Discover the archipelago
From the first seafarers to the sultans, from the slave trade to colonisation, from independence to the question of Mayotte: more than a thousand years of history, told from the sources of the archipelago and from outside views.
Long a port of call on the sea routes of the Indian Ocean, the archipelago has seen sailors, merchants, scholars, pirates, slaves and colonists pass through. From these encounters an original civilisation was born, at once African, Muslim and maritime. The four islands shared this history before their political destinies diverged in 1975.
This section draws on sources of different kinds: chronicles and oral traditions of the archipelago, travellers' accounts, colonial archives, work by Comorian and foreign historians, archaeology and genetics. We indicate what is established, what remains debated and, on sensitive subjects, the different points of view. Each article refers to its main references, gathered in the bibliography.
Sources and methods
Oral traditions, manuscripts in Arabic script, sailors' accounts, colonial archives, excavations and genetics: where what we know about the archipelago's past comes from, and how to compare these perspectives.
8th–12th century
Bantu-speaking Africans and seafarers from South-East Asia met in the archipelago as early as the end of the 1st millennium: what archaeology, linguistics and genetics tell us.
10th–15th century
Merchants, scholars and “Shirazi” lineages: how Islam took root and how the islands became part of the Swahili world, between tradition and archaeology.
15th–19th century
Around ten sultanates on Grande Comore, a powerful sultanate on Anjouan, capitals that move and endless rivalries: the political organisation of the archipelago before colonisation.
16th–18th century
Portuguese, English, Dutch, French and pirates of the “Pirate Round”: for three centuries, the archipelago supplied the ships on the route to the Indies.
18th – early 20th century
A place of transit and a place of exploitation, the archipelago was at the heart of the slave-trading networks of the Indian Ocean, then the target of Malagasy raids. A long-silenced history that researchers are bringing back to light.
1841–1946
Malagasy princes, the cession of Mayotte, protectorates, annexation and attachment to Madagascar: a century of French rule, plantations and resistance.
1946–1975
Overseas territory, internal autonomy, the birth of Comorian nationalism and of the Mahoran movement: thirty years leading to independence and the separation of Mayotte.
1975 – today
Coups and mercenaries, Ali Soilih's revolution, the separatist crisis, the birth of the Union of the Comoros: half a century of turbulent political history.
1974 – today
A French department for Paris and for the vast majority of Mahorans, an occupied Comorian island for Moroni and the UN: understanding each side's arguments, the votes and their human consequences.
Portraits
Legendary founders, queens and sultans, activists, politicians, writers and researchers: a few personalities who left their mark on the history of the archipelago.
The key dates in the history of the archipelago.
8th–10th c.
The oldest known sites, such as Sima on Anjouan, have yielded rice and mung beans from Asia: Bantu-speaking Africans and Austronesian seafarers meet in the archipelago.
9th–12th c.
In Mayotte, the Dembéni site has yielded ceramics from the Persian Gulf and China: the archipelago takes part in the great trade of the Indian Ocean.
10th–12th c.
The first Muslim burials (Bagamoyo, Acoua) and the first excavated mosques (Sima, Domoni). Tradition, for its part, attributes the arrival of Islam to Mtswa Mwindza, in the time of the Prophet.
13th–15th c.
So-called “Shirazi” lineages ally themselves with local chiefs and found dynasties; stone cities develop.
c. 1490
The navigator Ahmad Ibn Mâjid describes Anjouan and names Mayotte for the first time.
Early 16th c.
Portuguese ships on their way to India reach the archipelago, without settling there.
1538
Two Arabic inscriptions date the mihrab of the royal mosque of Tsingoni, capital of the sultanate of Mayotte, to 944 AH (1538).
17th–18th c.
Anjouan, the “Johanna” of English sailors, supplies the ships of the East India Company.
February 1695
The famous pirate stops at Anjouan and leaves a letter there addressed to English captains.
Late 18th c.
Sultan Abdallah I moves the capital of Anjouan from Domoni to Mutsamudu.
c. 1790–1820
Sakalava and Betsimisaraka fleets from Madagascar ravage the islands, capturing mainly women and children. Towns surround themselves with ramparts and citadels.
c. 1830–1832
Having taken refuge on Anjouan after the death of King Radama I, the Merina prince Ramanetaka takes control of Mohéli and adopts the name Abderemane.
1832
A former Sakalava king of Boina driven out by the Merina, he takes control of Mayotte.
1836
Having come to retake Mohéli, the sultan of Anjouan sees his dhows driven ashore by a storm; captured by Ramanetaka, he dies in captivity.
25 April 1841
Andriantsoly cedes Mayotte to France; formal possession is taken on 13 June 1843.
1842
The daughter of the Merina prince Ramanetaka comes to the throne while still a child.
9 December 1846
A royal ordinance abolishes slavery in Mayotte (applied in 1847), ahead of the other French colonies.
1868
Exiled to Zanzibar after a first bombardment of Mohéli, Djoumbé Fatima comes to ask Napoleon III to arbitrate against Joseph Lambert, without success.
3 June 1871
After the return of the queen, who raises the island against Lambert, the French navy almost entirely destroys the old town of Fomboni.
1885–1886
A contract between Sultan Saïd Ali and Léon Humblot (5 November 1885), then a protectorate over Grande Comore (6 January 1886), Anjouan and Mohéli (1886).
1891
On the death of Sultan Abdallah III, slaves and peasants from the island's uplands rise up; slavery is abolished on Anjouan.
1902–1904
Abolition on Mohéli (1902), then on Grande Comore (29 February 1904).
25 July 1912
The annexation law makes the four islands a province of the colony of Madagascar.
July 1915
Some 1,200 peasants rise up against the poll tax and the confiscation of land.
March–April 1940
On Anjouan, villagers hemmed in by the plantations revolt; the negotiations bring to the fore the young doctor Saïd Mohamed Cheikh.
9 May 1946
The Comoros are separated from Madagascar and gain administrative and financial autonomy.
1952
A coelacanth caught off Anjouan confirms the survival of this “living fossil”.
14 May 1958
The Territorial Assembly votes to move the capital from Dzaoudzi to Moroni, against the wishes of the Mahoran members.
2 November 1958
Mahoran notables call for Mayotte to become a department.
1961–1962
Saïd Mohamed Cheikh chairs the government council until his death on 16 March 1970.
Late 1962
Comorians in East Africa found the first independence movement in Dar es Salaam.
January 1968
The strike by pupils at the Moroni secondary school opens up political debate in the archipelago.
22 December 1974
94.6% “yes” across the archipelago as a whole; in Mayotte, 63.8% of voters choose to remain part of France.
6 July 1975
After the French law of 3 July providing for ratification island by island, the Chamber of Deputies proclaims independence; Ahmed Abdallah becomes head of state.
3 August 1975
Ali Soilih overthrows Ahmed Abdallah with the help of the mercenary Bob Denard.
12 November 1975
The Comoros join the United Nations with their four islands.
8 February 1976
99.4% of Mahoran voters choose to remain within the Republic. On 21 October, the UN declares this referendum null and void (Resolution 31/4).
13 May 1978
Bob Denard's mercenaries overthrow the revolutionary regime; Ahmed Abdallah returns to power.
26 November 1989
The president is killed in his office; Bob Denard's presidential guard is implicated.
January 1995
A visa is required for Comorians to enter Mayotte: clandestine crossings by kwassa-kwassa multiply.
September–October 1995
The mercenary overthrows President Djohar; the French army arrests him during Operation Azalée.
August 1997
Anjouan, then Mohéli, proclaim their secession.
17 February 2001
It paves the way for the constitution of the Union of the Comoros, adopted by referendum on 23 December 2001.
25 March 2008
A Comorian operation backed by the African Union ends the rule of Colonel Mohamed Bacar.
29 March 2009
95.2% of voters approve departmentalisation.
31 March 2011
Mayotte becomes a French department, then an outermost region of the European Union in 2014.
30 July 2018
A referendum changes the rotating presidency and allows the president to seek a second consecutive term.
2018–2019
A seismic crisis reveals the birth of a submarine volcano east of Mayotte.
2020
UNESCO recognises the island of Mohéli (Mwali) as a biosphere reserve.
2023
President Azali Assoumani chairs the African Union for one year.
14 December 2024
Mayotte is devastated by a cyclone of rare violence.
