Antsiranana - Diego-Suarez Tours

Antsiranana, named Diego-Suarez prior to 1975, is a city at the northern tip of Madagascar.  Antsiranana is the capital of Diana Region.  The place was named for Diogo Soares, a Portuguese navigator who visited the bay in 1543.  In the 1880s, the bay was coveted by France, which desired it as a coaling station for steamships. After the first Franco-Hova War, Queen Ranavalona III signed a treaty on December 17, 1885 giving France a protectorate over the bay and surrounding territory, as well as the islands of Nossi-Be and Ste. Marie de Madagascar. The colony's administration was subsumed into that of Madagascar in 1896.  The Second Pacific Squadron of Imperial Russia anchored and was resupplied at Diego-Suarez on its way to the Battle of Tsushima in 1905.