Merina Kingdom

The Merina Kingdom was a state in the central highlands of Madagascar that, in the nineteenth century, came to rule most of the island. Its capital, Antananarivo, is the capital of Madagascar today. It was the island's most powerful state until France conquered it in 1895.

Madagascar was settled relatively late, perhaps from the middle of the first millennium CE, by people from Southeast Asia, probably from Borneo, who sailed across the Indian Ocean, and later by people from East Africa. The Malagasy language is related to Ma'anyan, a language of southern Borneo, with many Bantu words. Rice farming, outrigger canoes and other traditions reflect the Southeast Asian heritage.

The Merina people lived in the central highlands, Imerina, around Antananarivo, a cool, fertile region where they built irrigated rice terraces. Small kingdoms competed for land and power. According to tradition, the first Merina kingdoms arose in the sixteenth century, and a ruler named Andriamanelo is credited with introducing iron weapons. The royal hill of Ambohimanga, a sacred site with royal tombs and palaces, is now a World Heritage Site.

At the end of the eighteenth century, Andrianampoinimerina, who ruled from around 1787 to 1810, reunited the divided Merina kingdoms from his base at Ambohimanga, moving the capital to Antananarivo around 1794. He organised large-scale rice farming, with irrigation and drainage, and a system of compulsory labour, fanompoana, for public works. He divided the people into units for administration and created a system of local assemblies, fokonolona. He declared that "the sea is the limit of my rice field", announcing his ambition to rule the whole island.

His son Radama I, who ruled from 1810 to 1828, allied with Britain, which wanted to end the slave trade from Madagascar. In an 1817 treaty, Britain recognised Radama as king of Madagascar and supplied weapons and training, and Radama banned the export of slaves. With a modernised army, Radama conquered much of the island, except the south and west, where the Sakalava resisted. He welcomed missionaries of the London Missionary Society, who arrived in 1818, established schools and created a written form of Malagasy in the Latin alphabet, translating the Bible by 1835.

Radama's widow, Ranavalona I, who ruled from 1828 to 1861, sought to defend Madagascar's independence and traditions. She expelled missionaries, banned Christianity and persecuted Malagasy Christians, many of whom were executed. She fought off a French and British attack on Toamasina in 1845. She also employed the French adventurer Jean Laborde, who built factories producing weapons and goods. European writers portrayed her as a cruel tyrant; Malagasy historians often see her as a defender of independence.

Her son Radama II reversed her policies but was assassinated in 1863. Real power passed to the prime minister, Rainilaiarivony, who held office from 1864 to 1895 and married three successive queens, Rasoherina, Ranavalona II and Ranavalona III. Ranavalona II converted to Protestant Christianity in 1869, and the royal idols were burned. A legal code of 1881 abolished polygamy and introduced reforms. Schools and churches spread.

France claimed rights in Madagascar, and after the Franco-Hova war of 1883–1885 established a vague protectorate. In 1895 a French army marched on Antananarivo, losing many soldiers to disease, and bombarded the capital. The queen surrendered. In 1896 France annexed Madagascar, and in 1897 General Joseph Gallieni abolished the monarchy and exiled Ranavalona III to Réunion and then Algeria, where she died in 1917. A revolt against French rule in 1947 was brutally crushed, and Madagascar became independent in 1960.

Our maps use the name from 1000 to 1900. Its largest outline, about 230,000 square kilometres on the 1878 map, covers the central and eastern highlands of Madagascar. The early maps use the name for the highland region long before the kingdom formed, around the sixteenth century. Antananarivo lies inside it throughout.