Madagascar (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

Madagascar (Malagasy: Madagasikara), officially the Federation of Madagascar (Malagasy: Pattahadi Madagasikara), is an island country in Southern Africa. Located in the Indian Ocean, the country lies off the southeastern coast of Continental Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar (the fourth-largest island in the world), as well as numerous smaller peripheral islands. Following the prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from India around 88 million years ago, allowing native plants and animals to evolve in relative isolation. Consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot; over 90 percent of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The island's diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the rapidly growing human population.

Early history
Most archaeologists estimate that the earliest settlers arrived in outrigger canoes from southern Borneo in successive waves throughout the period between 350 BCE and 550 CE, making Madagascar one of the last major landmasses on Earth to be settled by humans. By 600 CE groups of these early settlers had begun clearing the forests of the central highlands. Arabs first reached the island between the seventh and ninth centuries, and a wave of Bantu-speaking East African migrants arrived around 1000 CE and introduced zebu, a type of long-horned humped cattle, which were kept in large herds.

Madagascar was an important transoceanic trading hub connecting ports of the Indian Ocean in the early centuries following human settlement. The written history of Madagascar began with the Arabs, who established trading posts along the northwest coast by at least the 10th century and introduced Islam, the Arabic script (used to transcribe the Malagasy language in a form of writing known as sorabe), Arab astrology and other cultural elements.

Middle Ages
In 1607, a group of Bugis settlers from Luwu Kingdom in Sulawesi Island (now a part of Indonesia), led by Arung Luempa arrived in the site that today know as Tannanalo, Eastern Madagascar (OTL ). The settlers were escaped from their homeland in order to avoid the Islamization of Luwu by Datuk Patimang. The Bugis settlers then established the Kingdom of Sompe ("Sompe" means "sail" in Bugis and also a shortened form of "Passompe", the Bugis word for "the people who migrated from their homeland").

Ironically, the Malagasy Bugis later being Islamized in 1691 by Sheikh Abu Idris Al-Fiqr, an ulema from Hadramaut, Yemen, commonly known by the locals as "Datok Lanjong" for his tall stature. The fifth descendant of Arung Luempa, Arung Mabinggi, converted to Islam in 1690 and adopted the Islamic name "Malik Abdurrahman". Under the rule of Arung Malik Abdurrahman and his son, Arung Abdul Ghaffar, the Sompe Kingdom extended its influence over another tribes and kingdoms in eastern coast of the islands.

The attempt to politically and economically dominating the island by the Sompe Kingdom led to a long-time rivalry between the coastal Bugis and the highlander Merina in 1709. The rivalry finally erupted into the Bugis-Merina War in 1731 after the Merina attempted to invade the settlements of Tanala people, the subject of Sompe Kingdom. The Bugis defeated the Merina in 1737 and Sompe emerged as the dominant kingdom in eastern Madagascar.

The Merina, Betsileo, and Tanala all being Islamized in late 18th century by the effort from the Bugis ulemas, such as Datok Lompi, Datok Keteng, and Datok Lembu. The newly-converted indigenous tribes quickly referred by the Sompe as the "Havoana" (the people from highland) while the Bugis-descended people that live in coastal areas simply identified themselves as the "Sompe". Other Malagasy tribes that not being converted to Islam yet referred as the "Batu", from Bugis word of "Battu", means "the indigenous people".

From about 1740 to 1848, Madagascar gained prominence among Arab, Malay, Indian, and European traders being a transit between the traffic of spice trades from India, Malacca, and Maluku Islands. The wealth generated by maritime trade spurred the rise of Sompe Kingdom as an important trade partner for the Europeans in the Indian Ocean.

Colonial era
main page: Colony of Madagascar and Dependencies

Under the rule of Arung Mohammad Karim Rashid, Sompe expanded its influence toward west between 1801 to 1809. Sompe invasion bitterly resisted by the Batu warriors from the western coast of Madagascar. To conquer the Batu, Arung Mohammad concluded the first treaty between the Sompe and the Danish with the Danish governor of Frederikkyst (OTL ), Wilhelm Bremen Petersson, in northern Madagascar on March 21, 1803. The treaty guaranteed the Danish to have a special right for the spice trades that passed Madagascar in return for Danish military and financial assistance.

Following the death of Arung Mohammad Karim, the civil war broke out between the supporters of legal successor of Sompe throne, Arung Muda Hashim Badrullah and the supporters of pro-Danish Arung Muda Ilhamullah Malik Hasan in 1837. After 1845, the Sompe Kingdom divided between the Danish-supported northern court, known as the Rajang Kingdom, ruled by the descendants of Malik Hasan and the anti-Danish southern court, known as Lotanraja Kingdom, ruled by the descendants of Hashim Badrullah.

In 1860, prerogative powers of both royal courts effectively vanished after Lotanraja accepted the treaty of protection for 100 years offered by the Danish following the failed invasion from Oman Sultanate. Between 1860 and 1960, Madagascar became the Danish protectorate (and later its successor, Scandinavia).

Under Scandinavian colonial rule, numerous policies were adopted by the colonial government to modernize the island. The upgrading the infrastructure of ports and roads and improvement of water irrigation became a high priority of Scandinavian colonial policy. Rubber plantations were established for the production of a variety of export crops. Traditional slavery was abolished in 1878. Education became mandatory between the ages of 6 to 13 and focused primarily on Danish language and practical skills. Most of Malagasy people remembered the period as the "One Hundred Years Enlightenment."

Compared with other colonial rules in the world, Scandinavian Madagascar relatively stable and peaceful without any significant military uprisings by the natives. Malagasy rulers and nobility felt reluctant to seek an independence from the Scandinavians and remained loyal during the two World Wars (World War I and World War II) which guaranteed by their Pledges of Loyalty to the Danish Crown that must signed and ratified by every Malagasy rulers since 1870 which required a renewal every ten years.

Despite the successes of Scandinavian colonial government, a Malagasy national movement for self-government developed significantly, starting with the Malagasy Constitutional Congress in 1931. The Congress attended mostly by Malagasy young intellectuals, a new class emerged due to the colonial policy on education, and aimed for a responsible government in Madagascar which ran by Malagasy native peoples and an elevation of Madagascar from a colony to a constituent country within Scandinavian Union.

Mohammad Shaleh Dawud, the prominent and charismatic leader of Malagasy national movement, sent the letter to the Scandinavian Commissioner-General for Madagascar, Karl Gustav Braunstein, in 1933 which demanded for the representation of Madagascar in the Scandinavian Parliament and the formation of Malagasy native legislature as the part of constitutional development of Madagascar. Braunstein, in his reply letter, stated Madagascar is still too immature to get its own self-government and would be impossible for being a part of the Union. However, Braunstein promised Dawud to fulfill the second demand by advising the Scandinavian Parliament to allow the formation of a Malagasy legislature. The first Legislative Council of Madagascar convened in 1934 and opened by Commissioner-General Karl Gustav Braunstein.

Malagasy troops, known as "De Frivilliges", under Andri Bakhri Pattalopong (1898-1969), fought for Scandinavia in World War II. After the war, Scandinavian Crown acknowledged the Malagasy war services and awarded the Cross of Honour of the Order of the Dannebrog for Pattalopong and other 12 Malagasy officers that participated in the Battle of Oslo.