Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country comprising the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world’s fourth-largest island, the second-largest island country and the 44th-largest country in the world. Its capital and largest city is Antananarivo.
Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world, after Greenland, New Guinea, and Borneo. Although located some 250 miles (400 km) from the African continent, Madagascar’s population is primarily related not to African peoples but rather to those of Indonesia, more than 3,000 miles (4,800 km) to the east. The Malagasy people, moreover, do not consider themselves to be Africans, but, because of the continuing bond with France that resulted from former colonial rule, the island developed political, economic, and cultural links with the French-speaking countries of western Africa.
Madagascar is located in the southwestern Indian Ocean and is separated from the African coast by the 250-mile- (400-km-) wide Mozambique Channel.
Madagascar has been inhabited by human beings for a relatively short period of about 1,300 years. Language and culture point unequivocally to Indonesian origins, but there is no empirical evidence of how, why, or by what route the first settlers came to the island.
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