Ranavalona I
Encyclopedia
Ranavalona I also known as Ranavalo-Manjaka I, was a sovereign of the Kingdom of Madagascar from 1828 to 1861. After positioning herself as queen following the death of her young husband, Radama I, Ranavalona pursued a policy of autarky
(self-sufficiency) and isolationism
, diminishing economic and political ties with European powers, repelling a French attack on the coastal town of Foulepointe, and taking vigorous measures to eradicate the small but growing Malagasy Christian movement initiated under Radama I by members of the London Missionary Society
. She made heavy use of the traditional practice of fanompoana (forced labor in lieu of tax payments in money or goods) to complete public works projects and build a standing army of between 20,000 and 30,000 Merina soldiers, whom she deployed to pacify outlying regions of the island and further expand her realm. The combination of regular warfare, disease, difficult forced labor and harsh measures of justice throughout the island resulted in a high mortality rate among soldiers and civilians alike during her 33-year reign.
Although greatly obstructed by Ranavalona's policies, French and British interests in Madagascar
remained undiminished. Divisions between traditionalist and pro-European factions at the queen's court created opportunities that European intermediaries leveraged to attempt to hasten the succession of her son, Radama II. The young prince disagreed with many of his mother's policies and was amenable to French proposals for the exploitation of the island's resources, as expressed in the Lambert Charter he concluded with a French representative in 1855. These plots were never successful, however, and Radama II was not to take the throne until Ranavalona's natural death in 1861 at the age of 83.
Ranavalona's European contemporaries generally condemned her policies and characterized her as a tyrant at best and insane at worst. These negative characterizations persisted in Western scholarly literature until the mid-1970s. Recent research, however, has recast Ranavalona's actions as those of a queen attempting to expand her realm while protecting Malagasy sovereignty against the encroachment of European cultural and political influence, a concern that ultimately proved only too valid upon French colonization of Madagascar in 1896.
, to Prince Andriantsalamanjaka (Andrianavalontsalama) and Princess Rabodonandriantompo. When Ramavo was still a young girl, her father alerted King Andrianampoinimerina
(1787–1810) to a murderous plot against him by Andrianjafy
, the king's uncle, whom Andrianampoinimerina had forced from the throne at the royal city of Ambohimanga
. In return, Andrianampoinimerina betrothed Ramavo to his son, Prince Radama, whom the king would later designate as his heir. He furthermore declared that any child from this union would be first in the line of succession after Radama. However, despite her elevated rank among the royal wives, Ramavo was not the preferred wife of Radama and did not bear him any children. The relationship between Radama and Ramavo may have become strained following Radama's execution of a number of Ramavo's relatives in order to secure his succession following Andrianampoinimerina's death.
in Antananarivo on the grounds of the royal palace
. Radama died in the company of two trusted attendants who were favorable to the succession of Rakotobe. However, these attendants hesitated to report the news of Radama's death for several days, fearing possible reprisals against them for having been involved in denouncing one of the king's rivals, whose family had a stake in succession after Radama. During this time, another attendant discovered the truth and discreetly transmitted the information to Ramavo. She contacted two colonels from her home village and promised them several rewards for their loyalty and assistance in taking the throne. These soldiers hid Ramavo and one of her friends in a safe location, then visited judges and the keepers of the sampy
(royal idols) to secure the support of these influential power brokers. Their loyalty assured, the soldiers were then able to rally the army behind Ramavo, such that on August 3 when she declared herself successor to Radama on the pretense that he himself had decreed it, there could be no immediate resistance. Ramavo took the throne name Ranavalona ("folded", "kept aside"), then followed royal custom by systematically capturing and putting to death her political rivals, including Rakotobe, his family and other members of Radama's family, much as Radama had done to the queen's own family upon his succession to the throne. Her coronation ceremony took place more than a year after the death of Radama, on August 12, 1829.
, made possible through heavy reliance on the long-standing tradition of fanompoana—forced labor in lieu of tax payments in money or goods. Ranavalona continued the wars of expansion conducted by her predecessor, Radama I, in an effort to extend her realm over the entire island, and imposed strict punishments on those who were judged as having acted in opposition to her will. Due in large part to loss of life throughout the years of military campaigns, high death rate among fanompoana workers, and harsh traditions of justice under her rule, the population of Madagascar is estimated to have dropped from around 5 million to 2.5 million between 1833–1839, and from 750,000 to 130,000 between 1829–1842 in Imerina, contributing to a strongly unfavorable view of Ranavalona's rule in historical accounts.
in Antananarivo
. Between 1839 and 1842, Jean Laborde
built the queen a new residence called Manjakamiadana, which was to become the largest structure on the Rova grounds. The residence was made entirely from wood and bore most of the features of a traditional andriana home, including a central pillar (andry) to support the roof; in other ways it showcased distinctly European innovations, as it contained three floors entirely surrounded by wooden verandas and incorporated dormers in the shingled roof. The palace would eventually be encased in stone in 1867 by James Cameron
of the London Missionary Society during the reign of Ranavalona II. The original wooden palace of Ranavalona and virtually all other structures of the historic Rova compound were destroyed in a 1995 fire, leaving only the stone shell to mark where her palace had once stood.
Likewise, Ranavalona maintained the tradition of ruling with the support of advisers drawn largely from the aristocratic class. The queen's most powerful ministers were also her consorts. Her first chief adviser was a young army officer from Namehana named Andriamihaja, who served as First Minister from 1829 to 1830. Major-General Andriamihaja most likely fathered the queen's only son, Prince Rakoto (later King Radama II
), who was born eleven months after the death of his official father, King Radama I. In the early years of Ranavalona's reign, Andriamihaja was the leader of the progressive faction within her court who favored Radama's pro-European foreign policy; the conservative faction was led by the brothers Rainimaharo and Rainiharo
, the latter being the official guardian of one of the most powerful royal sampy—talismans that were believed to embody and channel the supernatural powers of the kingship and had played a major role in the spiritual life of the Merina
since at least the 16th century reign of Ralambo
. The conservative faction conspired to reduce Andriamahaja's progressive influence over the queen, and in September 1830 they managed to persuade her while highly intoxicated to sign his death warrant for charges of witchcraft and treason. He was immediately captured in his home and killed.
With Andriamihaja's death, the influence of Radama's old guard of progressives was eclipsed by that of conservative advisers at court, who grew ever closer to the queen, eventually resulting in Ranavalona's marriage to sampy guardian and conservative figurehead Field Marshal Rainiharo (also known as Ravoninahitriniarivo) of Ilafy in 1833. Rainiharo—whose father, Andriantsilavonandriana, was a Hova
(a free citizen of non-aristocratic birth) having exceptionally been accorded the privilege of acting as counselor to King Andrianampoinimerina—served as the queen's First Minister from 1830 to 1832, then Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief from 1832 to 1852. Upon Rainiharo's death, the queen wed another conservative, Field Marshal Andrianisa (also known as Rainijohary), who remained Ranavalona's husband until her death in 1861. He served as Prime Minister from 1852 to 1862 before being exiled to Ambohimanga for his part in a plot against the queen's son, Radama II. Under the influence of her conservative ministers, Ranavalona's tolerance of Christianity and European influence rapidly diminished.
The number of non-Merina who died in violent conflict during the military campaigns of Ranavalona and her predecessor Radama from 1816 to 1853 was estimated at about 60,000. Additionally, a considerable proportion of the population not killed in battle in the subjugated provinces would eventually die from famine as a consequence of scorched earth
policies. Deaths among the Merina soldiers engaged in military actions were also high, estimated at about 160,000 for the period 1820–1853. A further 25–50% of the queen's soldiers stationed in lowland areas were estimated to have died each year due to diseases such as malaria. Although prevalent in the coastal parts of the island, malaria was uncommon in the high-altitude zone around Antananarivo, and Merina soldiers possessed little natural resistance against it. An average of 4,500 soldiers died each year for the greater part of Ranavalona's reign, contributing to severe depopulation in Imerina.
. A poison was extracted from the nut of the native tangena (Tanghinia venenifera) shrub and ingested, with the outcome determining innocence or guilt. If nobles (andriana) or freemen (hova) were compelled to undergo the ordeal, the poison was typically administered to the accused only after dog and rooster stand-ins had already died from the poison's effects, while among members of the slave class (andevo), the ordeal required them to immediately ingest the poison themselves. The accused would be fed the poison along with three pieces of chicken skin: if all three pieces of skin were vomited up then innocence was declared, but death or a failure to regurgitate all three pieces of skin indicated guilt. According to 19th-century Malagasy historian Raombana, in the eyes of the greater populace, the tangena ordeal was believed to represent a sort of celestial justice in which the public placed their unquestioning faith, even to the point of accepting a verdict of guilt in a case of innocence as a just but unknowable divine mystery.
Residents of Madagascar could accuse one another of various crimes, including theft, Christianity and especially witchcraft, for which the ordeal of tangena was routinely obligatory. On average, an estimated 20 to 50 percent of those who underwent the ordeal died. In the 1820s, the tangena ordeal caused about 1,000 deaths annually. This average rose to around 3,000 annual deaths between 1828 and 1861. In 1838, it was estimated that as many as 100,000 people in Imerina died as a result of the tangena ordeal, constituting roughly 20 percent of the population. Although outlawed in 1863, the ordeal continued to be practiced secretly in Imerina and openly in other parts of the island.
and England
to secure control over Madagascar
. The French, who held several small islands off Madagascar, were interested in gaining control over the main island but this move was opposed by the British who had an interest in maintaining a safe passage to India
. Ranavalona pursued a policy of autarky that sought to severely limit the interference of these foreign powers. To this end, she revoked the Anglo-Merina friendship treaty signed by her predecessor Radama I that had, in her view, given England too strong an influence over political, economic and social affairs within her state.
One consequence of the termination of the Anglo-Merina friendship treaty was an end to the delivery of British weaponry, which rendered the queen vulnerable to designs against her from foreign powers and pockets of local resistance alike. A French attack on Foulepoint in 1829 was successfully repelled but underscored the need to secure adequate arms for self-defense. It came to the Queen's attention that Frenchman Jean Laborde, who had been shipwrecked off Madagascar in 1832, was knowledgeable in the production of cannons, muskets and gun powder. Ranavalona provided him with the manpower and resources to establish factories to meet the material needs of her army, thereby liberating the kingdom from dependence upon Europe for modern weaponry.
In a kabary (formal speech) on February 26, 1835, Queen Ranavalona formally forbade the practice of Christianity among her subjects. In her discourse, she was careful to differentiate between her own people, for whom the new religion was forbidden and its practice a capital offense, and foreigners, to whom she permitted freedom of religion and conscience. She furthermore acknowledged the valuable intellectual and technological contributions that European missionaries had made to the advancement of her country, and invited them to continue working for the advancement of the country on the condition that their proselytizing would cease:
The majority of the London Missionary Society missionaries, whose primary activity was teaching Christian theology and literacy at their newly-established schools using the Bible as the only Malagasy-language text, were obliged to leave. Several years thereafter, in the spirit of solidarity they were joined by James Cameron
and other artisan missionaries whose diverse practical skills and many significant contributions to the industrialization of the island had secured them positive relations with the Merina monarchy since their arrival in the early 1820s.
Pursuant to the public decree above, those who possessed a Bible, worshiped in congregation or continued to profess adherence to Christianity were fined, jailed, put in chains or other punishments, subjected to trial by ordeal
, or executed. Lurid accounts of the execution and torture of Christians were reported by missionaries who placed emphasis on what they perceived as the savagery of the Queen's actions. For instance, they reported the public execution of fifteen Christian leaders near the Queen's palace who had been dangled on ropes 150 feet above a rock-filled ravine, only to have their ropes cut upon refusal to recant their profession of Christian faith. This outcropping has since become a site of commemoration for these early Malagasy Christian martyrs. The precise number of Malagasy citizens put to death for religious reasons during Ranavalona's reign is difficult to state with certainty. A conservative estimate places the number executed at between sixty and eighty. Far more, however, were punished in other ways: many were required to undergo the tangena ordeal, while others were condemned to hard labor or the confiscation of their land and property, and many of these consequently died. Persecution of Christians intensified in 1840, 1849 and 1857; in 1849, deemed the worst of these years by British missionary to Madagascar W.E. Cummins (1878), 1,900 people were fined, jailed or otherwise punished in relation to their Christian faith, including 18 executions.
and Radama that could only come into effect upon the prince's succession. The charter guaranteed Lambert and his business associates first rights to the exploitation of many of the island's commodities and natural resources. According to a British account, Lambert conspired with Jean Laborde and local leaders to persuade Radama II to sign a document written in French—a language in which the prince was not fluent—which Lambert orally translated as containing only an account of the excessive pressures the Queen's policies were placing on her subjects. Radama, who was sympathetic toward the commoners and desirous to ease their burden but suspicious about the letter's true purpose, reluctantly signed the document under intense pressure from the French. He was not told the letter included a request for French military intervention that could have potentially brought Madagascar under French rule. France, however, did not intend to take such an action without the accord of their ally, Britain, whose influence had been so well-established on the island, and refused to intercede on behalf of the prince. In the meantime, Radama, who had been made to swear on the Bible not to speak of the letter to anyone, had grown so concerned about the outcome of the letter that he contacted a British diplomat, thereby revealing the true circumstances under which the letter had been signed; the British refused to cooperate in the French plot, and an attack was averted. According to Lambert, however, the prince had indeed been an enthusiastic partner in the bid to end Ranavalona's reign, and his own true feelings about the endeavor had been deliberately misrepresented through a British campaign of propaganda.
Having failed to gain the backing of a European state power to place Radama on the throne and bring the treaty into effect, Lambert decided to instigate a coup d'état independently. He traveled to Ranavalona's court in May 1857 in the company of the celebrated 19th-century Austrian globetrotter Ida Pfeiffer, who became an unwitting observer to the plot. She documented her perspective on these events in one of her late works. According to Pfeiffer, Radama and Lambert had planned to dethrone the queen on June 20, when ministers and soldiers loyal to Radama would infiltrate the Rova grounds and declare their support of a transition and loyalty to the prince. Pfeiffer blamed the failure of the plot on Rainivoninahitriniony
, then Commander-in-Chief of the army who reportedly had been unable to ensure the presence of soldiers in the courtyard who were loyal to Radama. According to a British account, however, Radama himself was credited with warning the queen of the plot, in which his cooperation was merely a ploy to entrap the conspirators. This British view claims that Ranavalona deliberately allowed the plot to unfold almost to its conclusion in order to ascertain the loyalties of her members of government. The European party were largely confined to their houses on the palace grounds and kept from receiving visitors, until an order was issued to immediately and permanently quit the queen's territory in late July.
and Rainilaiarivony
, who were the queen's co-prime minister and head of the army respectively at the time of her death, supported the succession of Radama and were able to exercise greater influence than Ramboasalama, particularly in ensuring the support of the army for the prince's claim to the throne. As Ranavalona lay on her death bed, Radama took precautions to ensure his succession would be uncontested, surrounding his residence at the Rova of Antananarivo with several hundred soldiers and sending a member of Ramboasalama's family to bring him to the Rova to swear a public oath of allegiance to the new king, to whom he submitted.
On August 16, 1861, Ranavalona died in her sleep at the Manjakamiadana, the palace she had constructed on the grounds of the Rova compound at Antananarivo, having successfully resisted the attempts of the colonial powers to gain control of the island over the course of her 33-year reign. Twelve thousand zebu were slaughtered and their meat distributed to the populace in her honor, and the official mourning period lasted nine months. Her body was laid in a coffin made of silver piastre
s in a tomb at the royal city of Ambohimanga. During her funeral, a spark accidentally ignited a nearby barrel of gunpowder destined for use in the ceremony, causing an explosion and fire that killed a number of bystanders and destroyed three historic royal residences in the Nanjakana section of the compound where the event was held. In 1897, French colonial authorities disinterred and moved the queen's body and the remains of other Merina sovereigns to the tombs at the Rova of Antananarivo in an attempt to desacralize Ambohimanga. Her bones were placed within the tomb of Queen Rasoherina. Her son, Prince Rakoto, succeeded her as King Radama II.
Autarky
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic policies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky...
(self-sufficiency) and isolationism
Isolationism
Isolationism is the policy or doctrine of isolating one's country from the affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, etc., seeking to devote the entire efforts of one's country to its own advancement and remain at peace by...
, diminishing economic and political ties with European powers, repelling a French attack on the coastal town of Foulepointe, and taking vigorous measures to eradicate the small but growing Malagasy Christian movement initiated under Radama I by members of the London Missionary Society
London Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...
. She made heavy use of the traditional practice of fanompoana (forced labor in lieu of tax payments in money or goods) to complete public works projects and build a standing army of between 20,000 and 30,000 Merina soldiers, whom she deployed to pacify outlying regions of the island and further expand her realm. The combination of regular warfare, disease, difficult forced labor and harsh measures of justice throughout the island resulted in a high mortality rate among soldiers and civilians alike during her 33-year reign.
Although greatly obstructed by Ranavalona's policies, French and British interests in Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
remained undiminished. Divisions between traditionalist and pro-European factions at the queen's court created opportunities that European intermediaries leveraged to attempt to hasten the succession of her son, Radama II. The young prince disagreed with many of his mother's policies and was amenable to French proposals for the exploitation of the island's resources, as expressed in the Lambert Charter he concluded with a French representative in 1855. These plots were never successful, however, and Radama II was not to take the throne until Ranavalona's natural death in 1861 at the age of 83.
Ranavalona's European contemporaries generally condemned her policies and characterized her as a tyrant at best and insane at worst. These negative characterizations persisted in Western scholarly literature until the mid-1970s. Recent research, however, has recast Ranavalona's actions as those of a queen attempting to expand her realm while protecting Malagasy sovereignty against the encroachment of European cultural and political influence, a concern that ultimately proved only too valid upon French colonization of Madagascar in 1896.
Early life
Princess Ramavo was born in 1778 at the royal residence at Ambatomanoina, about 15 kilometers east of AntananarivoAntananarivo
Antananarivo , formerly Tananarive , is the capital and largest city in Madagascar. It is also known by its French colonial shorthand form Tana....
, to Prince Andriantsalamanjaka (Andrianavalontsalama) and Princess Rabodonandriantompo. When Ramavo was still a young girl, her father alerted King Andrianampoinimerina
Andrianampoinimerina
Ruling between 1787–1810, Andrianampoinimerina , born Ramboasalama or Ramboasalamarazaka at Ambohimanga around 1745 , initiated the unification of Madagascar under Merina rule and is considered one of the greatest military and political...
(1787–1810) to a murderous plot against him by Andrianjafy
Andrianjafy
King Andrianjafy also known as Andrianjafinandriamanitra and Andrianjafinjanahary, was the king of Imerina Avaradrano, the northern part of the central highlands of Madagascar with its capital at Ambohimanga....
, the king's uncle, whom Andrianampoinimerina had forced from the throne at the royal city of Ambohimanga
Ambohimanga
The Royal Hill of Ambohimanga is a site of cultural and historical significance located approximately 24 kilometers to the east of the capital city of Antananarivo in Madagascar...
. In return, Andrianampoinimerina betrothed Ramavo to his son, Prince Radama, whom the king would later designate as his heir. He furthermore declared that any child from this union would be first in the line of succession after Radama. However, despite her elevated rank among the royal wives, Ramavo was not the preferred wife of Radama and did not bear him any children. The relationship between Radama and Ramavo may have become strained following Radama's execution of a number of Ramavo's relatives in order to secure his succession following Andrianampoinimerina's death.
Accession to the throne
When Radama died without leaving any descendants on July 27, 1828, according to the local matrilineal custom, the rightful heir was Rakotobe, the eldest son of Radama's eldest sister. An intelligent and amiable young man, Rakotobe was the first pupil to have studied at the first school established by the London Missionary SocietyLondon Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...
in Antananarivo on the grounds of the royal palace
Rova of Antananarivo
The Rova of Antananarivo is a royal palace complex in Madagascar that served as the home of the sovereigns of the Kingdom of Imerina in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the rulers of the Kingdom of Madagascar in the 19th century...
. Radama died in the company of two trusted attendants who were favorable to the succession of Rakotobe. However, these attendants hesitated to report the news of Radama's death for several days, fearing possible reprisals against them for having been involved in denouncing one of the king's rivals, whose family had a stake in succession after Radama. During this time, another attendant discovered the truth and discreetly transmitted the information to Ramavo. She contacted two colonels from her home village and promised them several rewards for their loyalty and assistance in taking the throne. These soldiers hid Ramavo and one of her friends in a safe location, then visited judges and the keepers of the sampy
Sampy
A sampy is an amulet or idol of spiritual and political importance among numerous ethnic groups in Madagascar. Amulets and idols fashioned from assorted natural materials have occupied an important place among many Malagasy communities for centuries...
(royal idols) to secure the support of these influential power brokers. Their loyalty assured, the soldiers were then able to rally the army behind Ramavo, such that on August 3 when she declared herself successor to Radama on the pretense that he himself had decreed it, there could be no immediate resistance. Ramavo took the throne name Ranavalona ("folded", "kept aside"), then followed royal custom by systematically capturing and putting to death her political rivals, including Rakotobe, his family and other members of Radama's family, much as Radama had done to the queen's own family upon his succession to the throne. Her coronation ceremony took place more than a year after the death of Radama, on August 12, 1829.
Reign
Ranavalona's 33-year reign was distinguished by an ongoing struggle to preserve the political and cultural sovereignty of Madagascar in the face of increasing European influence and competing French and English bids for domination over the island. Early in her reign, the queen took incremental steps to distance Madagascar from the purview of European powers, first putting an end to a friendship treaty with Britain, then placing increasing restrictions on the activities of the missionaries of the London Missionary Society, who operated schools where basic education and trade skills were taught in addition to the Christian religion. By the mid-1830s, she would forbid the practice of Christianity among the Malagasy population and oblige the departure of foreigners from her territory. Putting an end to most foreign trade relationships, the queen pursued a policy of autarkyAutarky
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic policies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky...
, made possible through heavy reliance on the long-standing tradition of fanompoana—forced labor in lieu of tax payments in money or goods. Ranavalona continued the wars of expansion conducted by her predecessor, Radama I, in an effort to extend her realm over the entire island, and imposed strict punishments on those who were judged as having acted in opposition to her will. Due in large part to loss of life throughout the years of military campaigns, high death rate among fanompoana workers, and harsh traditions of justice under her rule, the population of Madagascar is estimated to have dropped from around 5 million to 2.5 million between 1833–1839, and from 750,000 to 130,000 between 1829–1842 in Imerina, contributing to a strongly unfavorable view of Ranavalona's rule in historical accounts.
Government
In the tradition of many of her royal Merina predecessors, the queen ruled from the royal Rova compoundRova of Antananarivo
The Rova of Antananarivo is a royal palace complex in Madagascar that served as the home of the sovereigns of the Kingdom of Imerina in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the rulers of the Kingdom of Madagascar in the 19th century...
in Antananarivo
Antananarivo
Antananarivo , formerly Tananarive , is the capital and largest city in Madagascar. It is also known by its French colonial shorthand form Tana....
. Between 1839 and 1842, Jean Laborde
Jean Laborde
Jean Laborde was an adventurer and early industrialist in Madagascar. He became the chief engineer of the Merina monarchy, supervising the creation of a modern manufacturing center under Queen Ranavalona I...
built the queen a new residence called Manjakamiadana, which was to become the largest structure on the Rova grounds. The residence was made entirely from wood and bore most of the features of a traditional andriana home, including a central pillar (andry) to support the roof; in other ways it showcased distinctly European innovations, as it contained three floors entirely surrounded by wooden verandas and incorporated dormers in the shingled roof. The palace would eventually be encased in stone in 1867 by James Cameron
James Cameron (missionary)
James Cameron was a 19th century Scottish artisan missionary with a background in carpentry who, over the course of twenty-three years of service in Madagascar with the London Missionary Society , played a major role in the Christianization and industrialization of that island state, then under...
of the London Missionary Society during the reign of Ranavalona II. The original wooden palace of Ranavalona and virtually all other structures of the historic Rova compound were destroyed in a 1995 fire, leaving only the stone shell to mark where her palace had once stood.
Likewise, Ranavalona maintained the tradition of ruling with the support of advisers drawn largely from the aristocratic class. The queen's most powerful ministers were also her consorts. Her first chief adviser was a young army officer from Namehana named Andriamihaja, who served as First Minister from 1829 to 1830. Major-General Andriamihaja most likely fathered the queen's only son, Prince Rakoto (later King Radama II
Radama II of Madagascar
Radama II was the son and heir of Queen Ranavalona I and ruled from 1861 to 1863 over the Kingdom of Madagascar, which controlled virtually the entire island. Radama's rule, although brief, was a pivotal period in the history of the Kingdom of Madagascar...
), who was born eleven months after the death of his official father, King Radama I. In the early years of Ranavalona's reign, Andriamihaja was the leader of the progressive faction within her court who favored Radama's pro-European foreign policy; the conservative faction was led by the brothers Rainimaharo and Rainiharo
Rainiharo
Rainiharo was from 1833 to 1852 Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Madagascar.-Biography:Rainiharo was born into the Hova class of the Merina people. His father served as an adviser to the great king Andrianampoinimerina...
, the latter being the official guardian of one of the most powerful royal sampy—talismans that were believed to embody and channel the supernatural powers of the kingship and had played a major role in the spiritual life of the Merina
Merina
The Merina are an ethnic group from Madagascar. The Merina are concentrated in the Highlands and speak the official dialect of the Malagasy language, which is a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language group derived from the Barito languages, spoken in southern Borneo. Their ancestors, the...
since at least the 16th century reign of Ralambo
Ralambo
Ralambo was the ruler of the Kingdom of Imerina in the central Highlands region of Madagascar from 1575 to 1612. Ruling from Ambohidrabiby, Ralambo expanded the realm of his father, Andriamanelo, and was the first to assign the name of Imerina to the region...
. The conservative faction conspired to reduce Andriamahaja's progressive influence over the queen, and in September 1830 they managed to persuade her while highly intoxicated to sign his death warrant for charges of witchcraft and treason. He was immediately captured in his home and killed.
With Andriamihaja's death, the influence of Radama's old guard of progressives was eclipsed by that of conservative advisers at court, who grew ever closer to the queen, eventually resulting in Ranavalona's marriage to sampy guardian and conservative figurehead Field Marshal Rainiharo (also known as Ravoninahitriniarivo) of Ilafy in 1833. Rainiharo—whose father, Andriantsilavonandriana, was a Hova
Hova
Hova may refer to:* One of three Merina classes in Madagascar , incorrectly used by the French to mean Merina.* A nickname for the rapper Jay-Z....
(a free citizen of non-aristocratic birth) having exceptionally been accorded the privilege of acting as counselor to King Andrianampoinimerina—served as the queen's First Minister from 1830 to 1832, then Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief from 1832 to 1852. Upon Rainiharo's death, the queen wed another conservative, Field Marshal Andrianisa (also known as Rainijohary), who remained Ranavalona's husband until her death in 1861. He served as Prime Minister from 1852 to 1862 before being exiled to Ambohimanga for his part in a plot against the queen's son, Radama II. Under the influence of her conservative ministers, Ranavalona's tolerance of Christianity and European influence rapidly diminished.
Expansion of realm
Queen Ranavalona continued the military incursions initiated under Radama I to pacify neighboring kingdoms and maintain their submission to Merina rule. These policies had a strongly negative effect on economic and population growth during her reign. Fanampoana labor among the population of Imerina could include conscription into the military, enabling the queen to raise a standing army that was estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers. This army, which was sent on repeated expeditions into neighboring provinces, exacted harsh penalties against communities resistant to Merina domination; mass executions were common, and those who were spared their lives were commonly brought back to Imerina as slaves (andevo) and their valuables seized as booty to increase the wealth of the Crown.The number of non-Merina who died in violent conflict during the military campaigns of Ranavalona and her predecessor Radama from 1816 to 1853 was estimated at about 60,000. Additionally, a considerable proportion of the population not killed in battle in the subjugated provinces would eventually die from famine as a consequence of scorched earth
Scorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
policies. Deaths among the Merina soldiers engaged in military actions were also high, estimated at about 160,000 for the period 1820–1853. A further 25–50% of the queen's soldiers stationed in lowland areas were estimated to have died each year due to diseases such as malaria. Although prevalent in the coastal parts of the island, malaria was uncommon in the high-altitude zone around Antananarivo, and Merina soldiers possessed little natural resistance against it. An average of 4,500 soldiers died each year for the greater part of Ranavalona's reign, contributing to severe depopulation in Imerina.
Tangena ordeal
One of the chief measures by which Ranavalona maintained order within her realm was through the traditional practice of trial by the ordeal of tangenaTangena
Tangena is the name given in the highland dialect of the Malagasy language to an indigenous tree distinguished by the high toxicity of the nuts it produces, which have been used historically on the island of Madagascar for trials by ordeal to determine the guilt or innocence of an accused party...
. A poison was extracted from the nut of the native tangena (Tanghinia venenifera) shrub and ingested, with the outcome determining innocence or guilt. If nobles (andriana) or freemen (hova) were compelled to undergo the ordeal, the poison was typically administered to the accused only after dog and rooster stand-ins had already died from the poison's effects, while among members of the slave class (andevo), the ordeal required them to immediately ingest the poison themselves. The accused would be fed the poison along with three pieces of chicken skin: if all three pieces of skin were vomited up then innocence was declared, but death or a failure to regurgitate all three pieces of skin indicated guilt. According to 19th-century Malagasy historian Raombana, in the eyes of the greater populace, the tangena ordeal was believed to represent a sort of celestial justice in which the public placed their unquestioning faith, even to the point of accepting a verdict of guilt in a case of innocence as a just but unknowable divine mystery.
Residents of Madagascar could accuse one another of various crimes, including theft, Christianity and especially witchcraft, for which the ordeal of tangena was routinely obligatory. On average, an estimated 20 to 50 percent of those who underwent the ordeal died. In the 1820s, the tangena ordeal caused about 1,000 deaths annually. This average rose to around 3,000 annual deaths between 1828 and 1861. In 1838, it was estimated that as many as 100,000 people in Imerina died as a result of the tangena ordeal, constituting roughly 20 percent of the population. Although outlawed in 1863, the ordeal continued to be practiced secretly in Imerina and openly in other parts of the island.
Preservation of sovereignty
Ranavalona's reign was marked by a struggle between FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to secure control over Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
. The French, who held several small islands off Madagascar, were interested in gaining control over the main island but this move was opposed by the British who had an interest in maintaining a safe passage to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Ranavalona pursued a policy of autarky that sought to severely limit the interference of these foreign powers. To this end, she revoked the Anglo-Merina friendship treaty signed by her predecessor Radama I that had, in her view, given England too strong an influence over political, economic and social affairs within her state.
One consequence of the termination of the Anglo-Merina friendship treaty was an end to the delivery of British weaponry, which rendered the queen vulnerable to designs against her from foreign powers and pockets of local resistance alike. A French attack on Foulepoint in 1829 was successfully repelled but underscored the need to secure adequate arms for self-defense. It came to the Queen's attention that Frenchman Jean Laborde, who had been shipwrecked off Madagascar in 1832, was knowledgeable in the production of cannons, muskets and gun powder. Ranavalona provided him with the manpower and resources to establish factories to meet the material needs of her army, thereby liberating the kingdom from dependence upon Europe for modern weaponry.
Repression of Christianity
Ranavalona swore to uphold customary rites and traditional beliefs and to defend her realm from the encroachment of European powers. The queen grew wary of foreigners' influence on the island and demanded the departure of any foreigner not able to make what she deemed a valuable contribution to her country. Ranavalona was especially suspicious of the political and cultural effects of Christianity, which she saw as leading the Malagasy to forsake the ancestors and their traditions.In a kabary (formal speech) on February 26, 1835, Queen Ranavalona formally forbade the practice of Christianity among her subjects. In her discourse, she was careful to differentiate between her own people, for whom the new religion was forbidden and its practice a capital offense, and foreigners, to whom she permitted freedom of religion and conscience. She furthermore acknowledged the valuable intellectual and technological contributions that European missionaries had made to the advancement of her country, and invited them to continue working for the advancement of the country on the condition that their proselytizing would cease:
The majority of the London Missionary Society missionaries, whose primary activity was teaching Christian theology and literacy at their newly-established schools using the Bible as the only Malagasy-language text, were obliged to leave. Several years thereafter, in the spirit of solidarity they were joined by James Cameron
James Cameron (missionary)
James Cameron was a 19th century Scottish artisan missionary with a background in carpentry who, over the course of twenty-three years of service in Madagascar with the London Missionary Society , played a major role in the Christianization and industrialization of that island state, then under...
and other artisan missionaries whose diverse practical skills and many significant contributions to the industrialization of the island had secured them positive relations with the Merina monarchy since their arrival in the early 1820s.
Pursuant to the public decree above, those who possessed a Bible, worshiped in congregation or continued to profess adherence to Christianity were fined, jailed, put in chains or other punishments, subjected to trial by ordeal
Trial by ordeal
Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them to an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience...
, or executed. Lurid accounts of the execution and torture of Christians were reported by missionaries who placed emphasis on what they perceived as the savagery of the Queen's actions. For instance, they reported the public execution of fifteen Christian leaders near the Queen's palace who had been dangled on ropes 150 feet above a rock-filled ravine, only to have their ropes cut upon refusal to recant their profession of Christian faith. This outcropping has since become a site of commemoration for these early Malagasy Christian martyrs. The precise number of Malagasy citizens put to death for religious reasons during Ranavalona's reign is difficult to state with certainty. A conservative estimate places the number executed at between sixty and eighty. Far more, however, were punished in other ways: many were required to undergo the tangena ordeal, while others were condemned to hard labor or the confiscation of their land and property, and many of these consequently died. Persecution of Christians intensified in 1840, 1849 and 1857; in 1849, deemed the worst of these years by British missionary to Madagascar W.E. Cummins (1878), 1,900 people were fined, jailed or otherwise punished in relation to their Christian faith, including 18 executions.
Foreign plots
Ranavalona's foreign contemporaries strongly condemned the queen's policies and viewed them as the actions of a tyrant or even a madwoman, a characterization that persisted in Western historical literature until the 1970s. The French were especially eager to hasten Radama II's succession in the interest of capitalizing on the Lambert Charter, an 1855 agreement between French representative Joseph-François LambertJoseph-François Lambert
Joseph-François Lambert, the "Duke of Imerina" was a French adventurer, businessman, and diplomat who fathered the Lambert Charter.-Early years:...
and Radama that could only come into effect upon the prince's succession. The charter guaranteed Lambert and his business associates first rights to the exploitation of many of the island's commodities and natural resources. According to a British account, Lambert conspired with Jean Laborde and local leaders to persuade Radama II to sign a document written in French—a language in which the prince was not fluent—which Lambert orally translated as containing only an account of the excessive pressures the Queen's policies were placing on her subjects. Radama, who was sympathetic toward the commoners and desirous to ease their burden but suspicious about the letter's true purpose, reluctantly signed the document under intense pressure from the French. He was not told the letter included a request for French military intervention that could have potentially brought Madagascar under French rule. France, however, did not intend to take such an action without the accord of their ally, Britain, whose influence had been so well-established on the island, and refused to intercede on behalf of the prince. In the meantime, Radama, who had been made to swear on the Bible not to speak of the letter to anyone, had grown so concerned about the outcome of the letter that he contacted a British diplomat, thereby revealing the true circumstances under which the letter had been signed; the British refused to cooperate in the French plot, and an attack was averted. According to Lambert, however, the prince had indeed been an enthusiastic partner in the bid to end Ranavalona's reign, and his own true feelings about the endeavor had been deliberately misrepresented through a British campaign of propaganda.
Having failed to gain the backing of a European state power to place Radama on the throne and bring the treaty into effect, Lambert decided to instigate a coup d'état independently. He traveled to Ranavalona's court in May 1857 in the company of the celebrated 19th-century Austrian globetrotter Ida Pfeiffer, who became an unwitting observer to the plot. She documented her perspective on these events in one of her late works. According to Pfeiffer, Radama and Lambert had planned to dethrone the queen on June 20, when ministers and soldiers loyal to Radama would infiltrate the Rova grounds and declare their support of a transition and loyalty to the prince. Pfeiffer blamed the failure of the plot on Rainivoninahitriniony
Rainivoninahitriniony
Rainivoninahitriniony , also called Raharo, was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Madagascar between 1852 and 1865. He was the chief engineer of the Aristocratic Revolution initialized upon the attempted assassination of King Radama II...
, then Commander-in-Chief of the army who reportedly had been unable to ensure the presence of soldiers in the courtyard who were loyal to Radama. According to a British account, however, Radama himself was credited with warning the queen of the plot, in which his cooperation was merely a ploy to entrap the conspirators. This British view claims that Ranavalona deliberately allowed the plot to unfold almost to its conclusion in order to ascertain the loyalties of her members of government. The European party were largely confined to their houses on the palace grounds and kept from receiving visitors, until an order was issued to immediately and permanently quit the queen's territory in late July.
Succession and death
While the queen had designated her son, Radama II, as her successor, Rainimaharo and the conservative faction knew of his progressive leanings and tried instead to ensure the queen's nephew, Ramboasalama, would come to power and maintain loyalties to them and their political agenda. Reportedly, Ramboasalama spent a considerable sum of money in an unsuccessful bid to buy the support of others in court. The progressive brothers RainivoninahitrinionyRainivoninahitriniony
Rainivoninahitriniony , also called Raharo, was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Madagascar between 1852 and 1865. He was the chief engineer of the Aristocratic Revolution initialized upon the attempted assassination of King Radama II...
and Rainilaiarivony
Rainilaiarivony
Rainilaiarivony was the Prime Minister of Madagascar from 1864 to 1895, following his older brother Rainivoninahitriniony who had held the post for thirteen years prior...
, who were the queen's co-prime minister and head of the army respectively at the time of her death, supported the succession of Radama and were able to exercise greater influence than Ramboasalama, particularly in ensuring the support of the army for the prince's claim to the throne. As Ranavalona lay on her death bed, Radama took precautions to ensure his succession would be uncontested, surrounding his residence at the Rova of Antananarivo with several hundred soldiers and sending a member of Ramboasalama's family to bring him to the Rova to swear a public oath of allegiance to the new king, to whom he submitted.
On August 16, 1861, Ranavalona died in her sleep at the Manjakamiadana, the palace she had constructed on the grounds of the Rova compound at Antananarivo, having successfully resisted the attempts of the colonial powers to gain control of the island over the course of her 33-year reign. Twelve thousand zebu were slaughtered and their meat distributed to the populace in her honor, and the official mourning period lasted nine months. Her body was laid in a coffin made of silver piastre
Piastre
The piastre or piaster refers to a number of units of currency. The term originates from the Italian for 'thin metal plate'. The name was applied to Spanish and Latin American pieces of eight, or pesos, by Venetian traders in the Levant in the 16th century.These pesos, minted continually for...
s in a tomb at the royal city of Ambohimanga. During her funeral, a spark accidentally ignited a nearby barrel of gunpowder destined for use in the ceremony, causing an explosion and fire that killed a number of bystanders and destroyed three historic royal residences in the Nanjakana section of the compound where the event was held. In 1897, French colonial authorities disinterred and moved the queen's body and the remains of other Merina sovereigns to the tombs at the Rova of Antananarivo in an attempt to desacralize Ambohimanga. Her bones were placed within the tomb of Queen Rasoherina. Her son, Prince Rakoto, succeeded her as King Radama II.