XE3B5983 - Madagascar, Madagasikara
Madagascar (en malgache: Madagasikara; en francés: Madagascar) oficialmente República de Madagascar (en malgache: Repoblikan'i Madagasikara; en francés: République de Madagascar) es un país insular situado en el océano Índico, frente a la costa sureste del continente africano, al este de Mozambique. La nación está comprendida por la isla homónima, la más grande de África y la cuarta más grande del mundo, y por pequeñas y numerosas islas periféricas. Está separada del continente por el canal de Mozambique. A pesar de su cercanía actual al continente africano, Madagascar formaba parte en su origen del subcontinente indio, del cual se separó hace unos 88 millones de años. Por ello, su aislamiento ha favorecido la conservación en su territorio de multitud de especies únicas en el mundo, la mayoría de ellas endémicas de la isla. Las más notables son los lémures (un infraorden de primates), el fosa carnívoro, cinco familias endémicas de aves y seis especies endémicas de baobabs.
El gentilicio de Madagascar es malgache y el idioma nacional es el malgache, su segundo idioma es el francés. La mayoría de sus habitantes tiene creencias tradicionales, son cristianos, o una amalgama de ambos. Madagascar pertenece al grupo de los países menos desarrollados, según las Naciones Unidas. El ecoturismo y la agricultura, junto con mayores inversiones en educación, salud y empresa privada, son elementos clave de la estrategia de desarrollo de Madagascar. Sin embargo, estos beneficios no se distribuyeron uniformemente en toda la población, produciendo tensiones sobre el creciente costo de vida y la disminución del nivel de vida entre los pobres y algunos segmentos de la clase media. Madagascar es el nombre que los portugueses dieron a la isla en 1502 y derivaba de Madeigascar (también Madagosho, Madagascar), que era el nombre de una isla-reino africana mencionada por Marco Polo en su libro (fines del siglo XIII). Aunque algunas fuentes aseguran que este nombre surgiría de la confusión con Mogadiscio, capital de Somalia.
En cuanto al nombre malgache, con el que se denomina a sus habitantes, el término proviene del francés, tomado de Malagasy, que era el nombre que se daban los habitantes originales de la isla.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country lying off the southeastern coast of Africa. It is the world's fourth largest island, the second-largest island country and the 46th largest country in the world. Its capital and largest city is Antananarivo.
Madagascar consists of an eponymous main island and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Following the prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from Africa during the Early Jurassic, around 180 million years ago, and split from the Indian subcontinent around 90 million years ago, allowing native plants and animals to evolve in relative isolation; consequently, it is a biodiversity hotspot and one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries, with over 90% of wildlife being endemic. The island has a subtropical to tropical maritime climate.
Madagascar was first settled during or before the mid first millennium AD by Austronesian peoples, presumably arriving on outrigger canoes from present-day Indonesia. These were joined around the ninth century AD by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa. Other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. Subsequently, the Malagasy ethnic group is often divided into 18 or more subgroups, of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands.
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 it was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a series of Merina nobles. The monarchy was ended in 1897 by the annexation by France, from which Madagascar gained independence in 1960. The country has since undergone four major constitutional periods, termed republics, and has been governed as a constitutional democracy since 1992. Following a political crisis and military coup in 2009, Madagascar underwent a protracted transition towards its fourth and current republic, with constitutional governance being restored in January 2014.
Madagascar is a member of the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie. Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state. Christianity is the country's predominant religion, but a significant minority still practice traditional faiths. Madagascar is classified as a least developed country by the UN. Ecotourism and agriculture, paired with greater investments in education, health and private enterprise, are key elements of its development strategy. Despite substantial economic growth since the early 2000s, income disparities have widened, and quality of life remains low for the majority of the population. Madagascar is experiencing an ongoing famine, which experts argue is the first to be caused entirely by climate change.
In the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara and its people are referred to as Malagasy. The origin of the name is uncertain, and is likely foreign, having been propagated in the Middle Ages by Europeans.
One hypothesis relates Madagascar to the word Malay, referring to the Austronesian origin of the Malagasy people in modern-day Indonesia. In a map by Muhammad al-Idrisi dating from the year 1154, the island is named Gesira Malai, or "Malay island" in Arabic. The inversion of this name to Malai Gesira, as it was known by the Greeks, is thought to be the precursor of the modern name of the island. The name "Malay island" was later rendered in Latin as Malichu, an abbreviated form of Malai Insula, in the medieval Hereford Mappa Mundi as the name of Madagascar.
Another hypothesis is that Madagascar is a corrupted transliteration of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia and an important medieval Indian Ocean port. This would have resulted from 13th-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo confusing the two locations in his memoirs, in which he mentions the land of Madageiscar to the south of Socotra. This name would then have been popularized on Renaissance maps by Europeans.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar
XE3B5983 - Madagascar, Madagasikara
Madagascar (en malgache: Madagasikara; en francés: Madagascar) oficialmente República de Madagascar (en malgache: Repoblikan'i Madagasikara; en francés: République de Madagascar) es un país insular situado en el océano Índico, frente a la costa sureste del continente africano, al este de Mozambique. La nación está comprendida por la isla homónima, la más grande de África y la cuarta más grande del mundo, y por pequeñas y numerosas islas periféricas. Está separada del continente por el canal de Mozambique. A pesar de su cercanía actual al continente africano, Madagascar formaba parte en su origen del subcontinente indio, del cual se separó hace unos 88 millones de años. Por ello, su aislamiento ha favorecido la conservación en su territorio de multitud de especies únicas en el mundo, la mayoría de ellas endémicas de la isla. Las más notables son los lémures (un infraorden de primates), el fosa carnívoro, cinco familias endémicas de aves y seis especies endémicas de baobabs.
El gentilicio de Madagascar es malgache y el idioma nacional es el malgache, su segundo idioma es el francés. La mayoría de sus habitantes tiene creencias tradicionales, son cristianos, o una amalgama de ambos. Madagascar pertenece al grupo de los países menos desarrollados, según las Naciones Unidas. El ecoturismo y la agricultura, junto con mayores inversiones en educación, salud y empresa privada, son elementos clave de la estrategia de desarrollo de Madagascar. Sin embargo, estos beneficios no se distribuyeron uniformemente en toda la población, produciendo tensiones sobre el creciente costo de vida y la disminución del nivel de vida entre los pobres y algunos segmentos de la clase media. Madagascar es el nombre que los portugueses dieron a la isla en 1502 y derivaba de Madeigascar (también Madagosho, Madagascar), que era el nombre de una isla-reino africana mencionada por Marco Polo en su libro (fines del siglo XIII). Aunque algunas fuentes aseguran que este nombre surgiría de la confusión con Mogadiscio, capital de Somalia.
En cuanto al nombre malgache, con el que se denomina a sus habitantes, el término proviene del francés, tomado de Malagasy, que era el nombre que se daban los habitantes originales de la isla.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country lying off the southeastern coast of Africa. It is the world's fourth largest island, the second-largest island country and the 46th largest country in the world. Its capital and largest city is Antananarivo.
Madagascar consists of an eponymous main island and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Following the prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from Africa during the Early Jurassic, around 180 million years ago, and split from the Indian subcontinent around 90 million years ago, allowing native plants and animals to evolve in relative isolation; consequently, it is a biodiversity hotspot and one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries, with over 90% of wildlife being endemic. The island has a subtropical to tropical maritime climate.
Madagascar was first settled during or before the mid first millennium AD by Austronesian peoples, presumably arriving on outrigger canoes from present-day Indonesia. These were joined around the ninth century AD by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa. Other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. Subsequently, the Malagasy ethnic group is often divided into 18 or more subgroups, of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands.
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 it was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a series of Merina nobles. The monarchy was ended in 1897 by the annexation by France, from which Madagascar gained independence in 1960. The country has since undergone four major constitutional periods, termed republics, and has been governed as a constitutional democracy since 1992. Following a political crisis and military coup in 2009, Madagascar underwent a protracted transition towards its fourth and current republic, with constitutional governance being restored in January 2014.
Madagascar is a member of the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie. Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state. Christianity is the country's predominant religion, but a significant minority still practice traditional faiths. Madagascar is classified as a least developed country by the UN. Ecotourism and agriculture, paired with greater investments in education, health and private enterprise, are key elements of its development strategy. Despite substantial economic growth since the early 2000s, income disparities have widened, and quality of life remains low for the majority of the population. Madagascar is experiencing an ongoing famine, which experts argue is the first to be caused entirely by climate change.
In the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara and its people are referred to as Malagasy. The origin of the name is uncertain, and is likely foreign, having been propagated in the Middle Ages by Europeans.
One hypothesis relates Madagascar to the word Malay, referring to the Austronesian origin of the Malagasy people in modern-day Indonesia. In a map by Muhammad al-Idrisi dating from the year 1154, the island is named Gesira Malai, or "Malay island" in Arabic. The inversion of this name to Malai Gesira, as it was known by the Greeks, is thought to be the precursor of the modern name of the island. The name "Malay island" was later rendered in Latin as Malichu, an abbreviated form of Malai Insula, in the medieval Hereford Mappa Mundi as the name of Madagascar.
Another hypothesis is that Madagascar is a corrupted transliteration of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia and an important medieval Indian Ocean port. This would have resulted from 13th-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo confusing the two locations in his memoirs, in which he mentions the land of Madageiscar to the south of Socotra. This name would then have been popularized on Renaissance maps by Europeans.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar