Grande Comore Island Grande Comore Island Comoros

The first Europeans to visit the Comoros are the Portuguese, who land on Njazidja around 1505.

The islands first appear on a European map in 1527, that of Portuguese cartographer Diogo Roberos.

Dutch sixteenth-century accounts describe the Comoros' sultanates as prosperous trade centers with the African coast and Madagascar.

Intense competition for this trade, and, increasingly, for European commerce, results in constant warfare among the sultanates, a situation that will persist  until the French occupation.

The sultans of Njazidja only occasionally recognize the supremacy of one of their number as tibe, or supreme ruler.

Slaves had become Comoros' most important export commodity by the early seventeenth century, although the market for the islands' other products also continues to expand, mainly in response to the growing European presence in the region.

To meet this increased demand, the sultans begin using slave labor themselves, following common practice along the East African coast.