Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Madagascar

Starting point is 00:00:00 Located off the southeastern coast of Africa is the island nation of Madagascar. It's a massive island known for its beautiful and diverse wildlife. And Madagascar is a unique country in almost every respect. Geographically isolated from the rest of Africa, it has a history, people, and language, which is unlike those of every other nation on the continent. Learn more about Madagascar. It's fascinating history and what makes the country unique on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night.

Starting point is 00:00:56 And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. Any discussion of Madagascar has to begin with the country's geography, as everything else that makes the country's, country interesting, flows directly from that. Madagascar is located off the southeastern coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. It is an area of approximately 587,000 square kilometers, or 226,000 square miles, making it roughly the size of France. It has a population of approximately 32.7 million people, ranking it as the 49th most populous country in the world, placing it between the Ivory Coast and Saudi Arabia.

Starting point is 00:01:43 Most of the country's area is comprised of the main island, which is the fourth largest island in the world and the second largest island country in the world after Australia. Madagascar can be split into five different regions, each with its own unique geography. These regions include the East Coast, the Saranana Massif, the Central Highlands, the West Coast, and the Southwest. The East Coast is primarily made up of lowlands, which are areas at or near sea level, with steep bluffs and ravines, leading into the Highlands. Much of the eastern coastline is considered hazardous due to its steep drop-offs and deep waters, which are home to a variety of wildlife, including sharks. The next region is the Sauranana Massif, which is at the northernmost portion of the island. This region has the highest mountain on the island, Meramocotro.

Starting point is 00:02:32 The central highlands contains the capital city of Antananarivo. This region is mountainous and accounts for a substantial portion of the country's agricultural output and population. The region is renowned for its rift valley, which features Lake Alarotra, the largest lake in the island. The west coast holds deep bays and important harbors for the country. Any non-coastal part of the west coast is largely swamp land and hasn't been extensively developed. The final region is the southwest, which is a plateau and a desert. While the country is viewed as being tropical, its climate can vary. The coastline is tropical, but the center of the island is more temperate and the south is very dry.

Starting point is 00:03:11 Madagascar was once part of the supercontinent Gondwana, which comprised the continents of South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian subcontinent. After the continent split, Madagascar remained connected to both Africa and India, eventually separating from Africa 80 million years ago and from India 90 million years ago. This left Madagascar isolated from the rest of the world. The result of this is that almost 90% of the island's animal species, including lemurs, are endemic to the island. And over 80% of the plants in Madagascar are also unique to the island. The amount of distinctive wildlife has made Madagascar one of the 17 most

Starting point is 00:03:53 biologically diverse countries on Earth. Perhaps the most incredible fact about Madagascar is that its initial human settlement arrived about 2,000 years ago from what is today Indonesia, not Africa. Given Madagascar's proximity to Africa, Africa, this is surprising to many people. Still, it's perhaps the greatest testament to the fact that, for the most part, Africa did not develop seafaring cultures. Africa is only located approximately 270 miles or 435 miles from the African coast. Yet it was people who came from over 4,000 miles away who ultimately settled the island. Early settlers cleared the coastal rainforests for slash and burn agriculture. Later, Arab traders arrived on the island between the 7th and 9th

Starting point is 00:04:43 centuries, and finally southeastern Africans began to arrive on the island about a thousand years ago. Arab traders made the first written record of Madagascar's history. Some of them would stay in the island, but they rarely travel to the interior. The island was used as a slave trade hub, where Arabs would buy slaves from the island and sell them to buyers in the Indian Ocean. Though Arabs were never able to convert the native population of Madagascar to Islam, many Muslim practices have remained in the country, including circumcision and abstaining from eating pork. European contact in Madagascar began with the Portuguese around the year 1500. The Portuguese arrived with a bang, literally.

Starting point is 00:05:27 They attempted to destroy the Arab settlements and Christianize the natives. However, this effort failed when the native population massacred the mission. later in 1548, they again attempted to settle in Madagascar and were again slaughtered by the native population. The Portuguese didn't make inroads until 1613, when the son of King Andri Andromica established relations with the Europeans after being taken hostage. The king agreed to send his son to receive a Western education and allowed the Portuguese to build a church, thereby initiating the process of evangelization. When the king's son returned, he had hoped to create an alliance with the Portuguese in the native Malagais people and spread Christianity.

Starting point is 00:06:10 However, this process failed, as many of the native people were not welcome in Portuguese settlements. This failure led to the death of some of the missionaries and resulted in the Portuguese pulling away from the island in 1615, viewing it as simply a death trap. After the Portuguese left, the British and Dutch attempted to settle the island. The Dutch arrived first on the East Coast and immediately began dying from malaria, hunger, and the local population. Slightly later, the English arrived, and were quickly massacred by the natives. After these few settlement attempts, the effort was mostly abandoned by European powers.

Starting point is 00:06:47 In fact, the Malagasy aversion to Europeans continued, with even European pirate vessels being massacred by locals if they happened to land on the island. The next colonization attempt was led by the French. They wanted to establish an outpost on the island to counter British influence. influence in the Indian Ocean. This colony was more successful, though the colonizers were still facing issues like disease. The French were cruel to the native population and were basically in a constant state of war. The locals would refuse to trade with the French effectively blockading the colony. Despite the best efforts of the French, history would come to repeat itself.

Starting point is 00:07:26 About 30 years after starting the French colony, the Malagasy massacred the colonizers with a few lucky escapees abandoning the settlement. Throughout the 18th century, the island was ruled by various native Malagasy kingdoms. One of the kings in the East Coast region, Ratsamalejo, allowed the French East India Company to hold the island of Saint-Marie, located just off the coast of Madagascar. The company arrived on the island around 1750 and was mostly wiped out by disease in just a few months. The native people then once again massacred the survivors. The French reached. The French retaliated by destroying villages and killing natives in a brutal campaign. But this colony, too, was later abandoned in 1761.

Starting point is 00:08:11 One European who did not get himself killed was the Polish-Hungarian noble Maurice Benyowski. He proposed a new French enterprise in Madagascar, wanting to reassert influence over the island. Arriving in 1774, he was very popular in Madagascar, aligning himself with native chiefs and creating infrastructure such as roads and canals. He was eventually proclaimed the sovereign chief of Madagascar by the Malagasy people. But his good relations with the people ultimately backfired. When he returned to France to present the people's submission to the king of France, he was entrusted by the French and therefore was unable to forge any alliances.

Starting point is 00:08:52 Benyovsky returned to Madagascar and was immediately welcome there. He then proclaimed himself to be the king of Madagascar and started to consolidate power across the island. However, the French were then threatened by this and sent in a military team, and they killed him in 1787. Afterward, the island fell under the control of the Marina Kingdom. An initially smaller kingdom from the Highlands, they would be the group to unify the country at the beginning of the 19th century, and this eventually also became known as the Kingdom of Madagascar. This can mainly be attributed to the efforts of King Radama I, who struck a deal with the British to abolish the lucrative sense. slave trade, which was being conducted by the French in exchange for British aid.

Starting point is 00:09:37 The unified kingdom of Madagascar lasted for roughly a century and was characterized by the development of schools, the transcription of the Malagasy language, and the adoption of new technologies. Yet it also had some very strong isolationist tendencies. The most notable leader from this period was Queen Ranan the Lova I, who ruled for 33 years from 1828 to 1861. At the start of her rule, Europeans had been trading with the island and making political and religious inroads. Her reign was highlighted by extreme isolationism. Determined to keep European influence at bay, she expelled nearly all missionaries, banned Christian worship and education, and had those who refused to renounce their faith, tortured, or executed. Her ruthless internal purges led to

Starting point is 00:10:24 the population of Madagascar, dropping by half in just the first six years of her reign. And as such, she was given the name the Mad Queen of Madagascar. In 1883, the French, angered by their diminished control over the region, invaded in the first Franco-Hova War, which resulted in part of the island's northern coast being seated to France. Later, when the continent of Africa was being divided by European powers at the Berlin Conference in 1884, control of Madagascar was given to France. The country was officially named a French colony, but as you can probably probably guessed from its history that didn't sit very well with the native population. To force the people into submission, parts of the island were militarily occupied. And due to the

Starting point is 00:11:12 tyranny faced under the Marina Kingdom, many common people actually collaborated with French forces and the monarchy surrendered in 1895. The French were instructed to use restraint towards any native people that were not Marina, and for the most part, they adhered to this guidance, and it worked. Under French colonial rule, slavery was permanently abolished and plantations were formed. Many former slaves became sharecroppers, but were still harshly discriminated against. Under colonization, mining and forestry companies were established, and taxes were typically paid in labor, creating a cheap workforce for French colonists. Independence movements began to grow in the 20th century.

Starting point is 00:11:54 French occupation by the Nazis in World War II caused colonial forces to become even more more unpopular, and independence movements began to gather more traction. A Malagasy uprising began in 1947, and in response, the French reformed their colonial institutions in 1956. By 1958, the Malagasy Republic was considered an autonomous French state and became fully independent on June 26, 1960. Since gaining independence, Madagascar has experienced significant political instability. It has seen the creation of four different Republican governments. The first republic had a French appointed president named Filibert Sirenana.

Starting point is 00:12:35 He maintained many of the colonial ties to France and kept many institutions French in language and culture. He lost power in 1972. Following his rule, a series of short spurts of leadership occurred, and eventually the second republic was formed in 1975, which lasted until 1993. This republic had a Marxist-Leninist orientation and was led by Didier Ratzakara. The Second Republic was closely tied to the Eastern Bloc and pretty much destroyed the country's economy. In 1991, Ratzakar was ousted in the presidential election and a transitional government was formed.

Starting point is 00:13:12 The Third Republic lasted from 1992 to 2010. The country got a new constitution that created a democracy and emphasized human rights and freedoms. But this period was plagued by continued economic stagnation and massive political corruption. A coup d'etat occurred in 2009, and a new constitution was created in 2010, creating the Fourth Republic. The Fourth Republic hasn't really done much to improve the lives of most people in the country, as a massive famine occurred in 2021 and 2022. As of today, the nation's gross domestic product is only approximately $17 billion, with 69% of the population living below the nation's poverty line of just one. dollar a day. Managascar is a paradox. It is technically considered part of Africa, even though it's

Starting point is 00:14:05 geographically, ecologically, ethnically, and linguistically different from every other country on the continent. Those differences are what make Madagascar special and unlike any other country on earth. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode was provided by Olivia Ash. Today's review comes from listener Ameripithecus Cogitans over on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, a must listen for the curious mind. The variety of subjects in the bite's eyes format is what sold me when I discovered this podcast.

Starting point is 00:14:49 Gary is an engaging host who does a great job of distilling his research into little packets of goodies for the brain. I've just become a new member of the Pacific Northwest Completionist Club, Western Washington Chapter. So now I guess I start over or maybe go backwards. Thanks, Gary, for being a regular companion over the last year. Thanks, Ameripithecus, and congratulations on achieving Completionist Club membership. It's quite an accomplishment. However, your path to Platinum Elite status in the Completionist Club may be even more rewarding. Remember, many are called, but few are chosen.

Starting point is 00:15:23 Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you two can have it read in the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Madagascar

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