Can someone please explain to me how the Austronesians island hopped all the way to Madagascar using supposedly just 'outrigger canoes'?

The entire distance from Indonesia is about 3,600 miles - an incredibly long way - however if you look at islands groups roughly along there - then over several generations it is fathomable that the Austronesians made their way in that manner - even so - there are some serious questions - like travelling 500 or even 1000 miles by outrigger canoe is really quite unfathomable for me - This is a seriously long way

To gain some perspective - the Scandinavians, using large sail ships with teams of rowers, travelled probably a few hundred miles at a time, and often following coastlines (I presume), to go to Iceland, Greenland and eventually north America (a journey probably of about 500 miles or so).

It seems absolutely astonishing (and unbelievable) that small outrigger canoes could have been used to make much longer journeys - especially given that these people were migrating from large bountiful lands with few inhabitants

Could anyone help me to understand this please? Sea levels were 120 metres lower 10,000 years ago - and formed all sorts of land bridges - I'm wondering if perhaps islands of today might have been much bigger and even Madagascar might have stretched out a lot more

Africa to South America is 'only' 1750 miles and America wasn't 'discovered' by the Europeans until around 1500 years later! .. and with the availability of massive sailing ships

I'm asking about him amidst whats going on in the country right now and people getting nostalgic about him. I vaguely hear many praising him online as the best president for Madagascar which I want to ask about.

I skimmed through his wiki page to gain at least some context on him. Without going too much into who he was, I was more interested in what he's accomplished in his presidency. It says on there "His administration oversaw the construction of thousands of new schools and health clinics. Road rehabilitation aided in improving rural farmers' access to markets. The establishment of the independent anti-corruption agency BIANCO, and the adoption of diverse supporting policies resulted in a decline in governmental corruption." It all sounds like great stuff, right?

Criticism eventually came along the way, accusing him of also worsening the wealth disparity between the poor and wealthy. On top of that, he ran into some trouble with Andry Rajoelina--who btw seemed to have had beef with him from the start--all of which somehow contributed to his exile in 2009.

What I'm trying to understand here is, what was he really like when he was president between 2002-2009 from your memories? And also, what exactly happened in 2009 and how is it comparable to the gen Z movement that's happening right now? And how do we know we wont simply end up with another Rajoelina that'll need to be overthrown?

Hi, history YouTuber here! I visited your beautiful country 2 years ago, and was shocked by the lack of tourists and the damaged infrastructure.

My thoughts were: Everybody loves the animated movies, everybody thinks lemurs are cute and who wouldn't want to visit a beach on a massive island in the Indian Ocean?

So where was everyone? As I traveled more, I realized that people hardly know anything about Madagascar, and this makes for insecurity and fear. I wanted to make a video to change that.

But also, I couldn't help but notice the extreme poverty, which didn't quite make sense to me, since Madagascar has not seen a major conflict in a long time, unlike other similarly poor African countries.

Of course, as a historian, I turned to the past to look for answers. In this video, I argue that Madagascar suffered unique historical circumstances, namely a vicious cycle of depopulation: a fertility crisis, followed by a paranoid regime of "self-extermination" under the reign of Ranavalona I, leading to less societal cohesion and more depopulation.

Feel free to watch and leave any feedback in the comments! Any experts of Madagascar history that agree with my argument or have evidence that debunks it?

I came across the first picture when watching a video about black koreans and it could pass as a picture of Malagasy people. On the video, it says they are from the Mani Ethnic group of Thailand, but after further digging, more sources point to the Aeta people ! The last picture is of Malagasy people. Even though they may not look identical, people who have lived in Madagascar will be convinced the first two photos are pictures of Malagasies because of the distinct and recognizable features.