First Contact

Some of the nations in Africa were not exposed to any outside people that were not native to where they lived. The first outside contacts with the people of Madagascar came from Portugal. Sometime in 1500 a Portuguese ship saw the island, but did not stop there. These people were trying to travel to India when they saw the island. In the 17^th century missionaries from Portugal came to Madagascar to tell them about Christianity. This is probably how the religion of Christianity came to the island of Madagascar.

Also around the 17^th century Britain and France tried to make settlements here. These were some of the first Europeans to come to Madagascar. In the late 1800s until the middle of the 1900s the French ruled parts of Madagascar. The country thrived under this rule because they were introduced to things they did not have before. Some examples of things they were introduced to were the crops tobacco and coffee. France valued Madagascar because of the vanilla, timber, and spices they could find there. They did not have independence from France until 1960. At this time the majority of trade was 

done with France. 

In the 1600s the coast of Madagascar was full of pirates. These pirates were mostly on the eastern coast of the island. They would attack European ships that were taking things back to Europe that they had bought in India. There were many valuables that people could purchase in India such as spices and that could have been some of the things the pirates wanted to take from the ships they attacked. Most of the contact Madagascar has had in the past with European countries seems to have helped both nations, such as with France. France and Madagascar benefited when France was ruling Madagascar.

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad26

http://www.wildmadagascar.org/kids/05-history.html