Tanzania, 1964 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 19 to 20 January 1964 the soldiers of the Tanganyika Rifles mutinied against their mostly British officers, in a rising that shook the government of President Julius Nyerere barely two years after independence and days after the Zanzibar Revolution next door. The 1st Battalion seized Colito Barracks and key points in Dar es Salaam on the 19th, deposing and expelling their European officers, and the 2nd Battalion at Tabora joined the next day, so that the whole army had rebelled. The soldiers, motivated by demands for higher pay and the Africanization of the officer corps, surrounded the State House and took the radio station and airport, but President Nyerere and Vice President Kawawa escaped and remained in hiding in the capital.
Rather than negotiate personally, Nyerere let his defense minister come to terms, then made the painful request for British military help. Royal Marines landed, quickly quelled the mutiny, and the Tanganyika Rifles was disbanded and replaced by a new force under civilian control.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
51001191964
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Julius Nyerere survived the mutiny with British military help and rebuilt the army under civilian control.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Luttwak (20 January 1964)
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →