Madagascar
Most archaeologists say that Madagascar was first inhabited sometime between 300 BC and 500 AD by Asians more precisely by Austronesian who came on canoes from Borneo and Sulawesi in the Indonesian archipelago. After sometime, Bantu migrants crossed the Mozambique Channel, and reached Madagascar. Then Arab and East African migrants were added to the Malagasy population. Madagascar was part of the French colonial empire from 1883 to 1960.

French colonialisation.
The first war between France was the first Franco-Hova war in 1883 after which, Madagascar ceded Diego Suarez on the northern coast to France and paid 560,000 francs to the heirs of Joseph-François Lambert. In 1890, the British accepted the full formal imposition of a French protectorate. Soon afterward, a French flying column landed in the western city of the country: Mahajanga and marched to the capital Antananarivo, where the capital's defenders quickly surrendered. Only twenty French soldiers died fighting, but 6,000 died of malaria and other diseases before the second Franco-Hova War ended. After the conclusion of hostilities, in 1896 France annexed Madagascar. The 103-year-old Merina monarchy ended with the royal family being sent into exile in Algeria.

Under colonial rule, many Schools were built, particularly in rural and coastal areas where the schools of the Merina(category of people who live in Antananarivo, the capital) had not reached; education became mandatory between the ages of 6 to 13 and the french language has been introduced to student. The Merina royal tradition of  taxes paid in the form of labor was continued under the French and used to construct a railway and roads linking the coastal cities to Antananarivo.

During World War II, Malagasy troops fought in France, Morocco, and Syria. Some leaders in Nazi Germany proposed deporting all of Europe's Jews to Madagascar (the Madagascar Plan), but nothing came of this. After France fell to Germany, the Vichy government administered Madagascar. During the Battle of Madagascar, British troops occupied the island in 1942 to preclude its seizure by the Japanese, after which the Free French took over.(from Wikipedia encyclopedia)

In 1947, a war began for the independence of the country which killed ten thousands people. The French later established reformed institutions in 1956, and Madagascar moved peacefully towards independence. The Malagasy Republic was proclaimed on October 14, 1958, as an autonomous state within the French Community. A period of provisional government ended with the adoption of a constitution in 1959 and full independence on June 26, 1960.