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Before World War 1 , Germany had a colony in East Africa called German East Africa . This was one of the colonies taken away from Germany in the Treaty Of Versailles in 1919 and given to Britain. The British re-named it Tanganyika
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In World War Two .King's African Rifles fought for Britain against Italy in Ethiopia and against Japan in Burma; French colonial troops from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco fought with France. African soldiers never became officers in British army -- Churchill said that there was no colour bar, but there was.
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TANU was founded by schoolteacher Julius Nyerere. Its purpose was to campaign for an Independent Tanganyika. Nyerere had been active in politics as a student in Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.
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From 1955 Nyerere toured Tanganyika , building support for independence. Although local issues arose, he managed to focus local interests into a strong and untied desire for self-government.
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Within a year of the Tanganyika African National Union being founded it became the leading political organisation in the country.
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Nyerere spoke at the United Nations on behalf of TANU and became a member of the Legislative Council, the Chief Law-Making body in 1958
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The path to independence in Tanganyika was a relatively smooth one , without strikes , demonstrations of bloodshed. This was partly because of Nyerere's calm and determined personality and the country's lack of dominant traditional political systems , and partly due to to an enlightened British Governor,Sir Richard Turnbull. On 9th of December 1961 , Nyerere became the first Prime Minister of an independent Tanganyika
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He guided his country into independence tactfully maintaining the various strands of Tanganyikan politics
He established good relations with the British Council without alienating the nationalists
He was Democratic
He managed a smooth merger with Zanzibar creating modern Tanzania
His socialist principles didn't always result in economic policies that were successful but Tanzania remained solvent if never wealthy
He controversially had good relations with China
He retired from politics in 1985 -
Socialist Nyerere , kept the country united and solvent if never wealthy.The merger was smooth and he did it with great skill.