Comoros Islands - History

History

The first traces of inhabitation date back to the 6th century. Numerous peoples have crossed over and mixed, including those of Bantu, Malagasy, Indonesian, Arab, Portuguese, French and Indian origin.

Islam arrived in the 10th Century. These islands formed with Zanzibar, Pemba, Lamu, and the towns along the Kenyan and Tanzanian coast a united and prosperous area with Swahili culture, living by trading slaves, ivory and other African goods destined for markets in the Middle East and India. During this period, power was in the hands of a number of local rulers. During their explorations of all this region, the Portuguese discovered and landed on the Islands of the Moon (qamar in Arabic means "moon") in 1505.

Between 1841 and 1912, France established securely their rule over the islands. It succeeded in establishing protectorates and then a colony administered by the Governor General of Madagascar. The European powers recognised the French influence over the islands after the Berlin conference of 1884-85 which divided up Africa. The islands were constituted as a French colony in 1908 but attached to Madagascar in 1912.

Since the workforce on Réunion was becoming increasingly more expensive, the Comoro Islands, forgotten by the central administration, offered the colonists and colonial societies (like la Bambao) various perspectives and a workforce in plantations of aromatic plants and vanilla. In 1946, the islands were no longer administratively attached to Madagascar and formed a united and recognized administrative entity, an Overseas Territory of France (Territoire d'outre-mer or TOM).

In 1974, France organized a referendum for self-determination in the archipelago in which the population except in Mayotte voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence. Following the unilateral declaration of independence in 1975, France maintained sovereignty over Mayotte. The three remaining islands formed the Etat Comorian, which later became the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoro Islands.

In 1997, demands for increased autonomy on the islands of Nzwani (Anjouan) and Mwali (Moheli) led to the breakup of the Federal Islamic Republic. In 2001, the government reformed as the Union of the Comoros under a new constitution which gave each of the three islands more autonomy than had been enjoyed previously. In 2008, President of Anjouan refused to hold free elections. He was forced to flee following military intervention by troops of the Comorian Union and the African Union. The island country continues its present form of confederal government albeit with minor changes approved in a 2009 referendum.

Mayotte, which had voted to retain French suzerainty in the 1975 referendum, expressed a wish to accede to the status of a département d'outre-mer (DOM) (Overseas Department) following another referendum held on the island on the 29 March 2009. Mayotte officially became France's 101st department on 31 March 2011.

On 30 June 2009, Yemenia Flight 626 crashed off the Comoros Islands. Out of 153 people, one survived.