Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Maldives

Starting point is 00:00:00 Located just southwest of the southern tip of India lies one of the only countries in the world consisting solely of coral atolls. Unlike similar countries which are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this country has a location and proximity, which has given it a unique history. And it also faces a unique set of problems given its geography and geology. Learn more about the Maldives, its past, present, and future on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? 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. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. The Republic of the Maldives is located in the Indian Ocean,

Starting point is 00:01:07 about 430 kilometers at its closest point from India and 700 kilometers from Sri Lanka. It's an archipelago of 26 coral atolls that stretch in an approximate north-south line over a range of about 800 kilometers with 1,194 islands. Even though the country stretches over such a wide area, the total amount of land is only about 300 square kilometers or 120 square miles. Or to put it into perspective, it's slightly smaller than the nation of Malta. There are only four countries in the world that consist entirely of coral atolls, and I've previously done episodes on the other three. Tuvalu, Kiribas, and the Marshall Islands. The Maldives, which shares many traits with those other countries, also had a very different history due to the fact that it's relatively close to a major

Starting point is 00:01:54 populated landmass, and not in a remote area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Before I continue, I want to reiterate the reality of living on a coral atoll. Many people see photos of palm trees and white sand beaches and think that such a place must be paradise. Indeed, the photos look really nice, and in fact, they are great places to visit. But think for a moment about what a coral atoll is, and you can reference the past episode I did on Charles Darwin's theory of coral atoll formation. Atolls are the result of former volcanoes that have subsided, and the coral that grew around the volcano. When the volcano totally sinks below the surface, what's left is a ring of coral. The islands are made almost entirely out of

Starting point is 00:02:38 calcium carbonate, which is also what the white sands on the atolls are made out of. This means that there is literally nothing else in terms of mineral resources. No iron, no copper, no anything. Oh, and fresh water is going to be extremely hard to come by as well, and agriculture is going to be difficult because there's no real soil. There's no lumber beyond palm trees, and no wild animals on the islands beyond a few birds. Manufacturing is difficult because everything has to be imported, including the fuel and raw materials, and then it all has to be shipped out. There also isn't a lot of space for factories if they even wanted to build them. So that's the reality of life on a coral atoll, and something you should keep in mind the next time

Starting point is 00:03:19 you view the lovely images of overwater bungalows. The history of the Maldives is part of the broader history of South Asia. According to legend, the first people to settle in the Maldives arrived there about 3,000 years ago. They arrive by boat from what is believed to be either southern India or Sri Lanka. There isn't a whole lot we know about the first Maldivians. Atolls don't lend themselves to layers of buried artifacts as they do on continental land. Much of what we know are legends that have been passed down from generation to generation. The first settlements on the Maldives may not have been very permanent. They were probably just outposts used while fishing, or maybe sites that were

Starting point is 00:03:55 abandoned after initial settlement. The first real evidence of permanent settlements dates back to about 300 BC with the first Maldives kingdom, the kingdom of Diva Mari. While the atolls didn't have much in the way of resources, they did have something which would provide value for centuries. The Maldives happened to be strategically located on trade routes between Arabia, Persia, Southern India, and East Asia. In the 4th century, there were actually reports of a delegation from the Maldives who sent an emissary to deliver gifts to the Roman Emperor Julian. The initial religion of the ancient Maldivians was Hinduism. as was the case with much of Southeast Asia. Indian traders brought their religion with them

Starting point is 00:04:34 as they traded throughout the region. However, Buddhism later became the dominant faith around the 3rd century BC. The Buddhist period in the Maldives lasted for almost 1,400 years. The strategic position of the Maldives made it a location for many notable travelers from history, including the great Islamic traveler Ibn Batuta, as well as the Chinese Admiral Zheng He, both of whom I've done previous episodes on. Perhaps the biggest historical change in the Maldives was the version of King Dovamy, the last Buddhist king of the Maldives, to Islam in 1153. The Maldives actually converted to Islam rather late compared to other Islamic countries. Islam arrived in the Maldives in the same way that it arrived in countries like Malaysia and

Starting point is 00:05:15 Indonesia. Arab traders brought their religion with them as they sailed across the Indian ocean. Having converted to Islam, King Dovami changed his title to Sultan and adopted the name Muhammad L. Adel. This was the beginning of what would be almost 800 years of Islamic royal dynasties which ruled the Maldives. There were six dynasties consisting of 84 sultans who ruled the Maldives up through 1968. The official title of the Sultan was Sultan of Land and Sea, Lord of the 12,000 Islands, and Sultan of the Maldives. As with every other country in the region, the Maldives found Europeans on their shores. The Portuguese were the first to arrive in the Maldives in 1558. They set up a colony that was administered out of their primary Indian colony in Goa. They tried to

Starting point is 00:06:00 impose Christianity on the Maldives, and that did not go over very well. There was a popular revolt organized by a local leader named Muhammad Sakuhrou-Fanu Al-Azam that ended up driving the Portuguese out of the Maldives. El-Azam is considered a hero in the Maldives, and the expulsion of the Portuguese is celebrated as the National Day in the Maldives today. A century later, the Maldives came under the Dutch sphere of influence who controlled the island of Ceylon, which is now known as Sri Lanka, but they didn't try to control the domestic affairs as the Portuguese did. The Dutch were ousted from Ceylon in 1796 by the British, who then assumed the Maldives as a protectorate. Like the Dutch, the British mostly left the Maldives to run local affairs under Islamic law.

Starting point is 00:06:43 The status of a protectorate under the British became codified in 1887. In 1932, the position of Sultan was changed from a hereditary title to an elected position. After World War II, the process of decolonization reached the Maldives. In 1952, the Sultan Majid Diddy died, and the position was offered to Mohamed Amunditi, but he declined the position. Because they had no sultan, a referendum was held, which turned the Maldives into a republic. And Muhammad Amandidi, the man who refused the job, was then elected as the first president of the Maldives with 96% of the vote in January of 1953. His tenure didn't last very long, however, because he was overthrown in a military coup in August of that year.

Starting point is 00:07:25 The Maldives then had another referendum, and this time reversed the previous referendum, reestablishing the Sultanate with 98% of the vote. The new sultan, who now took the title of king, was Muhammad Farid Diddy, who took the office in 1954. In 1965, the Maldives officially achieved independence and joined the United Nations in the same year. In 1968, the Maldives had yet another referendum on becoming a republic, and this time they voted to end the monarchy with 81% of the vote. vote, upending the referendum that upended the referendum. Today, the Maldives has a population of about 530,000 people, depending on which estimate you use. That means that the Maldives has the third

Starting point is 00:08:07 highest population density of any country in the world, behind only Monaco and Singapore. Almost half of the population of the Maldives lives in the capital city of Mali, with only 8.3 square kilometers or 3.2 square miles of land, and a population over a quarter million people, It is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. And I highly recommend you go and look at an aerial image of Mali if you can. Almost every square inch of land is taken up with buildings, and in some ways it's actually rather impressive. The primary language in the Maldives is Devehi, which is closer related to Sinhala, which is

Starting point is 00:08:44 spoken in Sri Lanka. However, due to the economy of the country, English is heavily spoken everywhere. With regards to economics, the Maldives economy used to be a very simple subsistence economy based on cowrie shells, fishing, and coconut fiber as their only exports. In the early 1970s, the Maldives was one of the poorest countries in the world. Of the 1,194 islands in the country, only 189 actually have people living on them. That meant that over 1,000 islands with white sands and turquoise blue water were available for development.

Starting point is 00:09:16 It was in 1972 that the Maldives began to develop their tourism industry. The first resort in the country was the Karumba Resort just north of the city of Mott. Today, tourism is the largest sector of the Maldivian economy by a wide margin. There are currently 132 resorts in the Maldives, which service 1.2 million tourists a year. There are approximately two dozen resorts under construction, and recent upgrades to the airport will now allow for up to 7.5 million passengers per year. One of the reasons why the Maldives is able to get so many tourists is because of its location. The strategic position of the Maldives used to be because it was in the middle of trade route.

Starting point is 00:09:55 but today it makes the country accessible from Europe, the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia. Other atoll countries get almost no tourism despite how attractive their islands are because they're so far away and so difficult to reach. I can't talk about the Maldives without talking about one of the biggest issues facing the Maldives today and other atoll countries, sea level rise. The highest point in the entire country is only 2.3 meters or 7.5 feet above sea level, and the average elevation is only 1.5 meters. Even a slight rise in sea levels would eliminate most of the land in the country.

Starting point is 00:10:32 During the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, six islands were completely destroyed, and 14 more were rendered uninhabitable, which gives an indication of just how vulnerable these islands are. The Maldives has been at the forefront of raising awareness of the issue, and one possible plan is to use tourism proceeds to purchase land for the population to move to in either India or Australia. The Maldives is a great place to visit. I went there in 2018 after a trip I made to Sri Lanka. Most of the resorts are all on relatively small islands, and you get the feeling of being on a remote island in the middle of the ocean, because you are on a remote island in the middle of the ocean. Most people who visit the Maldives have no clue about the

Starting point is 00:11:13 country's history. To them, it's just beaches and bungalows. However, this archipelago in the Indian Ocean has a rich history that dates back thousands of years, which is something more people should familiarize themselves with before they go there on holiday. Everything Everywhere Daily is an Airwave Media podcast. The executive producer is Darcy Adams. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener Stato 88 over on Apple Podcasts in Great Britain. They write, Superb Podcast.

Starting point is 00:11:47 This is a great podcast, always informative. As a Brit, I often find Gary's pronunciation of British place names hilarious. but the episode on cricket is definitely an American's view of the greatest game on Earth. Thanks, Sato. I don't mean to violate your privacy, but according to my schedule, I'm very proud of my episodes on both vitamins and aluminum. I think they serve as great advertisements for the podcast. In fact, I might do future episodes on herbs, fish fillets, and maybe even aubergines. And if you don't like it, please don't throw tomatoes. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostogram, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Maldives

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