Madagascar

Madagascar is among the last major land masses to be reached by humans. Despite the island's location just off the east coast of Africa, its first settlers arrived on outrigger canoes from Borneo around 2,350 years ago, followed over 1000 years later by migrants from East Africa.

The name Madageiscar was first recorded in the memoirs of 13th-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo as a corrupted transliteration of the name Mogadishu, the Somali port with which Polo had confused the island.

The capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo, was founded in 1625 by King Andrianjaka on the site of a village occupied by Vazimba, the island's earliest inhabitants.

France took over the city of Antananarivo in 1895, and added Madagascar as a colony two years later.

Ranavalona I was sovereign of the Kingdom of Madagascar from 1828 to her death on August 16, 1861. A ruthless ruler of Madagascar, during her reign the population of Madagascar is estimated to have declined from around 5 million to 2.5 million.

Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar

Queen Ranavalona II of Madagascar was born in 1829 and became queen consort in 1868 when she married King Radama II. After her husband's death in 1863, she became the reigning queen.

On February 21, 1869, Queen Ranavalona II and her court converted to Christianity. She officially declared Christianity as the state religion of Madagascar, making it the first African kingdom to adopt Christianity as the official religion and invited Christian missionaries spread the faith

However, her efforts faced opposition, as there were elements within the society that resisted the influence of foreign religions. Despite the challenges, Ranavalona II continued to support the Christian mission in Madagascar until her death on July 13, 1883.

The last monarch of Madagascar was Queen Ranavalona III who ruled for fourteen years from 1883. During her reign, she tried to modernize the kingdom and establish closer ties with European powers, but her efforts were hampered by political instability, resistance from traditionalists, and the growing French influence in Madagascar. 

In 1895, the French invaded the island and, after a brief conflict, forced Queen Ranavalona III was forced to abdicate. The French exiled her to Algeria on February 27, 1897, where she lived in exile until her death in 1917. She is remembered as a symbol of Malagasy resistance against colonialism and as a cultural icon in Madagascar.

Ranavalona, her aunt Ramasindrazana and niece Marie-Louise in Algiers in 1899

In 1938 Hermann Göring proposed plans to make the island of Madagascar the "Jewish homeland", an idea that had first been considered by 19th century journalist Theodor Herzl.  On June 3, 1940, Franz Rademacher, head of the Jewish Department of the German Foreign Office, recommended that Madagascar should be made available as a destination for the Jews of Europe. 

The Malagasy Republic was proclaimed in 1958, as an autonomous state within the French Community. A period of provisional government ended with the adoption of a constitution the following year and full independence on June 26, 1960.

Madagascar's Rova of Antananarivo, which served as the royal palace from the 17th to 19th centuries, was destroyed by fire on November 6, 1995.

The nation comprises the island of Madagascar as well as numerous smaller peripheral islands.

Madagascar is the world's fourth-largest island behind Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo.

Because of its isolation, over 90% of Madagascar's wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth.

Madagascar is the only place where lemurs can be found in the wild.

Madagascar has the third largest coral reef system in the world, the Toliara coral reef, off the south-western coast.

The currency unit in Madagascar is the ariary, which is divided into five iraimbilanja.

Hery Rajaonarimampianina, the president of Madagascar from January 2014 to September 2018, had a longer surname than any other president in the world.

Ninety per cent of the people in Madagascar live on less than two dollars a day.

About 37 per cent of the world's vanilla comes from Madagascar. The island also produces  half the world's sapphires.

Source Daily Express