Madagascar and European Colonization

Madagascar was one of the many countries of affected by European colonization in the late 19th century into the early 20th century. The country of Madagascar is located east of the continent of Africa, although it is included as a country. To be more specific, it was east of the country of Mozambique. Below I have provided a map of present day Africa to allow a better understanding of the country’s geographic location.

Like a majority of the countries in Africa, the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 would leave a lasting impact on Madagascar. The European power that took control of Africa somewhat before, during, and prior to the Berlin Conference was the French. The French fought many wars to secure and hold the country under its rule. As a result of many aspects such as this in the country’s history, Madagascar’s culture, government and economy were most likely shifted and changed forever. A perfect example was the execution of slavery in Madagascar, and the area of Africa as a whole. An additional example would be the installment of what was previously known as “French Madagascar”.

To better understand how Madagascar has been impacted, a brief understanding of pre-colonial Madagascar is required. To begin with, archaeologists have come to estimate that the first settlers in Madagascar arrived in the time period between 350 B.C. and 550 A.D., while others have serious doubts about dates earlier than 420 A.D., which is the vaguely recorded date for the earliest human presence in Madagascar. This leads into the assumption that Madagascar was one of the last landmasses on the planet that was settled by humans. Based on my research, some of the groups that arrived hundreds of years before European colonialism were the Arabs, who first ...

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...fore European involvement, which is probably an indirect source of the expansion of slavery in the area. In the common case, Swahili slave traders transported slaves from Madagascar to the eastern coast of Africa earlier in the country’s history. In contrast to this fact, the map located above is primarily the European slave trade towards the end of the 18th century, and the entrance into the 19th century, at which time the Europeans were beginning to arrive in the Indian Ocean, and populate many of fragment-sized islands that encompass the area. In regards to this, the Mascarne islands received a substantial amount of slaves at the time when one thinks of how large these islands actually are. The wealth acquitted by this maritime trade spurred the rise of organized kingdoms on the island, some of which had grown quite powerful by the beginning of the 17th century.