History of Madagascar
By the 15th century, Europeans had wrested control of the spice trade from the Muslims. They did this by bypassing the Middle East and sending their cargo-ships around the Cape of Good Hope to India. The Portuguese mariner Diogo Dias became the first European to set foot on Madagascar when his ship, bound for India, blew off course in 1500. In the ensuing two-hundred years, the English and French tried (and failed) to establish settlements on the island.
Hinduism in Madagascar
The history of Hinduism in Madagascar began with the arrival of primarily Gujarati from the Saurashtra region of India as far back as 1870, at which time Madagascar was a French colony known as Malagache. These were predominantly Muslim (Khojas, Ismailis and Daoudi Bohras), but a small number were Hindus.