Tanganyika Territory

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.

For the former sovereign state, see Tanganyika (1961–1964).

Tanganyika Territory

Mandate of the United Kingdom

Dar es Salaam

English (official)

Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam and others.

1916

20 July 1922

9 December 1961

East African shilling

Tanzania

Before World War I, Tanganyika formed part of 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 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.

Etymology[edit]

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 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".^[1]

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 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, 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.^[2]

(1915-2000), an accountant, a 2nd-world-war active Captain there, and post-war civil-servant establisher of agricultural-sales co-operatives

David Gordon Hines

(1922–1999), an anti-colonial activist, politician and political theorist

Julius Nyerere

(1936–1988), a Tanzanian cricketer

Vasant Tapu

(born 1943), a Tanzanian playwright and poet

Ebrahim Hussein

(1945–2018), a British ornithologist and international civil servant

Clive Elliott

Usha Sunak, a pharmacist and mother of . She was born in Tanganyika.

Rishi

(1953–1978), son of Alberta Jones Seaton, a zoologist, involved in African independence movements

Dudley Seaton

(1955–2010), a Tanzanian footballer

Juma Mkambi

(born 1956), a mountaineer and author

Tim Macartney-Snape

(born 1957), a Kenyan politician

Kipruto Rono Arap Kirwa

List of colonial heads of Tanganyika

Tanganyika groundnut scheme

Cana, Frank Richardson (1922). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 32 (12th ed.). pp. 676–677.

"Tanganyika Territory"

Gordon-Brown, A., ed. (1954). The East Africa Year Book and Guide. London.{{}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

cite book

Hill, J. F. R.; Moffett, J. P. (1955). Tanganyika – a Review of its Resources and their Development. Government of Tanganyika. — 924pps, with many maps

(10 May 1979). A modern history of Tanganyika. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29611-3.

Iliffe, John

Moffett, J. P. (1958). Handbook of Tanganyika. Government of Tanganyika. — 703pps, with maps

Mwakikagile, Godfrey (2008). Life in Tanganyika in The Fifties. New Africa Press. — 428pps, with maps and photos

The British Empire – Tanganyika

6°S 35°E / 6°S 35°E / -6; 35

Tanganyika Territory