WI no humans on Madagascar by 1500

[Derek Jackson]

How worth while would it be for European or Asian colononists?

How much more diverse would its fauna and flora be?

What would be its human population be in 2017?

 

[Revachah]

They'd die of malaria as they had for centuries OTL before they reached the central highlands and their bodies would be eaten by giant fossa.

At any case given the spread of banana and other clear Southeast Asian derived crops and technologies all around the East African littoral it would eventually be inhabited.

You'd have to butterfly away all Indian Ocean links that connected Africa to Asia and given the spice trade that's highly unlikely.

 

[Revachah]

Also given the history of Europeans and animals on islands, the faunal range would probably be the same as OTL.

Palaeopropithecidae would all be dead, Pygmy hippos would all be dead, the elephant birds would all be dead as would all ground egg laying species.

Rats, dogs and hunting/collecting pressures would insure only the swiftest or illusive wildlife survived.

One could argue that some could be kept as curios but the lemurs that perished were specialized and in some cases quite large not likely to survive a journey to some preserve by sea.

You may on the other hand have a perserve where visitors could look at them like curios but you know the fauna doesn't change much in terms of colony profitability.