Editing History of the Comoros (section)

==Early inhabitants==
There is uncertainty about the early population of Comoros. According to one study of early crops, the islands may have been settled first by [[Austronesian peoples|South East Asian sailors]] the same way [[Madagascar]] was.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.shh.mpg.de/308075/Boivin-Archaeology-of-the-Comoros |title=Archaeology of the Comoros: Tracking Human Arrivals and the Emergence of Trade Links|quote=This research undertook the first major, systematic recovery of archaeobotanical remains on the island, and revealed that the crops grown on the Comoros’ earliest known sites were Asian rather than African. The earliest crop assemblages of the Comoros that have been tested are overwhelmingly dominated by Asian crops like rice and mung bean, and in this regard show strong similarities to the earliest known crops grown on Madagascar rather than the African mainland. This work raised the possibility that the Comoros, like Madagascar, was initially settled by people from Island Southeast Asia. }}</ref>

[[File:Chronological dispersal of Austronesian people across the Pacific.svg|thumb|400px|Chronological dispersal of [[Austronesian peoples]] across the [[Indo-Pacific]]<ref name="Chambers2013">{{cite book |last1=Chambers |first1=Geoff |title=eLS |chapter=Genetics and the Origins of the Polynesians |publisher= John Wiley & Sons, Inc.|date=2013 |doi=10.1002/9780470015902.a0020808.pub2|isbn=978-0470016176 }}</ref>]]
This influx of [[Austronesian people|Austronesian]] sailors, who had earlier settled nearby Madagascar, arrived in the 8th to 13 centuries CE. They are the source for the earliest archeological evidence of farming in the islands. Crops from archeological sites in [[Sima, Comoros|Sima]] are predominantly rice strains of both ''indica'' and ''japonica'' varieties from Southeast Asia, as well as various other Asian crops like [[mung bean]] and [[cotton]]. Only a minority of the examined crops were African-derived, like [[finger millet]], African [[sorghum]], and [[cowpea]]. The Comoros are believed to be the first site of contact and subsequent admixture between African and Asian populations (earlier than Madagascar). Comorians today still display at most 20% Austronesian admixture.<ref name="crowther2016">{{cite journal |last1=Crowther |first1=Alison |last2=Lucas |first2=Leilani |last3=Helm |first3=Richard |last4=Horton |first4=Mark |last5=Shipton |first5=Ceri |last6=Wright |first6=Henry T. |last7=Walshaw |first7=Sarah |last8=Pawlowicz |first8=Matthew |last9=Radimilahy |first9=Chantal |last10=Douka |first10=Katerina |last11=Picornell-Gelabert |first11=Llorenç |last12=Fuller |first12=Dorian Q. |last13=Boivin |first13=Nicole L. |title=Ancient crops provide first archaeological signature of the westward Austronesian expansion |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=14 June 2016 |volume=113 |issue=24 |pages=6635–6640 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1522714113|pmc=4914162 |pmid=27247383|bibcode=2016PNAS..113.6635C |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Brucato2018">{{cite journal |last1=Brucato |first1=Nicolas |last2=Fernandes |first2=Veronica |last3=Mazières |first3=Stéphane |last4=Kusuma |first4=Pradiptajati |last5=Cox |first5=Murray P. |last6=Ng’ang’a |first6=Joseph Wainaina |last7=Omar |first7=Mohammed |last8=Simeone-Senelle |first8=Marie-Claude |last9=Frassati |first9=Coralie |last10=Alshamali |first10=Farida |last11=Fin |first11=Bertrand |last12=Boland |first12=Anne |last13=Deleuze |first13=Jean-Francois |last14=Stoneking |first14=Mark |last15=Adelaar |first15=Alexander |last16=Crowther |first16=Alison |last17=Boivin |first17=Nicole |last18=Pereira |first18=Luisa |last19=Bailly |first19=Pascal |last20=Chiaroni |first20=Jacques |last21=Ricaut |first21=François-Xavier |title=The Comoros Show the Earliest Austronesian Gene Flow into the Swahili Corridor |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |date=January 2018 |volume=102 |issue=1 |pages=58–68 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2017.11.011|pmc=5777450 |pmid=29304377}}</ref><ref name="Msaidie2010">{{cite journal |last1=Msaidie |first1=Said |last2=Ducourneau |first2=Axel |last3=Boetsch |first3=Gilles |last4=Longepied |first4=Guy |last5=Papa |first5=Kassim |last6=Allibert |first6=Claude |last7=Yahaya |first7=Ali Ahmed |last8=Chiaroni |first8=Jacques |last9=Mitchell |first9=Michael J |title=Genetic diversity on the Comoros Islands shows early seafaring as major determinant of human biocultural evolution in the Western Indian Ocean |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |date=11 August 2010 |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=89–94 |doi=10.1038/ejhg.2010.128|pmc=3039498 |pmid=20700146}}</ref>

From around the 15th century AD, [[Shirazi (ethnic group)|Shirazi]] slave traders established trading ports and brought in slaves from the mainland.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} In the 16th century, social changes on the East African coast probably linked to the arrival of the Portuguese saw the arrival of a number of Arabs of [[Hadrami Sheikhdom|Hadrami]] who established alliances with the Shirazis and founded several royal clans.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Over the centuries, the Comoros have been settled by a succession of diverse groups from the coast of Africa, the [[Persian Gulf]], [[Southeast Asia]] and Madagascar.

===Europeans===
[[File:Map of Anjouan,Comoros (1748) Jacques Nicolas Bellin.png|thumb|Map of Anjouan (1748) by French hydrographer  [[Jacques Nicolas Bellin]]]]

Portuguese explorers first visited the archipelago in 1505.

Apart from a visit by the French [[Jean Parmentier (explorer)|Parmentier]] brothers in 1529, for much of the 16th century the only Europeans to visit the islands were Portuguese.  British and Dutch ships began arriving around the start of the 17th century and the island of [[Ndzwani]] soon became a major supply point on the route to the East Indies.  Ndzwani was generally ruled by a single sultan, who occasionally attempted to extend his authority to [[Mayotte]] and [[Mwali]]; [[Ngazidja]] was more fragmented, on occasion being divided into as many as 12 small kingdoms.

Sir [[James Lancaster]]'s voyage to the Indian Ocean in 1591 was the first attempt by the English to break into the spice trade, which was dominated by the Portuguese.  Only one of his four ships made it back from the Indies on that voyage, and that one with a decimated crew of 5 men and a boy.  Lancaster himself was marooned by a cyclone on the Comoros.  Many of his crew were speared to death by angry islanders although Lancaster found his way home in 1594.  (Dalrymple W. 2019; Bloomsbury Publishing {{ISBN|1635573955}}).

Both the British and the French turned their attention to the Comoros islands in the middle of the 19th century. The French finally acquired the islands through a cunning mixture of strategies, including the policy of "divide and conquer", [[Checkbook diplomacy|chequebook politics]] and a [[serendipity|serendipitous]] affair between a sultana and a French trader that was put to good use by the French, who kept control of the islands, quelling unrest and the occasional uprising.

William Sunley, a planter and British Consul from 1848 to 1866, was an influence on [[Anjouan]].