United Republic of Tanzania

Statistics

President: Benjamin William Mkapa (1995)

Prime Minister: Frederick Tluway Sumaye (1995)

Area: 364,898 sq mi (945,087 sq km)1

Population (2001 est.): 36,232,074 (average annual rate of natural increase: 2.7%); birth rate: 39.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 79.4/1000; density per sq mi: 99

Capitals and largest city (1988): Dar es Salaam (administrative), 1,360,850; Dodoma (official), 45,807 (1978)

Monetary unit: Tanzanian shilling

Languages: Swahili and English (both official), local languages

Ethnicity/race: mainland: native African (95% Bantu, consisting of well over 100 tribes) 99%, Asian, European, and Arab 1%. Zanzibar: Arab, mixed Arab and native African, native African

Religions: Christian 40%, Muslim 33%

Literacy rate: 52% (1988)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (1999 est.): $23.3 billion; per capita $550. Real growth rate: 4%. Inflation: 8.8%. Unemployment: n.a. Arable land: 3%. Agriculture: coffee, sisal, tea, cotton, pyrethrum (insecticide made from chrysanthemums), cashew nuts, tobacco, cloves (Zanzibar), corn, wheat, cassava (tapioca), bananas, fruits, vegetables; cattle, sheep, goats. Labor force: 13.495 million; agriculture; 90%; industry, and commerce 10% (1995 est.). Industries: primarily agricultural processing (sugar, beer, cigarettes, sisal twine), diamond and gold mining, oil refining, shoes, cement, textiles, wood products, fertilizer, salt. Natural resources: hydropower, tin, phosphates, iron ore, coal, diamonds, gemstones, gold, natural gas, nickel. Exports: $828 million (f.o.b., 1999 est.): coffee, manufactured goods, cotton, cashew nuts, minerals, tobacco, sisal (1996). Imports: $1.44 billion (f.o.b., 1999 est.): consumer goods, machinery and transportation equipment, industrial raw materials, crude oil. Major trading partners: India, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Rwanda, Netherlands, South Africa, Kenya, UK, Saudi Arabia, China.

Member of Commonwealth of Nations

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 127,000 (1998); mobile cellular: 30,000 (1999). Radio broadcast stations: AM 12, FM 11, shortwave 2 (1998). Radios: 8.8 million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 3 (1999). Televisions: 103,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 7 (1999).

Transportation: Railways: total: 3,569 km (1995). Highways: total: 88,200 km; paved: 3,704 km; unpaved: 84,496 km (1996 est.). Waterways: Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria, Lake Nyasa. Ports and harbors: Bukoba, Dar es Salaam, Kigoma, Kilwa Masoko, Lindi, Mtwara, Mwanza, Pangani, Tanga, Wete, Zanzibar. Airports: 129 (1999 est.).

International disputes: dispute with Malawi over the boundary in Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi).

Geography

Tanzania is in East Africa on the Indian Ocean. To the north are Uganda and Kenya; to the west, Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo; and to the south, Mozambique, Zambia, and Malawi. Its area is three times that of New Mexico. Tanzania contains three of Africa's best-known lakes�Victoria in the north, Tanganyika in the west, and Nyasa in the south. Mount Kilimanjaro in the north, 19,340 ft (5,895 m), is the highest point on the continent. The island of Zanzibar is separated from the mainland by a 22-mile channel.

Republic.

Arab traders first began to colonize the area in A.D. 700. Portuguese explorers reached the coastal regions in 1500 and held some control until the 17th century, when the sultan of Oman took power. With what are now Burundi and Rwanda, Tanganyika became the colony of German East Africa in 1885. After World War I, it was administered by Britain under a League of Nations mandate and later as a UN trust territory.

Although not mentioned in old histories until the 12th century, Zanzibar was always believed to have had connections with southern Arabia. The Portuguese made it one of their tributaries in 1503 and later established a trading post, but they were driven from Oman by Arabs in 1698. Zanzibar was declared independent of Oman in 1861 and, in 1890, it became a British protectorate.

Tanganyika became independent on Dec. 9, 1961; Zanzibar on Dec. 10, 1963. On April 26, 1964, the two nations merged into the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. The name was changed to Tanzania six months later.

An invasion by Ugandan troops in Nov. 1978 was followed by a counterattack in Jan. 1979, in which 5,000 Tanzanian troops were joined by 3,000 Ugandan exiles opposed to President Idi Amin. Within a month, full-scale war developed. Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere kept troops in Uganda in open support of former Ugandan president Milton Obote, despite protests from opposition groups, until the national elections in Dec. 1980.

In Nov. 1985, Nyerere stepped down as president. Ali Hassan Mwinyi, his vice president, succeeded him. Running unopposed, Mwinyi was elected president in October. Shortly thereafter plans were announced to study the benefits of instituting a multiparty democracy, and in Oct. 1995 the country's first multiparty elections since independence took place.

On Aug. 7, 1998, the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam was bombed by terrorists, killing 10. The same day an even more devastating explosion destroyed the U.S. embassy in neighboring Kenya.

Since taking office in 1995 President Benjamin William Mkapa has sought to increase economic productivity while dealing with serious pollution problems and deforestation. With more than one million people infected with HIV, AIDS care and prevention have been major public health issues. On foreign policy, Tanzania has taken a leading diplomatic role in East Africa, hosting peace talks for the factions fighting in neighboring Burundi. The U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is located in the town of Arusha. In Oct. 2000, Mkapa was easily reelected.