History of Madagascar
Europe knew of Madagascar through Arab sources; based on them "The Travels of Marco Polo" claimed that "the inhabitants are Saracens, or followers of the law of Mohammed", without mentioning other inhabitants. Other than its size and location, everything about the island in the book describes southeastern Africa, not Madagascar. European contact began on 10 August 1500, when the Portuguese sea captain Diogo Dias sighted the island after his ship separated from a fleet going to India. The Portuguese continued trading with the islanders and named the island "São Lourenço" (Saint Lawrence). In 1666, François Caron, the director general of the newly formed French East India Company, sailed to Madagascar. The company failed to establish a colony on Madagascar but established ports on the nearby islands of Bourbon (now Réunion) and Isle de France (now Mauritius). In the late 17th century, the French established trading posts along the east coast. On Île Sainte-Marie, a small island off the northeastern coast of Madagascar, Captain Misson and his pirate crew allegedly founded the famous pirate utopia of Libertatia in the late 17th century. From about 1774 to 1824, Madagascar was a favorite haunt for pirates. Many European sailors were shipwrecked on the coasts of the island, among them Robert Drury, whose journal is one of the few written depictions of life in southern Madagascar during the 18th century. Sailors sometimes called Madagascar "Island of the Moon".
History of Madagascar
By the turn of the 19th century, King Andrianampoinimerina had reunited the highly populous Kingdom of Imerina, located in the central highlands with its capital at Antananarivo. His son, Radama I, began to exert its authority over the island's other polities and was the first Malagasy sovereign to be recognized by a foreign power as the ruler of the greater Merina Kingdom. Over the 19th century, a series of Merina monarchs engaged in the process of modernization through close diplomatic ties to Britain that led to the establishment of European-style schools, government institutions and infrastructure. Christianity, introduced by members of the London Missionary Society, was made the state religion under Queen Ranavalona II and her prime minister, highly influential statesman Rainilaiarivony. Political wrangling between Britain and France in the 1880s saw Britain recognize France's claim to authority on the island, leading in 1890 to the Malagasy Protectorate, which was unrecognized by the government of Madagascar. The French launched |two military campaigns known as the Franco-Hova Wars to force submission, finally capturing the capital in September 1895. This sparked the widespread Menalamba rebellion against French rule that was crushed in 1897; the monarchy was held responsible and dissolved, and the queen and her entourage exiled to Reunion and later Algeria, where she died in 1917. Following conquest, the French abolished Slavery in 1896 and approximately 500,000 slaves were freed.