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Thành lập
Thành lập Zanzibar
semi-autonomous part of Tanzania
- 26 tháng 4 năm 1964
- Thành phố Zanzibar
- Châu Phi hạ Sahara
- Tên dịch máy
Thành lập
semi-autonomous part of Tanzania
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Zanzibar is a Tanzanian semi-autonomous region off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja Island (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar Island) and Pemba Island. The capital is Zanzibar City, located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre, Stone Town, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Zanzibar is a former sovereign state that united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the present-day United Republic of Tanzania. The region's main industries are spices, raffia, and tourism. The main spices produced are clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, coconut, and black pepper. Including the Mafia Archipelago, the Zanzibar Archipelago is sometimes referred to locally as the "Spice Islands".
Tourism in Zanzibar is a more recent activity, driven by government promotion that caused an increase from 19,000 tourists in 1985 to 376,000 in 2016 and 917,000 in 2025. The islands are accessible via five ports and the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport, which can serve up to 1.5 million passengers per year.
Zanzibar's marine ecosystem plays a vital role in its fishing and algacultural industries; these ecosystems act as nurseries for Indian Ocean fish populations. Moreover, the land ecosystem is the home of the endemic Zanzibar red colobus, the Zanzibar servaline genet, and the extinct or rare Zanzibar leopard. Environmental pressure from the tourism and fishing industries, as well as larger threats such as sea level rise caused by climate change, are creating greater environmental concerns throughout the region.
The word Zanzibar came from Arabic زنجبار zanjibār (pronounced [zandʒibaːr]), which is in turn from Persian زنگبار zangbâr (pronounced [zæŋbɒːɾ]), a compound of زنگ Zang ([zæŋ], "black") + بار bâr ([bɒːɾ], "coast"), cf. the Sea of Zanj. The name is one of several toponyms sharing similar etymologies, ultimately meaning "land of the blacks" or similar meanings, in reference to the dark skin of its African inhabitants.
The presence of microliths suggests that Zanzibar has been home to humans for at least 20,000 years, since the beginning of the Later Stone Age.
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a Greco-Roman text written between the 1st and 3rd centuries, mentioned the island of Menuthias (Ancient Greek: Μενουθιάς), which is likely Unguja.
At the outset of the first millennium, both Zanzibar and the adjacent coast were settled by Bantu speakers. Archaeological finds at Fukuchani, on the northwest coast of Zanzibar, indicate a settled agricultural and fishing community from the 6th century at the latest. The considerable amount of daub discovered indicates timber buildings; shell beads, bead grinders, and iron slag have been found at the site as well. There is evidence of limited engagement in long-distance trade: a small amount of imported pottery has been found, less than 1% of total pottery finds, mostly from the Gulf and dated to the 5th to 8th century. The similarity to contemporary sites in Mkokotoni and Dar es Salaam indicates a unified group of communities that independently developed into a center of coastal maritime culture. The coastal towns appear to have been engaged in Indian Ocean and inland African trade at this early period. Trade rapidly increased in importance and quantity beginning in the mid-8th century; by the close of the 10th century, Zanzibar was one of the central Swahili trading towns.
Excavations at nearby Pemba Island, as well as at Shanga in the Lamu Archipelago, provide the clearest picture of the region's architectural development. Houses were originally built with timber (circa 1050) and later in mud with coral walls (circa 1150). The houses were continuously rebuilt with more permanent materials. By the 13th century, houses were built with stone, and bonded with mud, and the 14th century saw the use of lime to bond stone. Only the wealthier patricians would have had stone- and lime-built houses, and the strength of the materials allowed for flat roofs. By contrast, the majority of the population lived in single-story thatched houses similar to those of the 11th and 12th centuries. According to Thomas Spear, John Middleton, and Mark Horton, the architectural style of these stone houses has no Arab or Persian elements, and should be viewed as an entirely indigenous development of local vernacular architecture. While much of Zanzibar Town's architecture was rebuilt during Omani rule, nearby sites elucidate the general development of Swahili and Zanzibari architecture before the 15th century.
From the 9th century, Swahili merchants on Zanzibar operated as brokers for long-distance traders from both the hinterland and the Indian Ocean world. Persian, Indian, and Arab traders frequented Zanzibar to acquire East African goods like gold, ivory, and ambergris and then shipped them overseas to Asia. Similarly, caravan traders from the African Great Lakes and Zambezian Region came to the coast to trade for imported goods, especially Indian cloth. Before the Portuguese arrival, the southern towns of Unguja Ukuu and Kizimkazi and the northern town of Tumbatu were the dominant centres of exchange. Zanzibar was just one of the many autonomous city-states that dotted the East African coast. These towns grew in wealth as the Swahili people served as intermediaries and facilitators to merchants and traders. This interaction between Central African and Indian Ocean cultures contributed in part to the evolution of the Swahili culture, which developed an Arabic-script literary tradition. Although a Bantu language, the Swahili language as a consequence today includes some borrowed elements, particularly loanwords from Arabic, though this was mostly a 19th-century phenomenon with the growth of Omani hegemony. Many foreign traders from Africa and Asia married into wealthy patrician families on Zanzibar. Asian men in particular, who resided on the coast for up to six months because of the prevailing monsoon wind patterns, married East African women. Since almost all the Asian traders were Muslims, their children inherited their paternal ethnic identity, though East African matrilineal traditions remained key.
Vasco da Gama's visit in 1498 marked the beginning of European influence. In 1503 or 1504, Zanzibar became part of the Portuguese Empire when Captain Rui Lourenço Ravasco Marques came ashore and received tribute from the sultan in exchange for peace. Zanzibar remained a possession of Portugal for almost two centuries. It initially became part of the Portuguese province of Arabia and Ethiopia and was administered by a governor-general. Around 1571, Zanzibar became part of the western division of the Portuguese empire and was administered from Mozambique. It appears, however, that the Portuguese did not closely administer Zanzibar. The first English ship to visit Unguja, the Edward Bonaventure in 1591, found that there was no Portuguese fort or garrison. The extent of their occupation was a trade depot where produce was bought and collected for shipment to Mozambique. "In other respects, the affairs of the island were managed by the local 'king', the predecessor of the Mwinyi Mkuu of Dunga." This hands-off approach ended when Portugal established a fort on Pemba Island around 1635 in response to the Sultan of Mombasa's slaughter of Portuguese residents several years earlier. Portugal had long considered Pemba to be a troublesome launching point for rebellions in Mombasa against Portuguese rule.
The precise origins of the sultans of Unguja are uncertain. However, their capital at Unguja Ukuu is believed to have been an extensive town. Possibly constructed by locals, it was composed mainly of perishable materials.
The Portuguese arrived in East Africa in 1498, where they found several independent towns on the coast, with Muslim Arabic-speaking elites. While the Portuguese travellers describe them as "black", they made a clear distinction between the Muslim and non-Muslim populations. Their relations with these leaders were mostly hostile, but during the sixteenth century, they firmly established their power and ruled with the aid of tributary sultans. The Portuguese presence was relatively limited, leaving administration in the hands of the local leaders and power structures already present. This system lasted until 1631, when the Sultan of Mombasa massacred the Portuguese inhabitants. For the remainder of their rule, the Portuguese appointed European governors. The strangling of trade and diminished local power led the Swahili elites in Mombasa and Zanzibar to invite Omani aristocrats to assist them in driving the Europeans out.
In 1698, Zanzibar came under the influence of the Sultanate of Oman. There was a brief revolt against Omani rule in 1784. Local elites invited Omani merchant princes to settle in Zanzibar in the first half of the nineteenth century, preferring them to the Portuguese. Many locals today continue to emphasise that indigenous Zanzibaris had invited Seyyid Said, the first Busaidi sultan, to their island. Claiming a patron–client relationship with powerful families was a strategy used by many Swahili coast towns from at least the fifteenth century.
In 1832 or 1840 (the date varies among sources), Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman moved his capital from Muscat, Oman to Stone Town. After Said's death in June 1856, two of his sons, Thuwaini bin Said and Majid bin Said, struggled over the succession. Said's will divided his dominions into two separate principalities, with Thuwaini to become the Sultan of Oman and Majid to become the first Sultan of Zanzibar; the brothers quarrelled about the will, which was eventually upheld by Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning, Great Britain's Viceroy and Governor-General of India.
Until around 1890, the sultans of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the Swahili coast known as Zanj, which included Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. Beginning in 1886, Great Britain and Germany agreed to allocate parts of the Zanzibar sultanate for their own empires. In October 1886, a British-German border commission established the Zanj as a 10 mi-wide (16 km) strip along most of the African Great Lakes region's coast, an area stretching from Cape Delgado (now in Mozambique) to Kipini (now in Kenya), including Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. Over the next few years, most of the mainland territory was incorporated into German East Africa. The sultans developed an economy of trade and cash crops in the Zanzibar Archipelago with a ruling Arab elite. Ivory was a major trade good. The archipelago, sometimes referred to by locals as the Spice Islands, was famous worldwide for its cloves and other spices, and plantations were established to grow them. The archipelago's commerce gradually fell into the hands of traders from the Indian subcontinent, whom Said bin Sultan encouraged to settle on the islands.
During his 14-year reign as sultan, Majid bin Said consolidated his power around the East African slave trade. Malindi in Zanzibar City was the Swahili Coast's main port for the slave trade with the Middle East. In the mid-19th century, as many as 50,000 slaves passed annually through the port.
Many were captives of Tippu Tip, a notorious Arab/Swahili slave trader and ivory merchant. Tip led huge expeditions, some 4,000 strong, into the African hinterland, where chiefs sold him their villagers at low prices. These Tip used to carry ivory back to Zanzibar, then sold it in the slave market for large profits. In time, Tip became one of the wealthiest men in Zanzibar, the owner of multiple plantations and 10,000 slaves.
One of Majid's brothers, Barghash bin Said, succeeded him, developing Unguja's infrastructure. Another brother of Majid, Khalifa bin Said, was the third sultan of Zanzibar and deepened the relationship with the British, leading to the archipelago's progress towards the abolition of slavery.
Control of Zanzibar gradually came into the hands of the British Empire; motivated both by a desire to control Zanzibar's clove and ivory exports, and in accordance with the 19th century movement for the abolition of the slave trade.
In 1822, Captain Fairfax Moresby, the British consul in Muscat, pressed Sultan Said to end the slave trade by signing the Moresby Treaty, the first of a series of anti-slavery treaties with Britain. It prohibited slave transport south and east of the Moresby Line, from Cape Delgado in Africa to Diu Head on the coast of India. Said lost the revenue he would have received as duty on all slaves sold, so to make up for this shortfall, he encouraged the development of the slave trade in Zanzibar itself. However, Said came under increasing pressure from the British to abolish slavery entirely. In 1842, Britain told Said it wished to abolish the slave trade to Arabia, Oman, Persia, and the Red Sea.
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