When was comoros colonized

But France refused to support the secession of either island. In Sept. In , Col. Azali Assoumani led a coup, overthrowing interim president Tadjidine. He promised interim military rule would end in a year, a pledge the Organization of African Unity would continue to remind him of. After years of aborted peace talks, a new constitution was approved in March , and the three islands were reunited.

Each island elected its own president, and in May a federal president was elected from Grande Comoro, former military coup leader Azali.

In Feb. A power-sharing agreement signed in Dec. In , Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, an Islamic religious leader, was elected federal president. The African Union sent troops to Anjouan in May ahead of June's elections, which were held despite an order against them by the central government. Mohamed Bacar won the election and declared himself president, a move called illegal by the central government.

The AU called for new elections in October and froze the assets of Bacar and other government officials. The country's second round of presidential elections in December saw Ikililou Dhoinine win with He took office in May See also Encyclopedia: Comoros.

State Dept. Country Notes: Comoros. Government Emerging republic. History Comoros was frequented by travelers from Africa, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Arabia before the first Europeans encountered the islands.

Next: History. Isolated from important trade routes by the opening of the Suez Canal in , having few natural resources, and largely neglected by France, the islands were poorly equipped for independence. In the Comoro Islands became an overseas department of France with representation in the French National Assembly.

The following year, the islands' administrative ties to Madagascar were severed; Comoros established its own customs regime in A Governing Council was elected in August on the four islands in conformity with the loi-cadre enabling law of June 23, A constitution providing for internal self-government was promulgated in , following a referendum in which Comorans voted overwhelmingly to remain a part of France.

This government consisted of a territorial assembly having, in , thirty-nine members, and a Governing Council of six to nine ministers responsible to it. Comoros Table of Contents France's presence in the western Indian Ocean dates to the early seventeenth century. Custom Search Source: U. Library of Congress. The islands of the Comorian Archipelago, situated mid-way between Madagascar and the African mainland, have seen relatively limited archaeological study, and in particular the application of archaeological science methodologies on the island has been rare.

Historical sources point to an important role for the Comoros islands in Indian Ocean trade in the second millennium AD, with the Comoros acting in particular as a key western Indian Ocean node for the slave trade between the 16 th and 19 th centuries. How far back this slave trade extended, who first occupied the Comoros and how they got there are all questions that remain unanswered. The earliest crop assemblages of the Comoros that have been tested are overwhelmingly dominated by Asian crops like rice and mung bean, and in this regard show strong similarities to the earliest known crops grown on Madagascar rather than the African mainland.