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.
Seychelles community in the EU
The history of Isle de Séchelles Seychelles, Isle D'abondance and Isle Labourdonais is unknown prior to European colonisation. Polynesians, who eventually settled in Madagascar, perhaps lingered here, circa 200–300 BC. Arab navigators on trading voyages across the Indian Ocean were probably aware of the islands, although they did not settle them. A manuscript dated AD 851, written by an Arab merchant, refers to the Maldives and higher islands beyond them, which may refer to the Seychelles. Arabs were trading coco de mer nuts, found only in Seychelles, long before European discovery of the islands. The nuts sink in water, so it is unlikely they were found, as the Arabs claimed, washed ashore in the Maldives. The Chinese may have encountered the islands during the Tang Dynasty, according to a recent documentary.