Languages Swahili
English 1962–64 Julius Nyerere Republic 9 December 1962 Capital Dar es Salaam Date dissolved April 26, 1964 | 1961–62 Elizabeth II 1961–62 Richard Turnbull Founded 9 December 1961 Currency East African shilling | |
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Government Parliamentary monarchy (1961–62)
Presidential republic (1962–64) | ||
Tanganyika /ˌtæŋɡənˈjiːkə/ was a sovereign state that existed from 9 December 1961 until 26 April 1964, first gaining independence from the United Kingdom as a Commonwealth realm, then becoming a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations exactly a year later. After signing the Articles of Union on 22 April, and passing an Act of Union on 25 April, Tanganyika officially joined with the People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar on Union Day, 26 April 1964. The new state changed its name to the United Republic of Tanzania within a year. It was situated between the Indian Ocean and the African Great Lakes of Lake Victoria, Lake Nyasa and Lake Tanganyika.
History
Tanganyika originally consisted of the Tanganyika Territory, the British share of German East Africa, which the British took under a League of Nations Mandate in 1922, and which was later transformed into a United Nations Trust Territory after World War II. The other parts of German East Africa were taken into Belgian trusteeship, eventually becoming present-day Rwanda and Burundi.
The Tanganyika Independence Act 1961 transformed the United Nations trust territory into the independent sovereign Commonwealth realm of Tanganyika. The British monarch Elizabeth II remained head of state and Tanganyika shared the Sovereign with the other Commonwealth realms. The monarch's constitutional roles were mostly delegated to the Governor-General of Tanganyika. The royal succession was governed by the English Act of Settlement of 1701.
Tanganyika adopted a new constitution in 1962 that abolished the monarchy, with the Tanzanian Parliament (the majority of whom were members of the Tanganyika African National Union Party) drastically revising the new Constitution to favor a strong executive branch of government, namely a president. Tanganyika then became a republic within the Commonwealth. After the Union of Zanzibar and Tanganyika, an interim Constitution amended from the 1962 Constitution became the governing document. Although meant to be temporary, the Constitutions remained effective until 1977.
Julius Nyerere served as the first President of Tanganyika, which in turn led to the unification of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964, following Nyerere's principle of Ujamaa which entailed a strong "territorial nationalism."