Grande Comore

Grande Comore ( Comorian Njazidja or Ngazidja ) is the largest island of the Comoros.

Geography

It has an area of ​​1012.9 km ² and is located 400 km east of Mozambique.

Grande Comore is geologically the youngest island of the archipelago. It is dominated by Set in the south of the island active volcano Karthala ( 2361 m). The north is a stony plain (La Grille ). Agriculture is also there due to lack of freshwater sources is hardly possible.

It is noteworthy that live on the sea slopes of the island coelacanth.

Population

The approximately 345,000 inhabitants of the island are descendants of Arab, African and Malagasy immigrants and speak a language related to Swahili, the Comoro ( Shingazidja ). The largest town of the island (about 60,000 inhabitants) - and also the capital of the Comoros - Moroni is on the west coast.

History

When Portuguese sailors reached the island in 1500, it was split into twelve competing sultanates, but chose a common head. This office of the Sultan Tibé had alternately held the Sultanate Bambao and Itsandra in the 19th century. The Portuguese held the island for five years occupied, then had to bow to the resistance of the local population and give up the colony, however. 1864 and 1871 intervened France, which was erected in 1844 a first military and trading posts, military in the internal conflicts of the island. It gradually permeated the island peacefully and converted it to a French colony; 1892, the Sultanate have been resolved.

After 1885, the Frenchman Léon Humblot moulted to the "White Sultan " of the island and turned it into a sort of private kingdom, until he was deposed by the colonial administration in 1896. The development since independence see History of the Comoros.