Yankees in Indian Ocean Africa: Madagascar and Nineteenth-Century American Commerce

Throughout the late eighteenth and into the nineteenth centuries, merchants from the newly independent United States established trading connections around the world. While there have been several recent publications that study these global exchanges, most studies have focused on American activities in Asia and overlooked the development of connections within the Indian Ocean and in East Africa. This article will examine how American merchants established themselves in Madagascar where local exigencies, particularly the existence of interregional exchange networks, shaped their commercial efforts. The possibility of tapping into these networks encouraged New Englanders to visit the port of Mahajanga where they formed partnerships with African, Arab, and Indian intermediaries who were essential to American successes. The history of Americans in Mahajanga thus reveals how contact with diverse political and cultural communities shaped their commercial efforts, as they sought to work closely with Indian Ocean merchant groups and distinguish themselves from their European rivals.