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Madagascar, the largest island in the Indian Ocean, situated between lati-

tude 12°and 30° South and between longitude 45° and 51° East, is surround-

ed in the north by the Comoros islands and Mayotte, in the east by the Re-

union and Mauritius and in the west by South Africa across the Mozam-

bique Channel. It covers an area of 587 041 sq. Km, (1580 km long and 580

km wide).

Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island after Greenland, New Guin-

ea and Borneo. The prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana

separated the Madagascar-Antarctica-India landmass from the Africa-South

America landmass around 135 million years ago. Madagascar later split from

India about 88 million years ago, allowing plants and animals on the island

to evolve in relative isolation.

The island has a population of more than 22 million inhabitants. Capital

city of Madagascar is Antananarivo. Madagascar, the Red Island, the Rain-

bow Island, the Eighth Continent, there are many names for the world's 4th

largest island. The island is recognized as one of the world's top ten

hotspots for biodiversity.

FLAG :

REPUBLIC OF MADAGASCAR

Repoblikan'i Madagasikara (Malagasy)

MOTO: "Fitiavana, Tanindrazana, Fandrosoana" (Malagasy) "Amour, patrie, progrès" (French) "Love, Fatherland, Progress" ANTHEM: Oh, Beloved land of our Ancestors CAPITAL: Antananarivo OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Malagasy & French INDEPENDENCE: From France : 26 June 1960

President: Hery Rajaonarimampianina (2014) Prime Minister: Jean Ravelonarivo (2015) Currency: Malagasy ariary (MGA) Population (2014 est.): 23,201,926 (growth rate: 2.62%)

Religions: Indigenous beliefs 52%, Christian 41%, Muslim 7%. Literacy: 70% Climate: tropical along coast, temperate inland, arid in south, periodic cyclones.

In the Malagasy language, the island of Mada-

gascar is called Madagasikara and its people

are referred to asMalagasy. The

name Madageiscar was first recorded in the

memoirs of 13th-century Venetian explor-

er Marco Polo as a corrupted transliteration of

the name Mogadishu, theSomali port with

which Polo had confused the island. On St.

Laurence's Day in 1500, Portuguese explor-

er Diogo Dias landed on the island and chris-

tened it São Lourenço, but Polo's name was

preferred and popularized

on Renaissance maps. No single Malagasy-

language name predat-

ing Madagasikara appears to have been used by

the local population to refer to the island,

although some communities had their own

name for part or all of the land they inhabited.

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TIMELINE OF 100 years HISTORY As a very large island in the Indian Ocean (1000 miles from north to south, and in land area more than

twice the size of Great Britain), Madagascar is a natural landfall for seafarers sailing east from Africa or west from Indone-sia. Although the voyage from Indonesia is by far the longer, the ethnic make-up of the island's population, known collectively as the Malagasy, is as much Indonesian as African. Similarly the Malagasy language falls within an Indonesian group, though it also con-tains many words of African and colonial origin (Bantu, Swahili and Arabic from the first group, English and French from the sec-

ond).The island is first known to Europeans after being sighted in 1500 by a Portuguese ship on the new route to India, but it is not until a century later that much outside attention is paid to the place. In the 17th century Portuguese missionaries try to bring to the Malagasy the news of Christianity, and both Britain and France

attempt to establish settlements. France is the more successful, maintaining a garrison at Fort-Dauphin for thirty years. A massacre brings their presence to an end in 1674 (though the kings of France continue to claim rights over the island). Subsequently the only Europeans here tend to be pirates. Madagascar is one of Captain Kidd's favourite ports of call for shelter and provisions. Meanwhile, and of greater local significance, substantial kingdoms are beginning to be established at this same period by some of the island's many com-

peting rulers. By the middle of the 17th century almost half the island, in the west and north, is ruled by a dynasty emerging from the Sakalava tribes. The Sakalava dominance, declining in the 18th century, is followed by that of a Merina family from the central plateau. The Merina kingdom is firmly established by a forceful ruler with a name to test the memory, Andrianampoinimerina. On his death in 1810 he bequeaths to his son, Radama, the challenge of conquering the entire

island. The sea, he says, should be the boundary of the Merina rice field.

The Merina ricefield: 1810-1897 Radama I, inheriting his kingdom at the age of eighteen, expands it very successfully during the rest of his short life. He does not quite extend the Merina ricefield to

every shore of the island, as his father urged, but he wins control over perhaps two thirds of its large land mass. He does so with British help. After agreeing to abolish the export of slaves and to accept a British agent at his court in Antananarivo, he receives many concrete benefits - an annual subsidy, arms and ammunition, training and uniforms for his troops. A script is devised for the Malagasy language. Printing is introduced. And members of

the London Missionary Society set about the task of converting the Malagasy to Protestant Christianity. This busy state of affairs is brought to an abrupt end by the early death of Radama in 1828. He is succeeded on the throne by his queen, Ranavalona, who reverses all

his policies. Most of the Europeans are expelled, the newly baptized Christians are persecuted (some 200 are killed), and in 1835 the Christian religion is formally banned.The new policies need not imply chaos and a collapse of the kingdom, but in practice the reign of Ranavalona is characterized by rebellions, wars and brutality. It comes to an end with her death in 1861. Her son, Radama II, immediately opens the island again to European involvement. But within two years he is murdered in his palace - with the complicity of his wife, Rasoherina, who follows him on the throne. For the next three decades Madagascar, or the greater part of it, is ruled by a succession of three queens - Rasoherina (1863-8), her cousin Ranavalona II (1868-83), and Ranavalona's cousin Ranavalona III (1883-97). But the power behind the

throne is a man. Each queen in turn marries the same prime minister, Rainilaiarivony.The prime minister continues the policy of welcoming back the Europeans (he and his second wife are baptized together soon after the start of her reign), but by the 1880s the European powers are in a new and aggressive mood of colonialism. In the

case of Madagascar this is all too plain in the behaviour of the French.

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ARrival of the French: 1883-1897 In addition to their early and essentiallynotional claimto the island, from a few decades in the 17th century, the French have maintained a close contact with Madagas-car during the 19th century. When Ranavalona I expels most of the Europeans, in the 1830s, one of the few who remains is Jean Laborde, a Frenchman who wins con-siderable influence over the queen. And when her son, Radama II, decides to grant a concession to European entrepreneurs, it is a French company which he chooses. But by the 1880s the French government is in a more demanding mood. Several decades previously, during the anarchy of Ranavalona I's reign, the French offered pro-tection to the Sakalava tribes in the northwest. Now they claim this region as an official French protectorate. When their demands are rejected, in 1883, a French war-ship arrives off the port of Tamatave. A bombardment of the town is followed by the landing of marines. The French force subsequently moves north to capture Diégo-Suarez at the northern tip of the island. Two years later the prime minister and his current wife sign a treaty which confirms the power of gunboat diplomacy. Madagas-car's foreign affairs are from now on to be looked after by France; there is to be a French resident at court; and the region around Diégo-Suarez is to be ceded to France as a useful naval base. This violent fait accompli causes little concern in European diplomatic circles. Britain gracefully acknowledges that Madagascar is now a French protectorate (in return for a similar French understanding on the British position inZanzibar). But within Madagascar the situation is not so simple.Although he has signed the treaty in 1885, the prime minister sets about arming and training an army (British officers are made available to help him). The result is a brief war with a French force sent in 1895 to bring him to heel. Once again it is an uneven contest. The French reach the capital in September 1895. The queen and her husband are sent into exile (in 1897). Madagascar becomes a French colony. A French colony: 1897-1960 Madagascar prospers economically under French rule. Railways are introduced, roads are improved, new crops are cultivated (including coffee and tobacco) to supple-ment the existing exports of rice and cassava. Soon three quarters of Madagascar's external trade is with France.In World War II the local administration sides with France's Vichy government. The result is a blockade in 1942 by British and South African ships. When this brings the capitulation of the island, Madagascar is placed under the authority of the Free French. After the war Madagascar, like all other French colonies, becomes an overseas territory within the French Union. This status brings a territorial assembly at Antananarivo and the right to elect deputies to the national assembly in Paris. But meanwhile a nationalist movement, dating back to the first two decades of the century, has been making progress. In 1947 an insurrection is achieved by the Democratic Movement for Malagasy Renewal (a party to which all three delegates to the French national assembly belong). The resulting warfare between the French army and the insurgents results in an official tally of 11,000 deaths, a figure almost certainly too low.Again like all French colonies, Madagascar can choose in 1958 between an immediate severing of all links with France or inter-nal autonomy within what is now called theFrench Community. In a referendum the people opt for internal autonomy. Philibert Tsiranana, founder of the Social Demo-cratic Party, becomes president of the provisional government.Independence follows in 1960, under the new name of the Malagasy republic. Elections confirm Tsiran-ana in the post of president. Independence: from1960 Tsiranana remains president of the Malagasy republic for twelve years, until ill health causes him to resign in 1972. He has conducted a pro-western policy, benefiting from the Cold War atmosphere to win the support of the USA and other anti-communist powers. However the man whom he selects to follow him, Major General Ga-briel Ramanantsoa, abruptly reverses this policy. The Soviet Union and other communist countries are now looked to as the source of aid. French military and naval forces are expelled from the country. French commercial concerns are nationalized. Rural reform puts committees in charge of agricultural production for sale to state-owned companies. Ramanantsoa lasts just three years in charge of this programme. His successor in 1975, Colonel Richard Ratsimandrava, holds power for only six days before he is assassinated in a military coup (bringing the country to the brink of civil war). The incoming junta of officers selects Lieutenant Commander Didier Ratsiraka as president and head of a revolutionary council, which succeeds in maintaining control.For the next eleven years Ratsiraka continues his predecessors' com-munist policies, doing increasing damage to the country's economy. Then, in 1986, he abruptly changes tack. Laws are passed to transform Madagascar (the new name adopted for the republic in 1975) into a free-market economy. Western nations respond enthusiastically. France even cancels a national debt of four billion French francs. However the change of policy does little to enhance the popularity of Ratsiraka's military regime. The move throughout Africa at this time towards multiparty elections has its effect in Madagascar. An opposition grouping emerges - the Forces Vives (or Live Forces), led by Albert Zafy. It is sufficiently strong to force Ratsiraka to yield executive power in 1991 to a transitional government. Elections are held in two rounds in 1992-3. Zafy is elected president and the Forces Vives win enough seats to head a coalition in the new national assembly. However Madagascar's economy fails to pick up. In 1996 the national assembly votes to impeach Zafy. He stands down to enable a new presidential election to be held. In an election at the end of 1996 Zafy is defeated by his previous rival, the military dictator with sixteen years' presidential experience, Admiral Didier Ratsiraka. Legislative elections in May 1998 also give control of the national assembly to a colation headed by Ratsiraka's party, AREMA or Avant-garde de la Révolution Malgache (Avant-garde of the Malagasy Revolution). The wheel has come full circle from Ratsiraka's forced departure from office in 1991. But Madagascar's economic problems have barely improved in the interim, and the island suffers devastating damage from two cyclones early in 2000.

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Inflation rate (consumer prices) : 6.4%

Agricultural products: coffee, vanilla,

sugarcane, cloves, cocoa, rice, cassava,

manioc) beans, bananas, peanuts; live-

stock products

Industries: meat processing, seafood,

soap, beer, leather, sugar, textiles,

glassware, cement, automobile assembly plant, paper,

petroleum, tourism, mining.

Industrial production growth rate: 3.8%(2015 est)

Debt– external: $ 3.444 billion (31st December

2014 )

GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) :

US$35.56billion (2015)

US$34.39billion (2014)

Agriculture, including fishing and forestry, is a mainstay of the economy, accounting for more

than one-fourth of GDP and employing roughly 80% of the population. Deforestation and ero-

sion, aggravated by the use of firewood as the primary source of fuel, are serious concerns. After

discarding socialist economic policies in the mid-1990s, Madagascar followed a World Bank-

and IMF-led policy of privatization and liberalization until the onset of a political crisis, which

lasted from 2009-2013. The free market strategy had placed the country on a slow and steady

growth path from an extremely low starting point. Exports of apparel boomed after gaining

duty-free access to the US in 2000; however, Madagascar's failure to comply with the require-

ments of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) led to the termination of the coun-

try's duty-free access in January 2010, a sharp fall in textile production, and a loss of more than

100,000 jobs. Madagascar regained AGOA access in January 2015 following the democratic

election of a new President the previous year. In November 2015 the International Monetary

Fund (IMF) approved a Rapid Credit Facility to Madagascar worth about $42.1 million to help

the government meet its balance of payments needs. The IMF also approved a staff monitoring

program to guide policy implementation and indicated that Madagascar must demonstrate the

capability to sustain reforms to qualify for future requests for a credit facility.

GDP-composition, by sector of

origin :

Agriculture : 26.5%

Industry : 16.9%

Services : 56.6%

Currency of Madagascar

Trade:

Export: commodities: coffee, vanilla, shellfish, sugar, cotton, cloth, chromite, petroleum products Partners: France-17.7%,

US 8.8% Belgium 6.8% Netherlands 6.4% South Africa 5.7%, japan 5.4%, South Korea 5% China 4.8% Germany 4.5%

Imports– capital goods, petroleum, consumer goods, food

Partners: China 20.6% France 10.6% Algeria 6.3% India 5.4% Bahrain 5%, Mauritius 4.6 % South Africa 4.2% Kuwait 4%

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FAUNA

28 species of lemur, a lower primate largely confined to Mada-

gascar. The island has 32 species of chameleon. Among the 172

species of birds, 105 are found nowhere else in the world. The

same is true for about 80% of the island's flowering plants and

more than 95% of its reptiles. Madagascar is also unusual in its

lack of poisonous snakes and, except for recent introductions,

useful mammals. As of 2002, there were at least 141 species of

mammals over 9,000 species of plants throughout the country.

Madagascar is home to as many as 12,000 plant species . 70-80% of

which are endemic and making it one of the most diverse floras on the

planet .165 of Madagascar's 170 palms are not found anywhere else.

Of the 8 species of baobab found in the world, six are endemic to Mad-agascar. An entire family of plants, the Didiereaceaeis unique to Mada-gascar. Didiereaceae plants are found in the arid southwest and close-ly resemble some forms of cacti. Unlike catci though, they produce small deciduous leaves which are protected by meanacing thorns and spines that grow directly out of the plant's many branches. 95% of the species found in the Spiny desert exist only in this habitat unique to Madagascar. Madagascar has nearly 1000 known species of orchids, of which 85%

are endemic.

FLORA

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VOTING AGE: 18YEARS

GOVERNMNET TYPE: REPUBLIC

LEGISLATURE SIZE: 217

MEMBER OF UNITED NATIONS

GDP– 132$ BILLION

GDP GROWTH RATE– 3.32%

CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE- [ -$1.9 BILLION]

EXPORT– $592 BILLION

IMPORT- $2.76 BILLION

POPULATION– 23.6 MILLION

POPULATION DENSITY– 40.52 PEOPLE PER SQ. KM

ADULT LITERACY RATE– 64.48%

INTERNET USER—3.7 PER 100 PEOPLE

MILITARY EXPENDITURE -- 0.67%

FOREIGN RESERVE EXCHANGE — 773,817,676

EXTERNAL DEBT—$3.09 BILLION

NET INFLOW OF FDI — 3.31% OF GDP

VOTING AGE: 18YEARS

GOVERNMNET TYPE: FEDERAL REPUBLIC

LEGISLATURE SIZE: 790

MEMBER OF UNITED NATIONS

GDP– 2.7$ TRILLION

GDP GROWTH RATE– 7.29%

CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE- [-$91.5]

EXPORT– $302 BILLION

IMPORT– $504 BILLION

POPULATION– 1.3BILLION

POPULATION DENSITY– 435.7 PEOPLE PER SQ. KM

ADULT LITERACY RATE– 69.3%

INTERNET USER—18 PER 100 PEOPLE

MILITARY EXPENDITURE — 2.43%

FOREIGN RESERVE EXCHANGE — 325,081,060,906

EXTERNAL DEBT– $339 BILLION

NET INFLOW OF FDI — 1.65% OF GDP

MADAGASCAR INDIA