“Freedom is not free” (various artists sing a song) is the only quote that describes the trials and difficulties that Madagascar experienced, from the 7th century until its independence in June 2014. 1960 Madagascar and its population are in constant turmoil. Through its turbulent past, it is easy to see how Madagascar acquired its history, culture and religion, this is the identity that the country has evolved into over this long period. Archaeologists such as Jarred Diamond, the author of "Guns, Germs, and Steel", place the first humans in Madagascar as the Austronesian people of Indonesia around 500 BC. The Malagasy are believed to have come directly from Indonesia to Madagascar this is evident through the many similarities in the materials used for fabrics and in the distinctive outrigger canoe that both peoples used: "These Austronesians, with their Austronesian language and modified Austronesian culture, were. already established in Madagascar at the time of the first visit of Europeans, in 1500. This seems to me to be the most astonishing fact of human geography for the entire world. found itself occupied by blue-eyed, blond-haired Scandinavians speaking a language close to Swedish, while the neighboring North American continent was inhabited by Native Americans speaking Native American languages. How on earth did prehistoric people from Borneo, presumably traveling on boats without maps or compasses, end up in Madagascar? (Diamond, Jared (2001) Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, new edition. New York: WW Norton.) The first European settlers arrived in Madagascar in the 1500s when a Portuguese sailor Diogo Dias acci ... ... middle of paper ...... war, the French continued to control Madagascar, even through the Malagasy revolt of 1947, which resulted in the bloody deaths of 80-90,000 Malagasy rebels. Several years after the Malagasy revolt, French nationals launched a movement towards an independent Madagascar. In 1959, the Malagasy Republic was created from the ashes of a broken country and in June 1960, the Malagasy Republic gained full independence as an autonomous state from the French community. Madagascar has had a difficult and beaten path towards its overall freedom and independence. This path to freedom took hundreds of years and required too much blood, but like most free countries, it was worth it because freedom isn't free after all. Through all this history and conflict, Madagascar has developed its own identity and, through this identity, earned its place in today's world...