TANZANIA ECONOMY AND EARLY OUTSIDE INFLUENCES
ANCIENT CONTACT ALONG THE COAST
Development of coastal trade link through the Indian ocean to the 18th century.
The development of trade link in Pre-colonial Tanzania can be divided into two main phases. Each phase covering a period of approximately one millennia.
The First Phase:
The first covered the period from the 2nd century BC to about the 7th century.
– This period was featured by lack of continuous and constant trade contact on the coast.
– The dominant social formations that stimulated this earliest trading contacts were the Greeks and Romans.
• Continuation….
The demands of the Romans and Greeks for ivory induced the Arab traders to extend their commercial activities to the East African coast as early as the 2nd century BC as indicated in the Periplus of the Erythrean sea.
– This book was compiled by a Greek Egyptian sailor. The Periplus of the Erythrean sea indicates that, this trade extended only as far as the Horn of Africa (the coast of Somalia)
• The extension of the trade from the Horn southwards up to Tanzanian coast is said to have been made by the Arab traders during the 5th and 6th centuries.
As far as the first phase is concerned it is important to note the following:
– A trading station known as Rhapta had been established on the Tanzanian coast during this period although the actual location of Rhapta is not yet known.
• Continuation….
– During this period the demand for ivory had extended to India, China and Indonesia.
– Frequent demand for food and mangrove poles on the South Arabian coast, slave labor in Iraq around the 7th and 8th centuries also facilitated increased trading activities on the coast during this first phase.
– During this phase no permanent settlements were established though Arab traders intermarried with local Africans. Such intermarriage constitute the origin of the Swahili people and their language and civilization.
• Continuation….
The second phase:
• The second phase of coastal trading contacts through the Indian ocean, covers the period from the 8th to the 18th centuries AD. This is normally referred to as the period of the rise, growth and consolidation of the east African civilization. The development of coastal trade during this period can be divided into four (4) main stages:
The first stage:
– The first stage covers the period from the 8th to the 12th centuries. During this period, trading contacts were dominated by Oman and Persian empires
– It was during this period that the Persians made the first attempts to establish settlements along the East African coast including Zanzibar. Large migrations from Shiraz in Persia to East Africa took place during the 10th century AD.
• Continuation….
– This large migration was mainly due to the attractions of gold from Zimbabwe whose export from Sofala coast had began at the beginning of the 10th AD. Gold was among the luxurious item of export from East Africa. Other exports were Leopold skins, tortoise shells, ivory, slaves and ambergris
The second stage:
• The second stage covered the period of approximately three centuries, the 13th to the 15th centuries. This period is regarded as the height of civilization along the coast of East Africa and Tanzania in particular. Gold from Zimbabwe was greatly responsible for the rapid growth of Kilwa and other city states along the coast.
– Gold was carried from Zimbabwe to the Sofala coast from where it was shipped to Kilwa. Hence, Kilwa became the most important centre of trade in gold along the coast of east Africa.
• Continuation…..
– Besides Kilwa, trade during this period resulted into the growth and prosperity of a number of other city states along the coast of East Africa. Such towns included Zanzibar, Mombasa, Malindi, Mogadishu, and Pate.
The third stage:
• The third stage in the development of trade along the coast constituted the Portuguese period, covering the 16th to the 17th centuries.
– Portuguese interest along the East African coast was to capture and control the trade system dominated by the Arab traders. In their efforts to meet their desires, they used methods of warfare, raids, as well as acts of piracy and robbery.
• Continuation….
– The use of force became necessary because the Portuguese lacked sufficient commercial capital. This explain why the Portuguese established a series of military garrisons along the coast of East Africa as evidenced by the Fort Jesus. Such garrisons covered the entire coast of East Africa from Mogadishu in the north to Sofala in the South.
– The methods that the Portuguese used to gain control over the East African trade which was under control of the Arab traders caused a lot of destructions to the prosperity of the coastal city states as well as to the system of trade itself as follows:
• There was a diversion of the major trade routes especially in connection with copper and gold. Gold and copper were now shipped overseas from Sofala southwards and through the Atlantic ocean.
• Continuation…
• The coastal city states such as Kilwa, began to decline because their prosperity had depended on gold trade. This meant that the African and Arab traders who had acted as middlemen also lost their business.
• Conflict developed between African gold miners and Portuguese traders. The Portuguese thought to control gold production. This was highly resisted by African gold miners. For this reason, bitter conflict developed between Mwanamutapa African gold miners and the Portuguese traders leading to the decline of the out put of gold.
• The Portuguese introduced trading licenses and permits on African and Arab traders. This led to further decline of trade between East Africa and Asia.
• Continuation….
• The Portuguese were not interested in developing the city states, rather, they left the towns to stagnate and decay.
The fourth stage:
• The forth stage constituted the 18th century. This was featured by the rise of the Oman empire on the East African coast.
– The Oman Arabs began to challenge the Portuguese predominance in East Africa from the mid of 17th century. These challenges facilitated or assisted anti- Portuguese resistance by the African people as well as the city states. The Portuguese got finally expelled out of the East African coast, especially after the decline of Fort Jesus in Mombasa in 1698.
– Thus throughout the 18th century, the Oman Arabs strived to revive the East African coastal trade and reconstruct the city states and their beautiful buildings.
• Continuation….
• The expulsion of the Portuguese from the East African coast simplified the coastal ports trade with Arabian countries and north western India. The main exports during this period were ivory, slaves, gum, and vegetable oil.
• During the second half of the 19th century, trade in slaves developed significantly as the Oman Arab traders became agents of the Dutch and French who had great demand of slaves for their sugar plantations in Mauritius and Re-union islands in the Indian ocean.
• Establishment of the Zanzibar commercial empire .
• The prosperity of commercial activities in Zanzibar in particular and the East African coast in general was result of the creation of the Oman Zanzibar sultanate by Seyyid Said in the 1820s and 1840s.
• This situation created favorable conditions to the expansion of commerce especially the one which based on slaves, ivory, gold, bee wax, and other commodities produced in the interior of Tanzania.
• In ensuring prosperity of commercial activities in his area of control, Seyyid Said adopted several measures:
– He signed commercial treaties or agreements with representatives of America, British, French and Germany government in the 1830s and 1840s. He did so in order to get markets for the main products of the region such as ivory and cloves.
– He encouraged Oman Arabs to move to Zanzibar and establish clove and coconut plantations even before transferring his capital to Zanzibar.
– He recognized that his own people, the Oman Arabs were not skilled in money matters, so he invited Indian merchants (Banyans) because they had distinguished themselves as skilled businessmen and proved their financial management ability to him in Oman. These Indian merchants played a double role in the Zanzibar sultanate:
• They worked as custom officials of the Sultan at different parts
• The richest merchants became money lenders. These money lenders gave loans in the form of trade goods to Arabs and Swahili merchants who wanted to lead caravan in the interior of mainland Tanzania and other parts of East Africa.
• Continuation…..
» This situation encouraged more Arabs and Swahili traders to organize tours for the penetration of the interior in search of ivory and slaves.
– He removed obstacles to trade at all the coastal ports by introducing a uniform five (5) percent duty. Before his arrival in Zanzibar each coastal town had its own rate of custom duties.
– He also introduced some Indian money (pice) in order to facilitate the flow of trade at its base in Zanzibar. This new money joined the American dollar and the Maria Theresa dollar from Australia which were already in circulation in Zanzibar.
• Continuation….
• However, during the 1850s , Europeans driven by mercantile demands began to participate direct in the East African long distance trade in search of natural products especially ivory, slaves, animal skins, gold, forest products, etc.
• Thus, the year 1857 marked the beginning of direct European participation in the caravan system, and the commencement of imperialist activities in the interior of east Africa.
• European involvement in the caravan system contributed to the expansion of trading activities resulting to the expansion of the elephant hunting, a greater demand for caravan labor and changes in the organization of portarage.
Mercantilism and the development of long distance trade (ivory, gold, and slave labor)
Introduction:
– The international development of capitalism increased the demand of East African commodities especially ivory, gold, copal, animal skin, rhino horns and slaves to work in the plantations of Zanzibar and Pemba.
– This process was not abrupt, from agricultural and craft production activities to trading activities, but rather a gradual one determined by market forces driven by both internaonal capitalism and emergence local entrepreneurial groups including Muslim traders, Indian financiers and the African traders.
– These commercial transaction resulted to the emergence of long distance trade.
– Long distance trade resulted to the development of urban centers in the interior. It was in these centers that the changes brought by new economic power were visible.
Mercantilism / International trade and local production in pre-colonial Tanzania
• Until the begging of the 19th century, East Africa was almost separated from its interior. However, the interior region were characterized by the presence of wide spread networks of African local and inter-regional trades mainly in salt, iron, copper, foodstuff and forests products, that was connected only occasionally to the coast.
• During the first decade of the 19th century, following increased demands of ivory, slaves, and copal, strong commercial relations began to develop.
Commodities
As already described, trade goods involved in the long distance trade included ivory, slaves, and copal.
– Ivory:
The earliest African ivory was highly demanded in Europe and America to produce luxury goods such as:
– Parts of music instrument ( accordion keys)
– Combs
– Knife handles
– Ornaments of various forms
In pre-colonial Tanzania, regions that supplied ivory includes the lake Tanganyika region, the Chagga area, the Masai area, and the southern regions. These were shipped to Zanzibar through Bagamoyo before they were shipped to capitalist countries.
– Slaves
Slaves were shipped from pre-colonial Tanzania to Middle East, however, this trade declined towards the end of the 19th century following increased abolitionist movements in Europe.
In the 19th century, colonial Tanzania increased demand for slaves was motivated by expansion of plantation economy in Zanzibar and Pemba.
In the second part of the 19th century, slaves were mainly captured from Katanga and Manyema ( present day DRC) and present day Southern Tanzania. Kilwa remained the most important port for shipment of slaves.
– Copal
Copal was also highly demanded especially in the United States of America to produce high quality and value varnishes for the furniture industry. East Africa copal was the best in the world and was extracted from the forests of the coastal hinterlands.
During the 19th century, all these products were experiencing growing prices on the world market.
For example, the prices of ivory doubled between 1826 and 1857, and doubled again in the next 30 years.
Growing prices of these commodities had two notable effects:
• High prices facilitated the penetration of traders in the interior to collect such commodities which they acquired with imported cloth, glass beads, and metal products.
• Growing prices of the interior products led to the accumulation of merchant capital among coastal traders. Through this capital, coastal traders were able to finance and organize effectively the caravans in the interior.
Traders:
The most important group of traders in central Tanzania were the Nyamwezi. Before the expansion and growth of long distance trade, the Nyamwezi were involved and organized inter-regional trade where salt, iron, copper, cattle, and agricultural products were exchanged.
In a real sense, these commercial activities laid the basis for the development of caravan road to the coast.
Generally speaking, several factors may be used to explain why the Nyamwezi took the leading role in the caravan trade
» The Nyamwezi were able to use the opportunities offered by trade with the coast and were able to accumulate wealth in export of such goods like ivory. This enabled them to finance their own businesses with the coast.
» Using their experiences from inter-regional trade, Nyamwezi traders were able to rapidly adapt themselves to the new patterns of coastal trade.
» Increased cultivation of mbuga and adaptation of white rice production enable the Nyamwezi to make super profit.
This profit was further re-invested in paying additional labor in the form wives, slaves, and Tutsi cattle herders. With these abundant laborers the Nyamwezi traders could be free from farm works and therefore had ample time to travel, and engaged themselves in trading activities especially during the dry season.
» The Nyamwezi produced a variety of trade goods such as grains, potatoes, pumpkins, tobacco, honey, bee wax, animal skins, baskets, wooden utensils, and bark cloth. In this way the Nyamwezi were able to have a variety of trade items which could be exchanged with exotic goods.
» The position of the Nyamwezi in the centre of the regional trading system between the producers of salt and iron in the west and the consumers of iron to the east and south made them to have the middle men position.
» The prevailing condition of peace and stability. There is no evidence for attacks by outsiders until mid 19th century when the migratory Ngoni invaded parts of Ukimbu and Usumbwa. Before this invasion, conflicts were limited to occasional small scale raiding of one Nyamwezi chiefdom by another. A long period of peace enable the Nyamwezi to utilize other advantages that they possessed.
Porters
In the 19th century the development of trade in ivory, copal and slaves created the condition for the development of a class of wage workers in transport sector, the human porters.
– The Nyamwezi in particular, were the most requested porters and developed specific abilities to carry goods to and from the coast.
– The Nyamwezi were the first class of wage laborers that developed in the area and became the back bone of long distance trade with the coast. These porters received wage in exchange for their work.
– The porters individually or collectively defended their interests. For example, when the wages were not attractive, they refused to continue carrying the goods until wages were increased.
– Generally, porters played a central role in creating conditions for the participation of pre-colonial Tanzania economy to the global economy.
• Apart from porters, other professional figures that developed in connection to the caravan trade includes the following:
– The Kirangozi
This was the guide who was the in charge of the caravan.
• He possessed a deep knowledge of the best path / ways to follow in order to find food and water during the journey.
• Beside Kiswahili, he was skilled in the languages needed for trading in the interior.
• He was in charge of the negotiation of tributes, the Hongo, that had to be paid to local chiefs along the caravan road.
– The Nyampara
This was a head of small gangs of porters, generally composing of 10-15 individuals.
• He recruited his own group of porters in the coastal ports, negotiated their salaries and he was responsible for them during the journey.
• There was several Nyamparas in the same caravan, but only one Kirangozi.
– Askaris
These were the armed guards and always travelled with a caravan.
• They had a task to protect the caravan and also to maintain order in the porter rank.
• The number of askaris employed generally depended on the total number of porters, commonly, there was one guard to every ten porters
• The askaris were for the most part of coastal origin and many of them settled in the commercial towns of the interior.
• Money in the form of cloth and beads, became common payment of wages and was used to buy food along the caravan roads.
• The caravan staff received daily food rations, the so called “posho”, that could be paid both in grains ( generally sorghum or millet) or in exchange goods, especially beads.
Consequences of long distance trade
– There was increased production and exploitation of natural products in the interior. This was because of increased mercantile demands of such products like copal, ivory, animal skin, and food stuffs. This increased demand in turn facilitated the penetration of traders in the interior.
– The trade led to the development of professional figures such as the Kirangozi, Nyampara, and traders. These categories of people played a central role in the development and expansion of the caravan system.
– Medium of exchange came into common use, money in the form of cloth and beads became common payment of wages and was used to buy food along the caravan roads.
– Caravan trade was responsible in introducing innovations in the interior. Traders and porters introduced foreign crops and agricultural techniques to their home regions. They also spread cultural innovations such as new languages and religion.
– The trade led to the development of complex networks of foot tracks which criss - crossed the length and breadth of a nearly million kilometers. These networks were associated with market towns and caravan stops (Makambi)
– The trade resulted to the emergence of trading centers or towns in the interior. These towns began as collection centers for ivory, slaves, and food for the caravan. Most of these centers were established along the central route from Bagamoyo to lake Tanganyika.
– Some areas bordering the coast became exporters of food to Zanzibar and Pemba to feed the labor force in the clove and coconut plantations. For example, the ruling and merchant classes in towns like Usambara became big exporters of sorghum where as towns like Uzigua exported millet and rice.
– Many people bordering trading centers and caravan routes in the interior had to supply food to resident coastal traders and to caravans travelling between the coast and the interior.
People around Tabora for example, found it important and necessary to produce more food than before in order to feed coastal traders and their large number of porters and slaves residing there on their transit to slave market.
– It led to the conversion of some people to Islam, particularly among the Yao in the southern interior and among the Digo and Segeju in Usambara.
– The trade led to the division of the population in most pre colonial Tanzanian societies into two main groups, namely free people and the slaves.
• Following this introduction of slave trade in the interior, many people took part in slave raiding and slave trade.
• Some people started using even slave labour for the production of surplus food needed by coastal traders, passing caravans, slave labour , ruling class and merchants in the Zanzibar.
• Therefore, there is no doubt that many families must have been broken down in order to provide slaves for both coastal traders and for the local people who needed them.
– Trading relations resulted to cultural, ethnic and linguistic changes in the coastal towns and the islands of Pemba and Zanzibar. As Africans from different parts of the interior were taken to coastal towns and island of Pemba and Zanzibar as slaves, the population of these towns and islands became bigger and more ethnically mixed up than ever.
– The wide spread use of African women as concubines by Arabs produced a relatively large Swahili speaking Afro-Arab group. This mixing between Arabs and Africans had started taking place several centuries earlier. But it increased very much as the slave population increased at the coast and in the island. For example, most of Seyyid Said’s wives were Africans and his children spoke Kiswahili rather than Arabic.
• When ivory became a valuable item of long distance trade during the 19th century, however, some professional elephant hunting groups emerged in some parts of the interior such as Unyamwezi, Usukuma, Buganda, Bunyoro, and Ukambani. In Unyamwezi and Usukuma, for example, these professional elephant hunters became known as Bagunda or Bayege. These professional elephant hunters used guns for their activity that they acquired from coastal traders.
Early missionary activity and economic changes
The penetration of the interior of mainland Tanzania and other parts of East Africa by European missionaries took place between 1840s and 1880s. This penetration was greatly facilitated by long distance trade which exposed the wealth and potentialities of the interior regions which could help to resolve capitalist economic problems.
The arrival of missionaries brought several economic changes in Tanganyika. The missionaries came in different groups and at different times.
Missionaries activities in East Africa started with the establishment of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) station at Rabai in 1844.
– The Church Missionary Society was founded in the city of London in April, 1779. It had its origin from a small group of pioneers who were determined to lead a campaign against slave trade. One of the most important founders was William Wilberforce.
– The society devoted itself to three major responsibilities:
• Abolition of slave trade wherever it existed
• Social reforms at home
• To evangelize the world.
• The Church Missionary Society was followed by the University Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) and the Holly Ghost Fathers.
– The UMCA was a missionary society established by members of the Anglican Church within the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durbin.
– This society was formed as a response to the lectures that Dr. Livingstone gave to British universities on his return from Africa in 1857. The society had two major goals:
• To establish a mission in Central Africa which would help to convert Africans to Christianity
• To oppose slave trade.
• The Holly Ghost Fathers; this was a congregation of Roman Catholic priests from France. These aimed at ransoming slaves. They established their missionary station in Zanzibar in early 1860s. They also set another station at Bagamoyo in 1868.
• The White Fathers; this was another Roman Catholic missionary society founded in 1868 by the first Archbishop of Algeria, later on Cardinal, Lavigerie.
– This aimed at converting Arabs and the people of Central Africa to Christianity. These established their first missionary center at Tabora in 1878. From there, they established other missionary centre at Bukumbi, near Mwanza in 1883.
• This slow but steady occupation of Tanganyika by missionaries was very important because they were the first group of Europeans to settle in the interior on a long term basis.
• Beyond their evangelical role, missionaries played a vital role in introducing a number of economic changes in pre-colonial Tanzanian societies. Such economic changes laid a very strong foundation upon which colonial economic infrastructures and colonial economic policies came to be built and operate:
– For example:
» They introduced and encouraged the use of foreign goods. This situation brought Africans more and more into a market economy. To pay for these foreign goods fro example, Africans would have to produce surpluses of agricultural products to sell or find other ways to get money. For many Africans, this meant going to work for wages, what other scholars called the proletarianization.
» Many missionaries played as informants by supplying economic information to government officials and their home governments. These information became very crucial in planning economic infrastructures and policies that traditional subsistence economy was transformed to suit the needs and demands of the capitalist economy.
» Missionaries facilitated the growth of tropical of raw materials like coffee, tea, tobacco, cotton, etc. to feed the capitalist industries. Missionaries carried agricultural researches on tropical crops, they established experimental farms and plantations where new crops, better methods of farming and equipments were introduced.
» Missionaries trained manpower through introduction of education which was used to foster European economic interests. For example, missionary education produced agricultural extension officers and equipped Africans with basic agricultural skills to ensure high production of raw materials. Thus missionary education was important in triggering economic changes in the whole process of production.
» Missionaries also introduced hospitals and clinics which offered modern medicine and researches in tropical diseases such as malaria, small pox, yellow fever, sleeping sickness, etc. which had claimed the many lives, thus affecting production and economic status of Africa.
• Therefore, such medical services were aiming at controlling diseases so as to lower death rate and ensure a growing population which could supply enough labor to different sectors of colonial economy. Increased labor supply meant positive change in the economy.
» Missionary centers acted as market centers for European imported goods. In this way local industries like craft industries including blacksmiths, pottery and weaving industries were all destroyed and replaced with European manufactured products. This had a negative impact on the traditional African economy.
TOPIC 4 : FREE TRADE IMPERIALISM AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN TANZANIA
• In this context free trade imperialism is used to mean the situation where by market forces (demand and supply) are so imbalanced that one country can economically dominate onather country. For example: by 1870s european countries had a high demand of raw materials, areas for investment, markets and cheap labour, while the supply of the same items was low. In the same time frame, africa had a high suplly of raw materials, areas for investments and cheap labor, while the demand of the same items was low. Therefore, it was against this imbalances of the market forces that ueropean nations were foreced to expand beyond their boarders so as to quench their thirst.
• In other words, this was an imperial expansion which gained momemntum from 1870 to about 1885, the period reffered to as late pre-colonail period in africa generally and tanzania in particular. The period which marked the end of the pre-colonial era in tanzania and africa in general.
• This late pre colonial eriod has been referred by economic historians as the spring board into colonial period, meaning the period which actually pre-colonial tanzanian economy and societies were fully forced to enter or to jump into colonail period. Therefore, our discussion of the fourth topic shall begin by analyzing the economy and societies of the late pre-colonial period.
The late Pre-colonial tanzanian econmoy and societies ( 1870-early 1885)
A: Late Pre-colonial Tanzanian societies.
• Up to about 1885 most of the people of Tanganyika were still independent of any type of foreign control. They governed themselves except those in the island of Pemba, Zanzibar, Mafia, Kilwa and other coastal towns who were under the control of the Arabs of Oman since the 18th century.
• They late pre-colonial Tanzanian societies governed themselves through village leaders, clan leaders, or powerful kings. This means, therefore, that the main characteristics which different Tanzanian societies had by 1885 could be summarized as follow:
• Most of social or ethnic groups which existed in Tanzania at that time were not tribes as they became known later during colonial period. Rather, they were clusters of cultural linguistic groups whose identity derived from sharing a basic common language, a common culture, common political institutions and common patterns of economic life. In other words, they a group of people with common cultural characteristics, common political institutions and common patterns of economy.
• Each linguistic group had its own territory. The boarders between these linguistic groups were not always fixed; they changed as these groups expanded or contracted. In other words, there was no fixed boarders, boarders hanged from time to time depending on the situation at hand.
• Politically, most Tanzanian societies were stateless in which village or clan heads governed. Centralized states developed in few areas especially those with favored environment like the interlucustrine region where we had the great Karagwe kingdom as a good example.
• Most of these stateless societies were egalitarian and democratic, particularly those with age-grade and age set such as the Masai. Generally, these communities were featured by maximum equality and absence of exploitation.
• Some societies such as the Haya, the Sukuma, the Nyamwezi, the Shambaa, the Pare, the Chagga, the Hehe, the Yao, the Ngoni, and the Swahili in the coastal towns and islands of Zanzibar and Pemba were ruled by powerful kings.
B: Late Pre-colonial Tanzanian economy.
– Economically, most of them lived by growing crops or herding cattle, goats or sheep or by doing both on individual family basis. They also fished, hunted and exchanged goods.
– The cultivators and mixed farmers remained in their settlements for fairly a long period of time before moving to other places, while the pastoralists wandered with their animals from place to place in search of fresh pasture and water.
– By 1880s trading activities, especially the long distance trade had gained a considerable momentum. This resulted to the emergence of specialists such as elephant hunters, traders, soldiers, porters and craftsmen. Thus, power began to shift from skilled agriculturalists to the Swahili people whose economies rested more trade.
Despite this power shift, agriculture was not neglected because of two major reasons:
» Agriculture benefited from two new food crops of American origin, maize and manioc, together with Asian crops like white rice all of which were carried to the interior through the caravan routes.
» Increased agriculture specialization and exchange. Zanzibar’s demands for food penetrated steadily further into the hinterland and mainland, converting the people of these areas into peasants who specialized in food production. For example by 1870s:
• Areas like Kisiju in the southern part of Tanzania, specialized in growing manioc to feed the slaves awaiting shipment from Kilwa.
• The Shambaa purchased cattle from the Kamba, fattened them for the Zanzibar market.
• Tanga exported millet to Arabia.
• Sesame seeds produced in Uzaramo and southern interior was shipped to Marseilles for conversion into oil.
• Rubber collected wild rather than grown in plantations, became Kilwa’s major export after 1876 following increased world demand. By 1880, rubber traders had penetrated to the southern highlands.
– Slave revolts became a common occurrence in the plantations after 1873 when slave trade and slavery were declared illegal. A series of slave revolts took place in the coconut and clove plantations of Zanzibar and Pemba where as in the mainland, slaves who were producing sugar in the Panagni valley also mounted a number of revolts.
• This fugitive slaves established their independent republic in areas like Korogwe. Similar maroon republics / communities were established in places like Tanga and Makonde plateau in the south.
– Some historians have also argued that the late pre-colonial period was featured by improved communication networks especially footpaths as a result of long distance trade and greater inter-regional trade. This improvement was responsible in slowing down famine as food could be effectively supplied in areas of demands.
The expansion of external contact and its consequences
• The expansion of external contact was a result of direct European involvement in Tanzania due to social, economic, and political changes which occurred in Europe since the 18th century. These changes were caused by the industrial revolution.
• The industrial revolution refers to the rapid changes in the tools and methods of production of goods which were brought about by mechanical discoveries. Industrial revolution started in Britain during the second half of the 18th century and spread to other European countries in the 19th century.
• This revolution led to the improvement in the tools and methods of production which made slave labor less profitable and therefore, produced new attitudes towards slave trade. In fact the success of industrialization was the main factor which persuaded European countries to abolish slave trade.
• The industrial revolution also brought about increased demands for raw materials, markets, sources for investments and areas to settle European surplus population. The solutions to these problems were to be obtained outside Europe, as Europe alone was not in a position to resolve these problems.
• Therefore, as trade between East Africa and Western capitalist countries expanded in the second half of the 19th century, many more Europeans came in Tanzania as traders, missionaries and explorers. The major intention of these categories was to find out the potentialities of the country and how such potentialities could best resolve their economic problems.
• Their coming therefore, meant the extension of European interests to the Tanzanian interior. These interests included economic interests, Christianity and the so called civilization. These interests were supported by the work of traders, missionaries and explorers.
• Traders, explorers, and missionaries saw themselves as the bearers of European civilization in Africa. This is clearly shown in their reports, books and speeches.
• Travelers/ explorers such as Speke and Stanley for example, campaigned openly for the British occupation of East African region. Their speeches and writings often contained exaggerated reports of the riches to be gained and the human sufferings to be removed by the British colonizers.
• Unlike traders and explorers, who supported colonization mainly for economic reasons, the missionaries campaigned for European occupation of the region mainly for humanitarian and religious grounds. The suppression of slave trade, the stoppage of local wars, the spread of Christianity, and the introduction of legitimate trade were their main aims.
• It is therefore evident that, the partition of East Africa into European colonies between 1885 and 1890 was a logical out come of the efforts made by earlier traders, explorers, and missionaries to open up the African continent for commerce, Christianity and European political control.
• It was a logical outcome because almost all the European explorers, missionaries, and traders had expected their efforts to end up with the colonization of the area. In fact, all the three groups of Europeans who became involved in Tanzania and neighboring areas in the 19th century were agents of European colonialism or imperialism, whether they knew it or not because their activities and campaigns eventually led to the colonization of Tanzania in particular and Africa in general.