Grande Comore
| Grande Comore | ||
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| Waters | Indian Ocean | |
| Archipelago | Comoros | |
| Geographical location | 11 ° 41 ′ S , 43 ° 22 ′ E | |
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| surface | 1 012.9 km² | |
| Highest elevation |
Karthala 2361 m |
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| Residents | 345,000 341 inhabitants / km² |
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| main place | Moroni | |
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Grande Comore ( Comorian Njazidja or Ngazidja ) is the largest island in the Comoros . It is a volcanic island .
geography
It has an area of 1012.9 km² and is around 400 km east of Mozambique .
Grande Comore is geologically the youngest island in the archipelago . It is dominated by the active volcano Karthala (2361 m) in the south of the island . The north is a stony plain ( La Grille ). Agriculture is hardly possible there due to the lack of fresh water sources.
It is noteworthy that coelaceans live on the sea slopes of the island .
population
The approximately 345,000 inhabitants of the island are descendants of Arab, African and Malagasy immigrants and speak a language related to Swahili , Comorian ( Shingazidja ). The largest city on the island (approx. 60,000 inhabitants) - and at the same time the capital of the Comoros - is Moroni on the west coast.
history
When Portuguese sailors reached the island in 1505, it was split into twelve competing sultanates, which, however, elected a common head. This office of Sultan Tibé alternated between the Sultanates of Bambao and Itsandra in the 19th century. The Portuguese held the island for five years, but then had to bow to the resistance of the local population and give up the colony. In 1864 and 1871 France, which had already established its first military and trading post in 1844, intervened militarily in the island's internal conflicts. Gradually it penetrated the island peacefully and turned it into a French colony; In 1892 the sultanates were dissolved.
After 1885, the French Léon Humblot became the island's "White Sultan" and expanded it into a kind of private kingdom until he was deposed by the colonial administration in 1896. For the development since independence see History of the Comoros .
