The people of Tajikistan are called Tajiks. People who trace their ancestry to Tajikistan are 62 percent of the population, and include the Pamiri or Mountain Tajiks.
The Tajiks are an Indo-European people who settled the upper reaches of the Amu River (territory of present-day Uzbekistan). During the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Tajiks were divided.
The Pamiri people, also called the Pamirian or Mountain Tajiks (Pamirtsy in Russian) are made up of seven smaller ethnic groups. They live mostly in Tajikistan.
The people of Tanzania are called Tanzanians. Approximately 95 percent of Tanzanians may be roughly classified as Bantu peoples (including the Shambaa).
The United Republic of Tanzania, or Jamhuri ya Mwungano wa Tanzania, includes the mainland of Tanganyika, Zanzibar, and some offshore islands. Zanzibar and the coast have a long history of lucrative trading, which Arabs, Europeans, and Africans each have attempted to control.
On the southern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, live the Chagga people. They are also called Chaga, Waschagga, Jagga, or Dschagga.
The Maasai are thought of as the typical cattle herders of Africa, yet they have not always been herders, nor are they all today. Because of population growth, development strategies, and the resulting shortage of land, cattle raising is in decline.
The Shambaa, also referred to as the Shambala, are a Bantu people found mainly on the west Usambara mountain range in Tanzania. The homeland of the Shambaa is called Shambaai (or Shambalai).
For at least a thousand years, Swahili people, who call themselves Waswahili, have occupied a narrow strip of coastal land extending from the north coast of Kenya to Dar es Salaam (the capital of Tanzania). They also occupy several nearby Indian Ocean islands, including Zanzibar, Lamu, and Pate.
The people of Thailand are called Thai. There are more than 30 ethnic groups, each with its own history, language, religion, appearance, and patterns of livelihood.
The forerunners of today's Thais gradually moved from what is now southern China into the area of the Mekong and Chao Phraya river basins. They overcame Mon and Khmer peoples, and later intermingled with them.
The population of Trinidad is estimated to be 43 percent black, 40 percent Indian, 14 percent of mixed descent, 1 percent European, and 2 percent Chinese and other. Tobago is predominantly black.
The people of Tunisia are called Tunisians. The population is almost entirely of Arab descent.
Tunisia is one of the countries forming the Maghrib, the western part of North Africa. Tunisia is the most Westernized state in North Africa.
The people of Turkey are called Turks. About 85 percent of the population traces their ancestry to Turkey.
Since the eleventh century, Turks have inhabited the area that is modern Turkey. The ancestors of today's Turks, known as the Seljuk Turks, won control of the region in AD 1071.
Kurds have almost never had a country of their own. "Kurdistan" is the mountainous area where the borders of Iraq, Iran, and Turkey meet.
The people of Turkmenistan are called Turkmens or Turkomans. Over 70 percent of the population are Turkmens.
The ethnic origins of the Turkmens are generally traced to the Oghuz, a loose alliance of Turkic tribes in what is now Mongolia in the seventh and eighth centuries AD. By the twelfth century, Turkmen tribes had migrated into what are now Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and other parts of the Middle East.
The Baganda, who populate the northern shore of Lake Victoria, constitute the largest single ethnic group in Uganda (about 17 percent of the total population). Ten other main ethnic groups, each accounting for between 3 and 12 percent of Uganda's population, together make up 60 percent of the total.
Uganda's ethnic history is largely the result of two population movements that occurred between AD 1000 and 1500. Cattle herders, known as Hima, moved into exclusively agricultural areas.
The Baganda people of Uganda are sometimes referred to as The King's Men because of the significance of the role of their king—the Kabaka in their political, social, and cultural institutions. Until 1967, the Baganda were organized into a tightly centralized, bureaucratized kingdom.
The people of Ukraine are called Ukrainians. About 75 percent of the population traces their origins to the Ukraine.
South Asians (Asian Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Sri Lankans) account for about 45 percent of the population of the UAE, followed by Arabs (about 33 percent), and Iranians (17 percent). Westerners (Americans and Western Europeans) account for about 5 percent.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a confederation of seven sheikdoms (regions headed by a sheik or emir), or emirates, located on the shore of the Persian Gulf. Its Bedu (Bedouin) tribes were converted to Islam during the seventh century AD.
The people of the United Kingdom are called British or English, Welsh, Scots, and Irish. Over 90 percent of United Kingdom residents are native-born.
England is unique among European countries. As an island, it has been protected by surrounding waters that form a natural barrier.
The inhabitants of Uruguay are primarily (about 88 percent) white and of European origin, mostly Spanish and Italian; a small percentage is descended from Portuguese, English, and other Europeans. Mestizos (mixed white and Amerindian lineage) represent 8 percent of the population, and blacks and mulattoes (mixed black and white) about 4 percent.
The Portuguese, based in Brazil, migrated south into Uruguay in 1680 where they founded a colony called Colonial de Sacramento. In 1726, Spain established a fort in nearby Montevideo (mohn-teh-vih-DAY-oh), the present-day capital of Uruguay.
It is estimated that about 70 percent of the population is Uzbek. Russians constitute 8 percent; Tajiks, 5 percent; Kazaks, 4 percent; Tatars, 3 percent; and Karakalpaks, 2 percent.
The Uzbeks were the third largest ethnic group of the former Soviet Union when it collapsed in 1991. Although they were originally nomads, most Uzbeks have been settled for more than three hundred years.
The Karakalpaks (who call themselves Qoraqolpoqlar) are a people of Central Asia. They lived within the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union until it was dissolved in 1991.
Nearly 95 percent of the total population of Vanuatu is of Melanesian origin. Minority groups include Europeans (mostly French) and other Pacific Islanders.
A total of eighty-three islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean make up the Republic of Vanuatu. Twelve of the islands are considered the main islands of the group.
The original inhabitants of Venezuela were Amerindians, mainly Caribs and Arawaks. The bulk (about 68 percent) of the present population is mestizo (mixed race); an estimated 21 percent is unmixed white, 8–10 percent is black, and 2 percent is Amerindian.
Venezuela was colonized by Spain in the sixteenth century. The Spanish conquerors at first explored its long Caribbean coastline.
The Guajiros are a people of northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela. They have been seminomadic (not keeping permanent homes) for hundreds of years.
The Pemon-Caribs of Venezuela used to be called Arecuna, Kamarakoto, and Taurepan. But they call themselves Pemon.
About 87 percent of the population of Vietnam is composed of ethnic Vietnamese. In addition to the ethnic Vietnamese, there are fifty-three other ethnic groups living in Vietnam.
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, commonly known as Vietnam, is located in Southeast Asia. The country's history has been shaped by its location between China and India.
The Cham live in Vietnam and Cambodia. They are descendants of refugees from the ancient kingdom of Champa who fled central Vietnam 500 years ago.
Samoans comprise almost 93 percent of the total population of Western Samoa. Samoans also account for 89 percent of the population of neighboring American Samoa, a territory of the United States.
Since independence, the population has been almost entirely Arab. Many ethnologists contend that the purest "Arab" stock is to be found in Yemen.
Ancient Yemen was known as "Happy (or Fortunate) Arabia" because of its great wealth. Its riches were the result of both its location on the most important trade routes of the time—over land and sea—and its profitable trade in frankincense and myrrh.
The people of Zambia are called Zambians. Seventy ethnic groups live in Zambia, including the Bemba (37 percent) and Tonga (19 percent).
The Bemba occupy the northeastern part of Zambia. They are a matrilineal group (tracing descent through the mother's line).
The Tonga live in southern Zambia along the Zambezi River.
Zimbabweans are mainly related to the two major Bantu-speaking groups, the Shona (about 77 percent of the population) and the Ndebele (about 18 percent). Europeans in Zimbabwe are almost entirely either immigrants from the United Kingdom or South Africa or their descendants.
Zimbabwe is known for its rich tradition of stone sculpture and for its natural tourist attractions such as the Great Zimbabwe Falls and Victoria Falls. It was a British colony known as Rhodesia from 1896 until 1980.