The area [Tanganyika] was at first administered by the German East Africa Company, whose harsh direct rule, land alienation, and forced labour policies caused so much native opposition that the Imperial Government was forced to assume control in 1891.

At the end of 1916, Mr (later Sir) Horace Byatt was appointed Administrator over the northern half of the country controlled by Britain.

Tanganyika's second British Governor

Editor of: East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

In January 1919, his purview was extended to the whole of Tanganyika. Eighteen months later British administration took on a more formal basis by the promulgation of the Tanganyika Order in Council, in terms of which Byatt's title was changed to that of Governor. He was empowered to make ordinances "for the good government of the country".

... Sir Donald Cameron, who succeeded Byatt in 1925. He was a different man, and indeed believed that his predecessor had failed to give a lead to the country or lay down any clear lines of policy.

In July 1958, Sir Richard Turnbull had succeeded Sir Edward Twining as Governor. He had previously been chief secretary in Kenya, during the Emergency, and he had seen the violence and bloodshed which had resulted from a people's discontent with their conditions and the slowness of their political advance.

Sir Richard Turnbull summoned Julius Nyerere and asked him to form a government