1787-1896







Madagascar 1500-1787



The first European on record to discover Madagascar was DIOGO DIAZ in 1500. By that time, the island was populated by people of African as well as of Malay stock, who had immigrated centuries ago.
Portuguese missionaries had made attempts to convert the island's population, but the Portuguese made no attempt to settle or establish a colony. The French established forts from 1642 onward : FORT-DAUPHIN, later ILE SAINTE MARIE. French influence did not go far beyond these forts. The French settlement at Fort Dauphin was abandoned in 1674. French pirates afterward established the pirate republic of LIBERTALIA, possibly at the former Fort Dauphin.
The indigenous population concentrated in interior highland regions which offered a better climate than the humid lowlands. In the 17th century there were a number of indigenous kingdoms, notably the Kingdoms of ANTEMORO, BETSILEO, MERINA, SAKALAVA. The latter expanded in the later 17th century, covering much of the north and west, then disintegrated in the two kingdoms of BOINA and MENABE.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Articles from Infoplease : Madagascar
Madagascar, from Library of Congress, Country Studies
DOCUMENTS Flag of Libertalia, from FOTW
REFERENCE



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on November 7th 2004

Click here to go Home
Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster
Click here to go to Statistics