Madagascar

From Austronesian outriggers to the island republics

Madagascar's history begins with one of the most remarkable journeys in human settlement: seafarers from the region of Borneo who crossed the open Indian Ocean and, mixing over centuries with Bantu Africans, became the Malagasy people. Coastal kingdoms and a famous pirate era gave way to the highland Merina monarchy, which unified much of the island before French conquest abolished it in 1897. Independence came on 26 June 1960, followed by republics marked by socialist experiment and recurring political crisis.