List of colonial heads of Tanganyika

The colony of German East Africa was founded in the 1880s, after the German explorer Carl Peters signed treaties with native chieftains on neighboring Zanzibar. On 3 March 1885, the government of the German Empire granted an imperial charter to the German East Africa Company, and a protectorate was established. German rule in the region lasted until World War I, when the British occupied the colony during the East African Campaign. The British territory of Tanganyika was established on 20 July 1922, when Britain acquired a mandate to administer the region as a result of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. On 18 April 1946, the mandate was reorganized as a Trust Territory of the United Nations. Afterwards, the region remained under the British administration until it gained independence on 9 December 1961 as Tanganyika, and thereafter it became a Commonwealth realm.

(Dates in italics indicate de facto continuation of office)