The majority of the population is African, mainly of Bantu origin. Economy the vast majority of the workforce is employed in agriculture, chiefly subsistence farming. In mainland Tanzania the chief crops are coffee, cotton, sugar cane, and cassava. Agricultural production suffered badly from droughts in the late 1990s. Food crops include rice, bananas, and cassava.
Hydroelectricity is a valuable source of power.
The main exports are coffee, cloves, cotton, and diamonds. There is a large external debt. History important prehistoric remains have been found by the Leakey family. The area was visited by the Arabs in the middle ages and by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Tanganyika was occupied by the Germans in the 1880s, becoming a German protectorate in 1891.