Editing History of Madagascar (section)

====Pirates and slave-traders====
[[File:A new draught of the Island of MADAGASCAR ats St. LORENZO with Augustin Bay and the Island of Mombass at Large NYPL1640654.tiff|thumb|Map of Madagascar and surroundings, circa 1702–1707]]
[[File:A chart of the WESTERN part of the EAST-INDIES with all the adjacent Islands from cape Bona Esperanca to the Island of Zelone NYPL1640657.tiff|thumb|Map of Madagascar and the western portion of the East Indies, circa 1702–1707]]
Between 1680 and 1725, Madagascar became a [[pirate]] stronghold. Many unfortunate sailors became shipwrecked and stranded on the island. Those who survived settled down with the natives, or more often, found French or English colonies on the island or even pirate havens and thus became pirates themselves. One such case, that of Robert Drury,<ref>''From Madagascar to the Malagasy Republic'' by Raymond K. Kent, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1976 ({{ISBN|0-8371-8421-5}}), pages 55–71.</ref>
resulted in a journal giving one of the few written depictions of southern Madagascar in the 18th century.

Notable pirates including [[William Kidd]], [[Henry Every]], [[John Bowen (pirate)|John Bowen]], and [[Thomas Tew]] made Antongil Bay and Île Sainte-Marie (a small island 12 miles off the northeast coast of Madagascar) their bases of operations. The pirates plundered merchant ships in the Indian Ocean, the [[Red Sea]], and the [[Persian Gulf]]. They deprived Europe-bound ships of their silks, cloth, spices, and jewels. Vessels captured going in the opposite direction (to India) lost their coin, gold, and silver. The pirates robbed the Indian cargo ships that traded between ports in the Indian Ocean as well as ships commissioned by the [[East India Company|East India Companies]] of France, England, and the Netherlands. The pilgrim fleet sailing between Surat in India and Mocha on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula were a favorite target, because the wealthy Muslim pilgrims often carried jewels and other finery with them to Mecca. Merchants in India, various ports of Africa, and Réunion showed willingness to [[Fence (criminal)|fence]] the pirates' stolen goods. The low-paid seamen who manned merchant ships in the Indian Ocean hardly put up a fight, seeing as they had little reason or motivation to risk their lives. The pirates often recruited crewmen from the ships they plundered.

With regard to piracy in Malagasy waters, note the (semi-)legendary accounts of the alleged pirate-state of Libertalia.

Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, certain Malagasy tribes occasionally waged wars to capture and enslave prisoners. They either sold the slaves to Arab traders or kept them on-hand as laborers. Following the arrival of European slavers, human slaves became more valuable, and the coastal tribes of Madagascar took to warring with each other to obtain prisoners for the lucrative slave-trade. Instead of spears and cutlasses, the tribesmen fought with muskets, musket-balls, and gunpowder that they obtained from the Europeans, conducting fierce and brutal wars. On account of their relationship to the pirates, the [[Betsimisaraka people|Betsimisaraka]] in eastern Madagascar had more firearms than anyone else. They overpowered their neighbors, the [[Antankarana]] and [[Tsimihety people|Tsimihety]], and even raided the [[Comoro Islands]]. As the tribe on the west coast with the most connections to the slave trade, the [[Sakalava people]] also had access to guns and powder.

Today, the people of Madagascar can be considered as the product of mixing between the first occupants, the ''vahoaka ntaolo'' Austronesians (''Vazimba'' and ''Vezo'') and those arrived later (''Hova'' neo-Austronesians, Persians, Arabs, Africans and Europeans).

[[Genotype|Genotypically]], the original Austronesian heritage is more or less evenly distributed throughout the island. Researchers have noticed the "Polynesian motif" everywhere:<ref>Hurles ''et alii'' (2005), Ricaut ''et alii'' (2009), Hagelberg ''et alii'' (2008)</ref> an old marker of Austronesian populations from before the great immigration to the islands of Polynesia and Melanesia. This fact would require a starting common home among the Proto-Malagasy ''vahoaka ntaolo'' (gone west to Madagascar) and the ancestors of the current Polynesians (left for the Pacific Islands in the East) between 500 BCE – 1 CE.