Despite Dodoma having replaced Dar es Salaam as the official capital of Tanzania in 1974, the latter had remained the seat of most government administrations, as well as the largest city and port in the country. Its settlement was originally founded in 1862 by the sultan of Zanzibar on the site of the village of Mzizima. During the colonial period, the city became a possession of the German East Africa Company and started growing as a station for the Central Line railroad, eventually serving as the capital of German East Africa, Tanganyika, and Tanzania. Today, it is Tanzania’s most prominent city in all art fields and one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.