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.
History of Madagascar
Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, certain Malagasy tribes occasionally waged wars to capture and enslave prisoners. They either sold the slaves to Arab traders or kept them on-hand as laborers. Following the arrival of European slavers, human slaves became more valuable, and the coastal tribes of Madagascar took to warring with each other to obtain prisoners for the lucrative slave-trade. Instead of spears and cutlasses, the tribesmen fought with muskets, musket-balls, and gunpowder that they obtained from the Europeans, conducting fierce and brutal wars. On account of their relationship to the pirates, the Betsimisaraka in eastern Madagascar had more firearms than anyone else. They overpowered their neighbors, the Antankarana and Tsimihety, and even raided the Comoro Islands. As the tribe on the west coast with the most connections to the slave trade, the Sakalava people also had access to guns and powder.