Tanzania
Tanzania is a world of wide open spaces and magnificent wildlife, of palm-fringed islands set in azure seas, of smiling faces and warm hospitality.
Tanzania is perhaps best known as being home to Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, most famous national park, Serengeti, and largest game reserve, Selous. Together with Ngorongoro Crater and Olduvai Gorge, these landmarks have long inspired artists and writers. Tanzania is a land of tropical forest, savannah grassland and shimmering lakes. It has some of the largest most unspoilt wilderness areas in the world.
Visitors can explore the unspoilt wilderness in the many national parks and game reserves, Tanzania has some of the largest elephant herds in Africa and is also home to chimpanzees, now rarely seen in the wild. Perhaps as famous as Tanzania's untouched wilderness is the tropical island paradise of Zanzibar with its unique blend of cultures, ancient spice trade and Stone Town, a 
World Heritage Site.
Tanzania enjoys the cultural heritage of more than 120 tribes spiced with touches of Chinese, Persian and Arab influence from traders of long ago. It is a treasure trove of art and handicraft, from Maasai beadwork to Makonde carvings in ebony and mahogany or carved jewellery boxes from Zanzibar.
Visitors to Tanzania can enjoy all the comforts and amenities of modern life, making the adventure of exploration extremely enjoyable.
Population
The present figure is about 30,3 million
Language
English and Swahili are the official languages, although there are more
than 120 tribal languages spoken in remote areas which fall into at
least three major language groups: Bantu, Nilo-Hamitic and Khoisan
Capital City
Dodoma is the administrative capital and Dar es Salaam is the commercial capital.
Tanzania is in East Africa. It lies south of Kenya and is flanked in the west by the Great Rift Valley and Lake Tanganyika. To the north west, Tanzania includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria.
Most of the land area of the country falls within the central plateau region, although the most distinctive feature is the Great Rift Valley with its associated series of lakes from Lake Malawi in the south, to Lake Tanganyika in the west and Lake Victoria in the north.
Volcanic activity is common throughout the Rift Valley area. The coastline comprises long tropical beaches and the major off-shore islands of Zanzibar, Mafia and Pemba.
The northern region includes sites of world renown such as the Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Crater and Mount Kilimanjaro. It also stretches as far as the shores of Lake Victoria. To the west, the mountainous forests of the far western border are found near the shores of Lake Tanganyika.
The coastal plains are a study in human history, with plentiful reminders of the days of the slave trade and the later colonial period, both German and British. This region also gives access to the numerous watersport activities of the coast and the adjacent islands, including some of the worlds best sites for diving, game fishing and kayacking.
The most well-known island is Zanzibar, which is really a separate country existing in a political union with mainland Tanzania. As a long-standing Arab Sultanate, this island is a fascinating study with its wealth of cultural history as well as its natural attractions.
Local people are generally friendly and particularly welcome any visitor who can command a few words of Swahili. The conservative traditions adopted during the colonial period tend to dictate the style of any dealings with tourists, except in Zanzibar and some parts of Dar es Salaam, where the reserved manners of Islamic countries are the norm.
Mainland Tanzania has a wide variety of tribal cultures, most of which follow the traditions of nomadic or subsistence farming. These cultures have been present for many centuries, having taken over from the earlier hunter-gatherer tribes of the region. Most notable, however, is the strong influence of the country's lengthy colonial period and the centuries of contact with Arab traders. Even the dominant language of Swahili contains many words which come from Arabic rather than African roots.
Generally an example to the rest of the continent, Tanzania was one of the first African countries to achieve independence from the colonial powers. A peaceful democratic system has been established in the country since those times.
There are over 120 tribes on the mainland, most of whom migrated from other parts of Africa. Zanzibar, also known as the Spice Island, has a history of contact with virtually every Old World civilisation except the Roman and Greek, and they certainly knew that the island existed. Tanganyika was a component (along with Rwanda and Burundi) of the colony of German East Africa between 1884 and 1918.
After the First World War it was administered by Britian under successive League of Nations and United Nations mandates.
Tanganyika became independent within the Commonwealth in 1961. Its charismatic leader, Julius Nyerere, held the post of President from independence to 1985 and he occupied the position of Chairman until 1990.
In 1964, Tanganyika joined with Zanzibar and became Tanzania.
Prior to that, Zanzibar had been a British protectorate (established in 1890) and, in 1963, an independent sultanate.
Nyerere's main objective was the successful application of socialist principles to an African agricultural society and economy.
Nyerere's ideas, particularly the introduction of Ujamaa, were articulated in the famous Arusha Declaration.
Unfortunately, mismanagement and external events conspired to wreck Nyerere's plans, with dire consequences for the economy.
In foreign policy, Tanzania initially leant towards China rather than the then USSR but has always maintained fairly good relations with the West, which have since prospered. Moreover, Tanzania has proved itself an active player in regional politics, having given consistent support to anti-colonial guerrilla movements in southern Africa and intervened militarily in Uganda in 1979 to overthrow the dictatorship of Idi Amin.
Nyerere retired from the Presidency in 1985 and was replaced by Ali Hassan Mwinyi, former Vice-President and President of Zanzibar.
Mwinyi favoured introducing market forces into the economy and plurality into the political system. Economic reform proceeded slowly in the face of a large and fairly corrupt state bureaucracy. On the political front, amendments to the constitution allowing for the introduction of a multi-party system were endorsed by the National Assembly early in 1992.
Although several opposition political organisations have been legalised, they continue to face restrictions on their activities. These were not fully removed until the presidential election of October 1995 at which three candidates took on the CCM candidate, Benjamin Mkapa.
The most prominent of these was Augustine Mrema, standing for the National Convention for Construction and Reform on an anti-corruption ticket. Although Mrema polled a respectable 28 percent, Mkapa won with 62 percent.
Despite strong evidence of fraud, the result was accepted by international observers after the poll was re-run in the capital and extended by a day elsewhere. This was especially the case in Zanzibar, whose relations with the mainland have become increasingly strained.
The recent elections of 2000 were also disputed, especially regarding the voting in Zanzibar.
In 1993, Zanzibar's provincial government applied to join, and was accepted by, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (the island has a large population descended from Arab traders).
As one of the most established economies in Africa, Tanzania has a well - developed infrastructure and many investment opportunities. The agricultural sector employs 90 percent of the working population. While much of this farming is conducted on a subsistence level, cash crops, including cotton, coffee, tea, sisal, tobacco and cashew nuts, are the country's main export earners. Depressed world market prices have kept Tanzanian revenues at a static level despite increases in production.
There is an expanding mineral sector: diamonds are mined commercially along with gold and other gemstones on a smaller scale. The government has granted exploration licences in the hope of locating offshore deposits of oil and gas. The industrial sector is small: sugar processing, brewing, textiles and cigarette manufacture are the most important industries.
Tanzania is a member of the African Development Bank and the Southern African Development Community. In November 1993, Tanzania was a signatory to a treaty providing for the creation of a common market for eastern and southern Africa. The UK is Tanzania's largest supplier. Aid (principally from the World Bank and EU) is an important source of finance for Tanzanian imports. http://www.amadeus.net/home/dest/en/AFRICA/tza/23.htm