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Madagascar


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Madagascar

Land Area 581540km²
Land Area + Seaarea
Population 22005222
Population density 37.8 / km²

Informations

Madagascar (; Malagasy: Madagasikara), officially the Republic of Madagascar (Malagasy: Repoblikan'I Madagasikara Malagasy pronunciation: [republiˈkʲan madaɡasˈkʲarə̥]; French: République de Madagascar), and formerly known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, approximately 400 kilometres (250 miles) off the coast of East Africa. In 592,800 square kilometres (228,900 sq mi) Madagascar is the world's second-largest island nation. The country comprises the island of Madagascar (the fourth-largest island in the world) and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Following the prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from the Indian subcontinent around 88 million years back, allowing native plants and animals to evolve in relative isolation. Consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot; over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The island's varied ecosystems and distinctive wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the rapidly growing human population and other environmental dangers. The archaeological evidence of the earliest human foraging on Madagascar may date up to 10,000 years back. Human settlement of Madagascar occurred between 350 BC and 550 AD by Indianized Austronesian peoples, arriving on outrigger canoes from the Indonesian archipelago, where the modern spiritual and social situation were of Hinduism and Buddhism, together with native Indonesian culture. These were united around the 9th century AD by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa. Other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is often divided into 18 or more subgroups, of which the biggest are the Merina of the central highlands. Until the late 18th century, the island of Madagascar was ruled by a fragmented assortment of shifting sociopolitical alliances. Beginning in the early 19th century, the majority of the island was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a collection of Merina nobles. The monarchy ended in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire, where the island gained independence in 1960. The autonomous state of Madagascar has since undergone four major constitutional periods, termed republics. Since 1992, the country has formally been governed as a constitutional democracy from its capital at Antananarivo. However, in a popular uprising in 2009, president Marc Ravalomanana was forced to resign and presidential power was transferred in March 2009 to Andry Rajoelina. Constitutional governance was revived in January 2014, when Hery Rajaonarimampianina was named president following a 2013 election deemed fair and transparent from the worldwide community. Madagascar is a member of the United Nations, the African Union (AU), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Madagascar belongs to the group of least developed countries, according to the United Nations. Malagasy and French are both official languages of the nation. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, or an amalgamation of both. Ecotourism and agriculture, paired with higher investments in education, health, and private enterprise, are crucial elements of Madagascar's growth strategy. Under Ravalomanana, these investments produced substantial economic growth, but the benefits were not evenly spread across the population, producing tensions over the increasing cost of living and declining living standards among the poor and some sections of the middle class. As of 2017, the market has been weakened by the 2009--2013 political crisis, and quality of life remains low for the majority of the Malagasy population.

Source: Wikipedia