising of Abushiri in 1888, the Hehe of Mkwawa from 1891, and the Maji Maji rebellion of 1905 to 1907, crushed with a scorched earth campaign that caused a deadly famine.
- British Empire1896
On 27 August 1896 Britain went to war with Zanzibar after a sultan it opposed seized the throne. Royal Navy ships shelled the palace, and the Anglo-Zanzibar War ended in under an hour, often called the shortest war in history.
Malawi claims all of Lake Malawi, which Tanzania calls Lake Nyasa, under the 1890 Anglo-German treaty; Tanzania wants the border down the middle. The quarrel flared again in 2012 over oil exploration and remains unresolved.
- Uganda under Idi Amin1978 to 1979
Idi Amin's troops invaded and annexed the Kagera salient in late 1978. Tanzania's army, joined by Ugandan exiles, drove them out and marched on Kampala, which fell in April 1979. Libyan troops sent to help Amin were also defeated.
Today
Tanzania now
Tanzania contains some of Africa’s most iconic national parks and famous paleoanthropological sites, and its diverse cultural heritage reflects the multiple ethnolinguistic groups that live in the country. Its long history of integration into trade networks spanning the Indian Ocean and the African interior led to the development of Swahili as a common language in much of east Africa and the introduction of Islam into the region.
- Capital
- Dodoma
- Government
- presidential republic
- Head of government
- Samia Suluhu Hassan
- Languages
- Swahili, English
- Area
- 945,500 km²
Through time
Then and now
- Population66.6 million2023 · 7.6 million in 1950
- Life expectancy67.0 years2023 · 41.0 years in 1950
- GDP per person$3,0572022 · $676 in 1950
- Living in cities37%2025 · 4% in 1950
- Literacy78%2022 · 8% in 1950
- Political regimeElectoral autocracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950
- Military alliancesNone of these2024 · None of these in 1950
- Military spending1.2% of GDP2025
- War deaths1.4 per 100,0002025
Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.
Relations
Close partners and tensions
Close partners
- United States
- China
- India
- South Africa
Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 24 October 2026.