Empty Madagascar till the colonial times ?

A large port in the middle of nowhere is good because........?

Well, under normal circumstances it would'nt be, but at the time the area from northern Mozambique running up the coast to the Horn of Africa and the South Arabian coast were all parts of a major trade zone, and having a port in the South would be useful, now when we look we can see that their were only two real options for them; set-up shop on a small island that could be easily conquered, starved or otherwise disrupted, or build/lease/conquer a village on the mainland or Madagascar, where their were both large indigenous populations and near-by state-level societies.

Now, with an empty Madagascar you can build a trading place that has the advantages of being on the mainland without the disadvantages of having to worry about some neighboring native army coming around and causing issues.
 
Looking up the current ports of Madagascar, we find only a handful on the west coast facing Africa.

http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/MDG.php

They are:

* Diego Suarez, in the extreme north, about 600 miles from Africa.

* St. Louis, just south of Suarez, about 550 miles from Africa.

* Adonay, just south of Suarez, about 550 miles from Africa.

* Morondava, about 400 miles from Africa.

* Tulear, about 520 miles from Africa.

All these distances are as the crow flies, ie, a straight line. It's almost impossible that a sailing ship would simply go straight from one point to another.

The current in the Mozambique channel flows southwards. With coastal countercurrents going north along both the Malagsay and Mozambique coasts.

Given the vagaries of sailing, I'd say the realistic distance from Africa to any port in Madagascar would probably be about 1000 miles, give or take.

If you can get there at all:

It is not wise to consider cruising in the Mozambique Channel between November and May as this is both the rainy and cyclone season. Towards the southern end of this region, a high incidence of cold fronts and gales can be experienced between July and August.
The Mozambique current is south flowing and because of the long cyclone season and the possible winter gales, renders this region as comfortable for cruising for only about six months of the year.

http://www.cruiserswiki.org/wiki/Mozambique_Channel

A secure mainland port accessible only half the year and perhaps a thousand miles of sailing away? I dunno.

As I've said, its not clear to me that Arab sailors would necessarily have found it, or having found it, it's not clear that they would have done much with it.
 
A large port in the middle of nowhere is good because........?


EDIT: Woops, didn't see the explanation above. Though to the point of seasonal sailing, that was happening anyway in the Indian Ocean due to the fact that dhows were dependent on the monsoons to bring them to East Africa from Asia. They could only sail one direction at a time for half the year each anyway IOTL.
 
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Because it provides a nice stopping point between India/Arabia and the Southeastern Coast of Africa. Good as a base for getting ivory, gold, and slaves, with lots of naive animals to feed the port meat (at least for a little while) and, as has already been pointed out, no hostile local forces. It's a dream come true for Indian Ocean sailors.

I really hope that I'm not being deliberately obtuse. I keep looking for distances and currents on a map.
 
I think atleast some giant lemurs could have survived, if the humans would have arrived later and it would be more sparsely inhabited than it was OTL.
Especially if said lemurs (Archaeoindris and Megaldapsis) would be considered as a sacred animal, and it would be forbidden to kill it. Depending on how Madagascar gets colonized, i think they can very well survive in remote mountain regions.
maybe they would be quite rare, but its possible. i dont think it is ASB.
 
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The malaria parasite will very quickly come to Madagascar after colonization. The first generation of settlers might live in a malaria free zone, but after that the disease will appear.
 
The malaria parasite will very quickly come to Madagascar after colonization. The first generation of settlers might live in a malaria free zone, but after that the disease will appear.

How does malaria get to Madagascar. It would have to be brought with the population.
 
How does malaria get to Madagascar. It would have to be brought with the population.

Not only that, you'd also have to bring over the moaquitoes, since they're Malaria's vector, which while possible (Malaria does exist in Madagascar IOTL), would'nt be immediate.


what other people could migrate there ?
Bantu people, malagasy. but are there any other people ?

Pretty much anyone and everyone who would/could migrate their did IOTL.
 
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it should be as sparsely populated as possible and quite primitive, like Papua Newguinea was OTL.
maybe avoiding malagasy people somehow, and instead have only africans, Bantu ? settling the area ?
also there are some taboos: Archaeoindris, Megalaldapsis are not allowed to be eaten or hunted.
Nor are Elephant birds (aepyornis) or their eggs.
 
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it should be as sparsely populated as possible and quite primitive, like Papua Newguinea was OTL.

Papua New Guinea and New Guinea overall have never been that sparsely populated*, rather their geography has just made them hard to penetrate by outsiders and caused the indigenous populations to be incredibly diverse.


maybe avoiding malagasy people somehow, and instead have only africans, Bantu ? settling the area ?

Without the Malagasy their may not be a reason for them to settle to the degree they did, so assuming they did for whatever reason, their might be a few settlements with a collective population of maybe 100,000 by the 19th century.


*Papua New Guinea had an estimated population of about 600,000 in the 16th century, 1 million in 1890, 2 million in 1962, 5.2 million in 2000 and presently has a population of about 6.3 million.
 
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