Madagascar without people

Madagascar was intially colonized by Maylas about 1,000 years ago. What if the the winds had blown them to India instead. What would Madagascar be like by the time the Europeans came?
 
Madagascar was intially colonized by Maylas about 1,000 years ago. What if the the winds had blown them to India instead. What would Madagascar be like by the time the Europeans came?

If they actually arrived in India that would cause some butterflies, but if they simply died, the first people in Madagascar would be Arabs or East Africans, not Europeans.
 
If they actually arrived in India that would cause some butterflies, but if they simply died, the first people in Madagascar would be Arabs or East Africans, not Europeans.
Ah, so there really wouldn't be any real way to deal the extinction of the native land birds then. nuts.
 
Ah, so there really wouldn't be any real way to deal the extinction of the native land birds then. nuts.

What makes you think that European colonization as such would help in this respect? Not saying it could not, but the track record is not exactly encouraging.
 
Might settle the island less thoroughly (basically like a naval pit stop instead of some place to actually live) and so reduce human footprint overall.
 

mojojojo

Gone Fishin'
I wonder if they would have thought some of the larger lemurs were bears
megaladapisFJ.jpg
 
What makes you think that European colonization as such would help in this respect? Not saying it could not, but the track record is not exactly encouraging.
That we could at least get some in zoos and maybe establish a breeding population? A long shot, I know.
 
That we could at least get some in zoos and maybe establish a breeding population? A long shot, I know.

It's possible, yes.
Madagascar isn't really the place the Europeans are likely to settle in droves. OTOH, I have to concur that without the Indonesian settlement, somebody else is likely to fill the place way before the Europeans show around. The place is just not remote enough (pretty much smack dab in the middle of some noticeable medieval trade networks, for instance) to prevent that unless some very particular circumstance happens.
 
It's possible, yes.
Madagascar isn't really the place the Europeans are likely to settle in droves. OTOH, I have to concur that without the Indonesian settlement, somebody else is likely to fill the place way before the Europeans show around. The place is just not remote enough (pretty much smack dab in the middle of some noticeable medieval trade networks, for instance) to prevent that unless some very particular circumstance happens.

This is very much true, and even IOTL Arabs were the first ones on the island at least according to Wikipedia.
 
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