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Madagascar, the world's fourth-largest island (more than twice the size of Great Britain), is located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Mozambique. It was a natural port for seafarers sailing from Africa or Indonesia, and it was a challenging port for traders as every year cyclones roar through, causing extensive damage.
Madagascar was also an early port for pirates because of its distance from Europe and the absence of a significant naval power. The favorite hunting grounds of privateers were in the north in the Arabian Sea and Red Sea areas, but Madagascar was a popular hiding place for recuperating and replenishing supplies for another attack.
Madagascar also became a source of slaves, not only for the neighboring islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, but also for more distant points, including the Western Hemisphere.
Europeans sighted the island in the 1500s, but paid scant attention until Portuguese missionaries tried to establish Christanity in the the 17th century, and both Britain and France followed with attempts to establish settlements.
Oddly, unless a reference book contains scientific references or is actually a scientific journal, little is written about the flora and fauna of islands as exotic as is Madagascar. One of the sublime reasons for travelling the world is to see things you would never seen at home. Madascar is home to strange creatures such as leaf-tailed geckos, fanalokas, mongoose, tenrecs, and several types of lemurs: dwarf, indri (large and black and white), weasel, bamboo, mouse, aye-ayes (nocturnal), a beautiful creamy-white "dancing" Verreaux's sifaka . . . and about half of the world's 150 species of chameleons and more than 300 species of frog. Sailors and passengers had to be overwhelmed and amused at every port.
Two monarchs played key roles in establishing Merina political dominance over Madagascar. The Merina Nation of Madagascar is a "people of the nusantarian (malayo-indonesian) world." Andrianampoinimerina (r. 1797-1810), seized the throne of one of the Merina kingdoms in 1787 and by 1806 he had conquered the remaining three kingdoms and united them within the former boundaries of Imerina, the capital established at the fortified city of Antananarivo.
Radama I (r. 1816-28) succeeded to the throne in 1810 (at age 18) upon the death of his father. By playing off competing British and French interests in the island, he was able to extend Merina authority over nearly the entire island of Madagascar. With the help of the British, who wanted a strong kingdom to offset French influence, Radama I modernized the armed forces.
In 1817 the peoples of the east coast, facing an army of 35,000 soldiers, submitted with little or no protest; Radama then conquered the entire southeast as far as Tolagnaro. The ruling elite held all the land and monopolized commerce, except for the handful of Europeans allowed to deal in cattle, rice, and other commodities. Remunerations to the queen provided the French traders a supply of slaves and a monopoly in the slave trade. Enjoying particular favor owing to his remarkable accomplishments was French artisan Jean Laborde, who established at Mantasoa, near Antananarivo, a manufacturing complex and agricultural research station where he manufactured commodities ranging from silk and soap to guns, tools, and cement.
Particularly barren or impenetrable parts of the island escaped conquest, especially in the extreme south, but before his death Radama I succeeded in bringing the major and more hospitable portions of the country under Merina rule.
He did not quite extend the Merina ricefield to every shore of the island, but he won control over much of the island.
After agreeing to abolish the export of slaves and to accept a British agent at his court in Antananarivo, he received an annual subsidy, arms and ammunition, training and uniforms for his troops. A script was devised for the Malagasy language and printing introduced.
Upon his death in 1828, Queen Ranavalona took the throne and reversed his policies. Most of the Europeans were expelled, the newly baptized Christians were persecuted (and about 200 killed), and in 1835 the Christian religion formally banned.
The reign of Ranavalona, characterized by rebellions, wars and brutality, came to an end with her death in 1861.
Her son, Radama II, immediately opens the island again to European involvement. But within two years he is murdered in his palace - with the complicity of his wife, Rasoherina, who follows him on the throne.
F
or the next three decades Madagascar, or the greater part of it, is ruled by a succession of three queens, but the power behind the throne is a man. Each queen in turn marries the same prime minister, Rainilaiarivony, who welcomes the Europeans back.
In addition to their early and essentially notional claim to the island, from a few decades in the 17th century, the French have maintained a close contact with Madagascar during the 19th century. Jean Laborde, a Frenchman who won considerable influence over the queen and her son, Radama II, granted concessions to European entrepreneurs, he choose a French company.
But by the 1880s the French government is in a more demanding mood and began claiming land as an official French protectorate.
In 1883, when their demands are rejected, a French warship bombarded the town and landed marines. T Madagascar's foreign affairs went to the French, and Britain acknowledges that Madagascar is now a French protectorate (in return for a similar French understanding on the British position in Zanzibar).
But within Madagascar the situation is not so simple.
Although he has signed the treaty in 1885, the prime minister sets about arming and training an army (British officers are made available to help him). The result is a brief war with a French force sent in 1895 to bring him to heel. Once again it is an uneven contest. The French reach the capital in September 1895. The queen and her husband are sent into exile (in 1897). Madagascar becomes a French colony.