French Madagascar

An island kingdom conquered rather than a territory acquired. The Merina monarchy had unified most of Madagascar in the nineteenth century, built a literate administration with missionary help, and dealt with Britain and France as a recognised state. France invaded in 1883 and again in 1894, declared a protectorate, and then annexed the island outright in 1896 after a rising made indirect rule look unworkable. Joseph Gallieni, sent to pacify it, abolished the monarchy in 1897 and exiled Queen Ranavalona III to Algiers, where she died. The kingdom's destruction was deliberate and complete, and it left a memory that colonial administration never displaced. Rule afterwards ran on forced labour, a head tax designed to push people into wage work, and coffee, vanilla and cloves grown for export. Malagasy soldiers served in both world wars, and the returning veterans of the second supplied much of the leadership of the rising of March 1947. That revolt, and the French repression of it, is the central event of the colonial period: fighting spread across the eastern third of the island and took nearly two years to suppress, with a death toll credibly estimated in the tens of thousands and possibly far higher. The nationalist deputies in Paris were stripped of immunity and imprisoned. Independence came peacefully thirteen years later, on 26 June 1960, under Philibert Tsiranana, whose willingness to keep close French ties made him acceptable to Paris and, eventually, unacceptable at home. Ranavalona III's remains were returned to Antananarivo in 1938. France formally acknowledged the scale of the 1947 repression only in 2005. Madagascar still grows most of the world's vanilla. Tsiranana was forced out by student protests in 1972.

• Type: Polity
• Government: Colonial administration