The development of transport systems was one of the important colonial economic policies. Roads, railways, ports and harbours were put in place irrespective of the colonial power whether has Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Italy or otherwise. The following are the reasons for development of modern transport system in colonial Africa.

For strategic reasons, as for example, Uganda railway was built to confirm and improve British commercial and strategic reasons in Uganda (the source of River Nile) which Egypt survived on.

Promotion of missionary activities: Roads and railway network systems in Africa were built to enhance the spreading of gospel. This was because the first group of missionaries (1840s) could not do much because of communication problems.

Effective occupation: The Berlin conference had dictated that for the recognition of colonial power in a given African territory, there had to be effective occupation of the colony i.e. develop the infrastructure facilities like schools, roads, health centres, road and railways.

The exploitation of Agriculture and mineral wealth: The farm produce included cash crops such as coffee, cotton, sisal, cocoa and palm oil while the minerals included copper, gold, diamond and iron. All these were too bulky to transport so there was need to railways.

Humanitarian grounds: The transport system was developed in order to assist in elimination of slave trade and support the development of legitimate trade. Roads and railways were built to open up interior of Africa for overseas countries purposely to serve as market for their manufactured products. This led to the construction of many railway lines connecting West African States, Central Africa, East Africa to the coast.

Development of colonies: The road network was established in order to make colonies self reliant through the cultivation of cash crops, which they could sell to foreigners, and be transported to the coast. Such crops include rubber in Congo and West African territories. Palm oil, Coconut, Cotton and Coffee.

For effective administration of colonies: The transport system was constructed in order to ease the mobility of colonial administrators and their troops. For example, Pretoria-Durban railway in South Africa.

TRANSPORT IN TANGANYIKA

The Germans thought of construction of the railway in East Africa before the British. As early as 1887 the German Government commissioned Hoche to investigate the possibility of building the Dar-es-salaam - Morogoro railway but the Abushiri Resistance postponed this until 1891 when the Director General of the German Company, Wilhelm Oechel - Haeuser , chaired, a meeting that recommended the building of a railway from Dar-es-salaam to lakes Tanganyika and Victoria and from Tanga to Moshi and from Kilwa to Malawi.

The Tanga - Moshi line was started in June 1893 and reached Muheza (43 Km) in 1896, Karagwe in 1902 and Moshi in 1912. In 1905 the Dar-es-salaam-Kigoma central line was started and reached Morogoro in 1907, Tabora on 1912 and Kigoma in 1914.  World War 1 disrupted the Germans' plan of building other lines. 

They intended to build a railway to Rwanda and Burundi which were part of German East Africa.  They also had plans to build the Kilosa - Iringa railway and later to extend it to Malawi via Mbeya.

After World War 1 , the German colonies were shared by the victor countries , Britain took Tanganyika and Belgium took Rwanda and Burundi and they were to develop these territories on behalf of the League of Nations. 

In the inter - war period, Britain decided to extend the railway from Tabora to Mwanza to help the lake province. Moshi was also linked to Arusha by rail. 

In 1933 the Manyoni - Singida  line was constructed and was used until 1947 when it was abandoned because of poor returns. The world economic depression of 1923 -33 hit Tanzania very much when prices of commodities went down.  As a result the Railway Advisory Council was forced to reduce the number of railway lines to Dar - es- salaam - Kigoma (1,248 km), Tabora - Mwanza (441.6 km) Manyoni - Minyangini (148 km) Tanga -  Arusha (435.2 km)

In spite of the reduction, the number of passengers rose from 60,000 in 1922 to 320,000 in 1939.

In the post - World War II period the central line had a branch from Kaliuwa to Mpanda Lead mine, Lead traffic rose from 1,600 tons in 1951 to 14,428 tons in 1960.  After Tanganyika's independence on 1961, lead production declined sharply and the Kaliuwa - Mpanda line was closed.

Three high hopes of the 1948 Government Groundnuts Scheme led to the construction of the 201.2 km. Mtwara - Nakingwea line in the same year.  Though the scheme failed the railway carried on and was opened to transport in 1954.  The Tanzania - Zambia railway was constructed after independence.

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