Antsiranana Province

Antsiranana Province occupies Madagascar's northern tip, as far from highland Antananarivo as island geography permits. The French called it Diego Suarez and made it a naval base in 1885—recognizing that this deep natural harbor at the island's north controlled shipping routes the Merina kingdom couldn't reach. Geographic isolation created political independence: the province never fully integrated into highland power structures, maintaining distinct ethnic groups and economic patterns. Dissolved in 2007 like all provinces, Antsiranana's boundaries traced something real—the extent of territory that looked north to the Indian Ocean rather than south to the capital. Today the former province area relies on fishing, vanilla in the northeast rainforests, and port activity at Antsiranana city. The April 2025 tariff crisis affects the north less than the highlands: peripheral regions with diversified local economies prove more resilient than core regions dependent on single industries. By 2026, the northern tip tests whether geographic isolation creates economic independence or merely delays the same collapse.