Just learned two absolutely wild Madagascar facts:
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It was first settled less than two thousand years ago. Despite being one of the closest land masses to the birthplace of humans, it was (as far as the archaeological and fossil record shows) totally uninhabited for all of prehistory and the majority of recorded history.
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When it finally was settled some time around 500 CE, it was by people sailing all the way from Indonesia. This makes at least a little bit more sense, since they had a lot more reason to develop or adopt sophisticated ocean-faring technology and the Mozambique Channel is quite wide (for context, its narrowest point is 75% wider than the English channel's widest point). But it's still a lot narrower than the entire Indian ocean. It took another three hundred years before there was substantial migration from the mainland.
