Madagascar (Malagasy: Madagasikara), officially the Republic of Madagascar
(Malagasy: Repoblikan'i Madagasikara French: République
de Madagascar), and previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately 400 kilometres (250 miles) off the
coast of East Africa. At 592,800 square kilometres
(228,900 sq mi), Madagascar is the world's 47th largest country, the 2nd largest island country and the fourth-largest island. The
country lies mostly between latitudes 12°S and 26°S, and longitudes 43°E and 51°E. Neighboring islands
include the French territory of Réunion and the country of Mauritius to the east, as well as the state of Comoros and the French territory of Mayotte to the north west. The nearest mainland state is Mozambique, located to the west. The prehistoric breakup of
the supercontinent Gondwana separated the
Madagascar–Antarctica–India landmass from the Africa–South America landmass
around 135 million years ago. Madagascar later split from India about
88 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period allowing plants and animals on the island to
evolve in relative isolation. Along the length of the eastern coast runs a
narrow and steep escarpment containing much of the island's
remaining tropical lowland forest. Consequently,
Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot; over
90% of its wildlife is found
nowhere else on Earth. The island's diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are
threatened by the encroachment of the rapidly growing human population and
other environmental threats.
Until the late 18th century, the island of
Madagascar was ruled by a fragmented assortment of shifting sociopolitical
alliances. Beginning in the early 19th century, most of the island was united
and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a
series of Merina nobles. The monarchy ended in 1897 when the island was
absorbed into the French colonial empire,
from which the island gained independence in 1960. The autonomous state of
Madagascar has since undergone four major constitutional periods, termed
republics. Since 1992, the nation has officially been governed as a
constitutional democracy from its capital at Antananarivo. However, in a popular uprising in 2009,
president Marc Ravalomanana was made
to resign and presidential power was transferred in March 2009 to Andry Rajoelina. Constitutional governance was restored in
January 2014, when Hery Rajaonarimampianina
was named president following a 2013 election deemed
fair and transparent by the international community. In the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara
(Malagasy pronunciation: ) and its
people are referred to as Malagasy. The island's appellation "Madagascar" is
not of local origin but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans. The name Madageiscar was first
recorded in the memoirs of 13th-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo as a corrupted transliteration of the name Mogadishu, the Somali port with which Polo had confused
the island.
As a result of the
island's long isolation from neighboring continents, Madagascar is home to
various plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth. Approximately 90% of
all plant and animal species found in Madagascar are endemic. This distinctive ecology has led some ecologists to
refer to Madagascar as the "eighth continent",and the island has been
classified by Conservation International
as a biodiversity hotspot. More than 80 percent of Madagascar's 14,883 plant species are found
nowhere else in the world, including five plant families. The family Didiereaceae, composed of four genera and 11 species, is
limited to the spiny forests of
southwestern Madagascar. Four-fifths of the world's Pachypodium species are endemic to the island. Three-fourthsof
Madagascar's 860 orchid species are found here alone, as are six of the world's
nine baobab species. The island is home to around 170 palm species,
three times as many as on all of mainland Africa; 165 of them are endemic. Many
native plant species are used as herbal remedies for a variety of afflictions.
The drugs vinblastine and vincristineare vinca alkaloids, used to treat Hodgkin's disease, leukemia, and other cancers, were derived from the Madagascar periwinkle. The traveler's palm, known
locally as ravinala and endemic to the eastern rain forests, is highly iconic
of Madagascar and is featured in the national emblem as well as the Air Madagascar logo.
Like its flora,
Madagascar's fauna is diverse and exhibits a high rate of endemism. Lemurs have
been characterized as "Madagascar's flagship mammal species" by
Conservation International. In the absence of monkeys and other competitors,
these primates have adapted to a wide range of habitats and
diversified into numerous species. As of 2012, there were officially 103 species and subspecies of lemur,
39 of which were described by zoologists between 2000 and 2008. They are almost
all classified as rare, vulnerable, or endangered. At least 17 species of lemur
have become extinct since humans arrived on Madagascar, all of which were
larger than the surviving lemur species. A number of other mammals, including
the cat-like fossa, are endemic to
Madagascar. Over 300 species of birds have been recorded on the island, of
which over 60 percent (including four families and 42 genera) are endemic.
The few families and genera of reptile that have reached Madagascar have
diversified into more than 260 species, with over 90 percent of these
being endemic (including one endemic family). The island is home to two-thirds
of the world's chameleon species, including the smallest known, and researchers have proposed that Madagascar
may be the origin of all chameleons.
Endemic fish of Madagascar
include two families, 15 genera and over 100 species, primarily inhabiting the
island's freshwater lakes and rivers. Although invertebrates remain poorly
studied on Madagascar, researchers have found high rates of endemism among the
known species. All 651 species of terrestrial snail are endemic, as are a
majority of the island's butterflies, scarab beetles, lacewings, spiders and dragonflies.
The first stamps used in
Madagascar were general issues for the French Colonies. In 1889 the French
colonial general issues were overprinted with new face values. The first set of
definitives was issued in 1896. From 1912 to 1950, Madagascar stamps were also
used in the Comoros. The Malagasy Republic was proclaimed on 14 October 1958, as an
autonomous state within the French Community, and attained full independence on 26 June
1960.. The first stamps of the republic were issued in December 1958. Paositra Malagasy is the postal service provider. The country
was renamed the Democratic Republic of
Madagascar in 1975.
Nossi-Bé is an island off the western coast of Madagascar
which became a French colony in 1841. Stamps were issued for Nossi-Bé from 1889
to 1894. Sainte Marie de Madagascar
is an island off the eastern coast of Madagascar ceded to the French in 1750.
Stamps were issued for Sainte Marie de Madagascar in 1894. Diego-Suárez is a
city at the northern tip of Madagascar in Antsiranana province. It
was a French colony in the late 19th century until the colony's administration
was subsumed into that of Madagascar in 1896. It was renamed as Antsiranana in 1975. The colony issued its own postage stamps
from 1890 to 1894, managing to produce over 60 types in that short time. British
interests in Madagascar organised two different posts on the island. A runner service between Tananarive and the French Post Office at Tamatave was organised by British residents before 1884. It
was made official by the British Vice Consul in 1884. It used locally produced
stamps between 1884 and 1897 after which stamps were discontinued but the
service continued with handstruck marks.
During the French war of
occupation the British ran an inland postal service using special stamps
between January and September 1895. This was not an official service of the
British Post Office.
These two covers are sent by Anta from Antsirabe, Madagascar. The covers posted on April 12, 2017 and I received on May 05, 2017. Their postal service known as 'Paositra Malagasy' , serves very good service through out the country.
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