Why'd it take us so long to find Madagascar?
October 11, 2012 6:12 PM Subscribe
Madagascar was only settled around 2000-2500 years ago by peoples from Borneo who travelled thousands of miles across the Indian Ocean in canoes. Why wasn't Madagascar colonized earlier?
I was reading a little bit about the pre-history of Madagascar's population, who settled it, and how far they travelled. I read about the Austronesian people, specifically the ones from Borneo, who colonized an apparently unpopulated Madagascar two to three thousand years ago. Settlers from East Africa and other coastal regions of the Indian Ocean came later and mixed with the population.
Considering how far a canoe trip it is from Borneo to Madagascar and how close Madagascar is to the coast of Africa are there any reasons or theories why no one else moved there during the tens of thousands of years of human migration throughout the world?
I was reading a little bit about the pre-history of Madagascar's population, who settled it, and how far they travelled. I read about the Austronesian people, specifically the ones from Borneo, who colonized an apparently unpopulated Madagascar two to three thousand years ago. Settlers from East Africa and other coastal regions of the Indian Ocean came later and mixed with the population.
Considering how far a canoe trip it is from Borneo to Madagascar and how close Madagascar is to the coast of Africa are there any reasons or theories why no one else moved there during the tens of thousands of years of human migration throughout the world?
Best answer: I'd imagine it's similar to the reasons that Iceland was uninhabited until relatively recently. Both are out of sight of the mainland and situated in geographic areas where there's not much external pressure to go off in search of new islands.
In contrast, compare the Pacific Islands, where few individual islands could sustain the population after a certain point. So after a few generations, you have to go off exploring.
Madagascar finally got settled as part of that same Pacific Island push ever further outward, and nobody thought to bother finding Iceland until a specific sea-faring culture came along in just the right place at just the right time, with the perfect mix of cultural and environmental pressures forcing certain members of the group to go off in search of new places.
posted by Sara C. at 6:26 PM on October 11, 2012 [4 favorites]
In contrast, compare the Pacific Islands, where few individual islands could sustain the population after a certain point. So after a few generations, you have to go off exploring.
Madagascar finally got settled as part of that same Pacific Island push ever further outward, and nobody thought to bother finding Iceland until a specific sea-faring culture came along in just the right place at just the right time, with the perfect mix of cultural and environmental pressures forcing certain members of the group to go off in search of new places.
posted by Sara C. at 6:26 PM on October 11, 2012 [4 favorites]
Best answer: The trade winds are a good place to start. This book suggests that changes in climate made it possible to establish and maintain settlements on the "Cinnamon Route" at that time that wouldn't have been possible earlier.
posted by holgate at 6:37 PM on October 11, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by holgate at 6:37 PM on October 11, 2012 [1 favorite]
Best answer: This suggests that ocean currents are to blame:
posted by ChuraChura at 6:38 PM on October 11, 2012 [3 favorites]
Using palaeogeographic reconstructions and palaeo-oceanographic modelling, we find that strong surface currents flowed from northeast Mozambique and Tanzania eastward towards Madagascar during the Palaeogene period, exactly as required by the ‘sweepstakes process’. Subsequently, Madagascar advanced north towards the equatorial gyre and the regional current system evolved into its modern configuration with flows westward from Madagascar to Africa. This may explain why no fully non-aquatic land mammals have colonized Madagascar since the arrival of the rodents and carnivorans during the early-Miocene epoch.Ali and Huber. 2010. Mammalian biodiversity on Madagascar controlled by ocean currents. Nature 463: 653-656.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:38 PM on October 11, 2012 [3 favorites]
The failure of Africans to discover Madagascar is what Jared Diamond called "perhaps the single most surprising fact of human geography." Africans also failed to discover Cape Verde, which islands are not much farther than Madagascar from the mainland.
The short answer is that despite the popular meme, people are not very curious. China could have followed the coast up to the Bering Strait and then back down to North America, but didn't. The Romans could have gone into Russia, Scandinavia, and beyond, but didn't. While everyone can point to a few examples such as the Norse in North America, the great majority of societies never really engaged in long-distance exploration.
posted by Tanizaki at 6:43 PM on October 11, 2012 [3 favorites]
The short answer is that despite the popular meme, people are not very curious. China could have followed the coast up to the Bering Strait and then back down to North America, but didn't. The Romans could have gone into Russia, Scandinavia, and beyond, but didn't. While everyone can point to a few examples such as the Norse in North America, the great majority of societies never really engaged in long-distance exploration.
posted by Tanizaki at 6:43 PM on October 11, 2012 [3 favorites]
Trade winds and ocean currents. As well, much of Africa's coastline is really, really, challenging for navigation, so it may have been difficult just pushing off from land to go out exploring.
posted by KokuRyu at 6:56 PM on October 11, 2012
posted by KokuRyu at 6:56 PM on October 11, 2012
While everyone can point to a few examples such as the Norse in North America, the great majority of societies never really engaged in long-distance exploration.
I'm not entirely sure if that's true. Rome conquered most of present-day Europe, and most of North Africa. Hellenistic culture spread as far east as the Hindu Kush. The Silk Road connected Japan to Rome and more. The Chinese made multiple trips to the west coast of North America. Humans migrated across the Bering land bridge and made it all the way to South America.
Iceland and Madagascar are outliers, and exceptions to the rule.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:00 PM on October 11, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'm not entirely sure if that's true. Rome conquered most of present-day Europe, and most of North Africa. Hellenistic culture spread as far east as the Hindu Kush. The Silk Road connected Japan to Rome and more. The Chinese made multiple trips to the west coast of North America. Humans migrated across the Bering land bridge and made it all the way to South America.
Iceland and Madagascar are outliers, and exceptions to the rule.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:00 PM on October 11, 2012 [1 favorite]
Do you consider Scandanavia to be a mere sliver of modern Europe? Czech Republic, Slovakia, or Russia west of the Urals? Alexander got to India and there were about two hundred years of the Greco-Indian kings in the northwest, but it is not as if the subcontinent was under Greece.
If your talk of the Chinese in North America comes from 1421, I don't mind telling you that that book (and its sequel) are sheer fiction. Historians and Sinologists are universal in this opinion. It is worth noting that after two bogus books on China, Menzies went on to write a book about Atlantis.
posted by Tanizaki at 7:44 PM on October 11, 2012 [1 favorite]
If your talk of the Chinese in North America comes from 1421, I don't mind telling you that that book (and its sequel) are sheer fiction. Historians and Sinologists are universal in this opinion. It is worth noting that after two bogus books on China, Menzies went on to write a book about Atlantis.
posted by Tanizaki at 7:44 PM on October 11, 2012 [1 favorite]
The Romans could have gone into Russia, Scandinavia, and beyond, but didn't.
The Romans actually did have trading relations with what is now Scandinavia and Russia, along with trading routes that stretched from Sri Lanka and India to Scotland, with Roman items found in China and yes, even in Japan. (This was a two-way route and one in which the gold and silver outflow mainly went east, not west.) Humanity did manage to span the entire globe minus a few quibbly bits so I am not quite sure how "never really engaged in long-distance exploration" plays into that dynamic.
posted by jetlagaddict at 8:02 PM on October 11, 2012
The Romans actually did have trading relations with what is now Scandinavia and Russia, along with trading routes that stretched from Sri Lanka and India to Scotland, with Roman items found in China and yes, even in Japan. (This was a two-way route and one in which the gold and silver outflow mainly went east, not west.) Humanity did manage to span the entire globe minus a few quibbly bits so I am not quite sure how "never really engaged in long-distance exploration" plays into that dynamic.
posted by jetlagaddict at 8:02 PM on October 11, 2012
Mod note: Folks, please include Madagascar in your answers from this point forward? Thanks.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:35 PM on October 11, 2012
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:35 PM on October 11, 2012
If your talk of the Chinese in North America comes from 1421, I don't mind telling you that that book (and its sequel) are sheer fiction.
I don't mind telling you that I've never read the book (I tend to stay away from "pop" bestselling authors like Jared Diamond and the fellow you mention), but locally here in the PNW there is lots of evidence to suggest the Chinese made multiple trips.
Anyway, taking culture out of it and relying on evidence instead, it would seem that the Agulhas Current would make it very difficult to make expeditions from Africa in simple watercraft or even lateens.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:42 PM on October 11, 2012
I don't mind telling you that I've never read the book (I tend to stay away from "pop" bestselling authors like Jared Diamond and the fellow you mention), but locally here in the PNW there is lots of evidence to suggest the Chinese made multiple trips.
Anyway, taking culture out of it and relying on evidence instead, it would seem that the Agulhas Current would make it very difficult to make expeditions from Africa in simple watercraft or even lateens.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:42 PM on October 11, 2012
Best answer: Picking up on KokuRyu, the Agulhas current runs southwards between continental Africa and Madagascar, and it's the second-fastest of all ocean currents, and the Mozambique Channel's weather can still cause problems for modern sailors. The Portuguese established a route to India that went to the east of Madagascar in the 16th century because sailing to the west was often dangerous, and back then, they were the best sailors that ever lived. (Ah, should have previewed.)
posted by holgate at 9:56 PM on October 11, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by holgate at 9:56 PM on October 11, 2012 [1 favorite]
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