Another world
Madagascar and the Seychelles are fragments of the ancient supercontinent of Godwana.
When the Gondwana began to break up (about 160 million years ago), Madagascar separated from Africa before and just after India (89 million years ago).
This isolation has made â??â??Madagascar biogeography what some call the '"eighth continent."
for the extraordinary degree of endemism of the flora and fauna of the island.
The island is almost entirely missing the animal species typical of continental Africa, while many are those that Madagascar has in common with many continents from Africa.
Also concerning the population, the Madagascar must human presence at a relatively recent colonization.
The first men to reach the island, between 2000 and 1500 years ago, were probably of Indonesian and Malay, as revealed by studies of the DNA of the local population are descended from these early settlers ethnicities Malagasy by physical traits and cultural evidently Asia Indonesians-such as the Merina who inhabit the central plateau.
Subsequently, migration flows from Africa left of the Bantu peoples, that gave origin to peoples like the Sakalava and Bara in the south west of the island.
The Arabs knew the island before the Europeans, and they began to establish settlements in Madagascar around the tenth or eleventh century, especially with the intention to trade in slaves and many elements of Malagasy culture bear witness to this ancient Arab influence.
Left out of the sphere of influence of the great powers of Europe, Madagascar the sixteenth and seventeenth century it became the ideal refuge for pirates who preyed on merchant fleets in transit to India.
Colonialism and the consequent growth in demand for slaves by the European powers had a significant influence on the internal balance of Madagascar. This influx of wealth led to the formation of the first kingdoms of the island, in particular, the Sakalava, the West gave rise to the kingdom of Menabe.
The different attitudes kings that followed were alternating between closing nationalist and traditionalist and pro-European oriented in different eras to the British or more towards the French. The latter maintained its domination of the Madagscar until the declaration of independence 26 June 1960.
