| United Republic of Tanzania Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania Timeline: Differently
OTL equivalent: Tanzania, Burundi | ||||||
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| Motto: Uhuru na Umoja "Freedom and Unity" |
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| Anthem: Mungu ibariki Afrika |
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 Location of Tanzania (green)
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| Capital | Dodoma | |||||
| Largest city | Dar es Salaam | |||||
| Official languages | English • Swahili | |||||
| Other languages | Arabic (Zanzibar) | |||||
| Religion | Christianity | |||||
| Demonym(s) | Tanzanian | |||||
| Government | Federal parliamentary constitutional republic | |||||
| - | President | John Magufuli | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Kassim Majaliwa | ||||
| Legislature | National Assembly | |||||
| Independence from the United Kingdom | ||||||
| - | Granted | 9 December 1961 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 975,137 km2 376,503 sq mi |
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| Population | ||||||
| - | Estimate | 68,179,259 (23rd) | ||||
| Currency | Tanzanian shilling (TZ) | |||||
| Drives on the | left | |||||
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania (Swahili: Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north, Kenya to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the east (including maritime borders with Comoros), Mozambique and Nyasaland to the south, Zambia to the southwest, and Rwanda and Congo to the west. Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania.
Its surface area of 975,137 square kilometers makes Tanzania the ninth-largest country in Africa and the 34th-largest in the world. With a population of over 68.1 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous country in Africa and the 23rd in the world.
History[]
Many important hominid fossils have been found in Tanzania, such as 6-million-year-old Pliocene hominid fossils. The genus Australopithecus ranged all over Africa 4 to 2 million years ago; and the oldest remains of the genus Homo are found near Lake Olduvai. Following the rise of Homo erectus 1.8 million years ago, humanity spread all over the Old World, and later in the New World and Australia under the species Homo sapiens. H. sapiens also overtook Africa and absorbed the older archaic species and subspecies of humanity. One of the oldest known ethnic groups still existing, the Hadzabe, appears to have originated in Tanzania, and their oral history recalls ancestors who were tall and were the first to use fire, medicine, and lived in caves, much like Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis who lived in the same region before them.
Later in the Stone and Bronze Age, prehistoric migrations into Tanzania included Southern Cushitic speakers who moved south from present-day Ethiopia; Eastern Cushitic people who moved into Tanzania from north of Lake Turkana about 2,000 and 4,000 years ago; and the Southern Nilotes, including the Datoog, who originated from the present-day South Sudan–Ethiopia border region between 2,900 and 2,400 years ago. These movements took place at about the same time as the settlement of the Mashariki Bantu from West Africa in the Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika areas. They subsequently migrated across the rest of Tanzania between 2,300 and 1,700 years ago.
German rule began in mainland Tanzania during the late 19th century when Germany formed German East Africa. This was followed by British rule after the Great War. The mainland was governed as Tanganyika, with the Zanzibar archipelago being ruled by Arab monarchs. Following their respective independence in 1961 and 1963, the two entities merged in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania after Tanganyika invaded Zanzibar to liberate the African commoners of Zanzibar from "the oppressive Arab, Malayali, Somali and Persian aristocracy of Zanzibar" in order to prevent a refugee crisis. The countries had joined the British Commonwealth in 1961 and Tanzania is still a member of the Commonwealth as one republic.
Tanzania has become one of the most powerful countries in Africa by using its economic booms and resources very well after the 1990s. As a important member of the League of Nations, Tanzania is the most important nation standing against the Swartist Brotherhood, however this has resulted in the Brotherhood allegedly backing the Sultan of Zanzibar and the Arab, Malayali, Somali and Persian aristocracy of Zanzibar.
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