ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 explores how we can establish when people arrived on islands, why this has often been so difficult to do, and from where and under what circumstances they came. These questions are first tackled using the archaeological records of Madagascar and the Canary Islands, showing how debates over their settlement have also become entangled in broader political concerns. At the same time the chapter explores the colonizations effected by European powers and trading companies between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries AD, as well as cases like Unguja (Zanzibar) where what are now islands were in the past repeatedly joined to adjacent mainlands. Did people choose to remain or leave once such islands were surrounded by the sea? Focusing explicitly on small islands then throws into sharper relief the attractions and challenges of island life, the changes that attempts to colonize islands may have required, and the long-term viability of island settlement. Mafia off the coast of Tanzania and Corisco off that of Equatorial Guinea provide particularly useful case studies. They also help assess the applicability of framing understandings of island settlement in biogeographical terms, discussion of which ends the chapter.
