Foreign relations of Zanzibar es Salaam and later Dodoma. Foreign relations of Zanzibar The foreign relations of Zanzibar refers to the relationships with other nations by the independent Zanzibari government which existed from 1856 to 1964, when the Zanzibar Revolution overthrew the ruling Sultan and unified the country with Tanganyika, forming Tanzania. In 1890, Zanzibar gave up formal control over their foreign relations to the British Empire. In 1906, the United States of America formalized a treaty in which they relinquished any claims to Zanzibar in favor of the British Empire. Following the unification and creation of Tanzania, Zanzibar's foreign relations were handled by
Sultanate of Zanzibar furthered the country's progress toward abolishing slavery. According to the 16th-century explorer Leo Africanus, the native inhabitants of the Zanzibar (Zanguebar) sultanate were for the most part pagans with curly hair and a black complexion. However, the denizens of the northernmost Zanzibar kingdom of Malindi were Muslims of an almost white complexion, with some pagan black inhabitants among them. Until 1884, the Sultans of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the Swahili Coast, known as Zanj, and trading routes extending further into the continent, as far as Kindu on the Congo River. That year, however, the Society for German Colonization