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In the 19th century, one African ruler faced growing pressure from European powers, missionaries, and foreign merchants seeking influence over her kingdom.
She responded by closing much of her country to outsiders, strengthening royal authority, and using methods that made her one of the most feared and controversial monarchs of her age.
Her reign would later be remembered both for its brutality and its fierce independence.
Learn more about Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
The woman who would become known as Queen Ranavalona I was born in 1778 as Rabodonandrianampoinimerina, but was informally known as Princess Ramavo. Her father was Prince Andriantsalamanjaka and her mother was Princess Rabodonandriantompo.
She was born at the Royal residence in Ambatomanoina, in the central Highlands of Madagascar.
Her family rose to power when she was a young girl, when her father alerted the king at the time, Andrianampoinimerina, of an assassination plot led by the King’s uncle.
The Merina Kingdom, located in the central highlands of Madagascar, developed over several centuries and expanded greatly in the late 18th century. The leaders who later ruled Madagascar were the descendants of Merina royalty.
These strong familial ties allowed the King and his son, Prince Radama, to conquer most of the island and centralize power.
In gratitude for her father’s role in saving his life, the King arranged for Ramavo to marry his son and heir, Prince Radama. He also declared that any children born to Radama and Ramavo would take precedence in the royal succession after Radama.
Despite being at an elevated rank compared to other royal wives, Ramavo was not his favorite and did not bear any children. Their relationship grew more strained after the king’s death and Radama’s accession to the throne.
In the course of consolidating his power, Radama executed potential political opponents, including some of Ramavo’s relatives. Unable to find satisfaction in her marriage, Ramavo spent most of her time socializing and drinking.
Among the Europeans at Radama’s court was Welsh missionary David Griffiths, a member of the London Missionary Society who became an important figure in the development of Malagasy schools, writing, and Bible translation.
He and his wife preached every Sunday and established different schools in the country. He was also well connected to King Radama and worked to create a Roman-letter alphabet for the Malagasy.
During this time, Ramavo and Griffiths became good friends, and their relationship lasted for the next three decades.
Under King Radama, Madagascar worked to strengthen its foreign relationships with European powers. They formed a strategic alliance with Great Britain, which ensured the island’s independence in exchange for trade.
This alliance also allowed Radama to block French colonial ambitions from reaching Madagascar, helping eliminate competing claims in the eastern side of the island.
Both France and Britain wanted to influence Madagascar. The French held several islands off Madagascar’s coast and wanted to control the main island. Britain regarded Madagascar as strategically important because of its location in the western Indian Ocean and wanted to prevent the island from falling under French influence.
Radama was the first ruler of Madagascar to create significant diplomatic ties with European nations. He expanded the kingdom’s territory and helped modernize the island. His legacy is that he brought Madagascar to the rest of the world and helped develop the nation.
Radama died on July 27, 1828. According to the rules of succession, the crown should have passed to the eldest son of the deceased king’s eldest sister: Rakotobe.
Rakotobe was considered an intelligent young man and studied at the Schools established by the London Missionary Society on the grounds of the Royal Palace.
However, when Radama passed, he was with two of his trusted courtiers. Although they favored Rakotobe as the next king, they failed to report the king’s death for several days, fearing backlash.
They were scared because declaring their support for Rakotobe as king would directly involve them in denouncing one of the king’s rivals, leaving them vulnerable to some future political intrigue.
This move proved disastrous, as another courtier heard of the King’s passing and collaborated with other powerful officers in Madagascar to support Ramavo’s claim to the throne.
As part of their support, the officers hid Ramavo and one of her friends in a safe location. After doing so, these officers then went out and secured the support of several power brokers in the kingdom. This included judges and Holders of royal idols, who were important spiritual leaders in Madagascar.
After securing the support of leading officials and other influential figures in the kingdom, Ramavo publicly proclaimed herself Radama’s successor on August 11, 1828.
As she took her place on the throne, she officially adopted the royal name Ranavalona. After gaining the crown, she followed in the footsteps of previous royalty by capturing and killing her political rivals. This included Rakotobe and the king’s family, much as the previous king had done to her own family.
Ranavalona’s Coronation ceremony took place on August 12, 1829, making her the first female sovereign of the kingdom of Madagascar since it was founded in 1540.
Her rise to power may have been due to Madagascar’s Traditional culture. At the time, it was believed that rulers had special abilities to innovate and circumvent established customs and norms.
Interestingly, female rulers were common among the first inhabitants of Madagascar, according to oral history. But this tradition ended by the 16th century.
Ranavalona was queen for 33 years. Much of her reign focused on strengthening Madagascar’s domestic authority against colonization.
Ranavalona saw European influence growing over her kingdom and noticed competing European bids to dominate the island.
She also witnessed neighboring African and Asian nations become colonized and felt that the colonial powers would use their customs to undermine Traditional Malagasy Values.
Ranavalona did not take kindly to this and began taking steps to distance Madagascar from European powers and purge foreign influence from the country.
These fears were not unfounded, as the French repeatedly attempted to land on the island and launch attacks. Additionally, both France and Britain attempted to meddle in Malagasy politics.
In 1835, Ranavalona restricted European influence and sharply reduced Madagascar’s political and commercial ties with Britain. This included expelling Christian missionaries, banning Christianity, and persecuting converts.
Following her ban of Christianity, most Protestant missionaries and many other foreigners left Madagascar within roughly a year.
In the eyes of European powers, her strict isolationist policy made her a cause for concern. They painted Ranavalona as being barbaric and violent while ignoring their own actions.
After greatly reducing foreign trade relationships, Queen Ranavalona governed the state on a policy of intense self-reliance. This decision was justified based on the longstanding tradition known as fanompoana.
Fanompoana was a practice of unpaid forced labor that served as a form of tax payment. The practice helped Ranavalona pursue greater economic self-sufficiency by mobilizing domestic labor instead of relying as heavily on foreign capital, goods, and expertise.
Commoners subjected to fanompoana could be compelled to perform arduous unpaid labor for the state, often under extremely harsh conditions. As part of their role, the impoverished Malagasy were forced to build houses, serve as soldiers, carry nobles, and perform other tasks.
After completing their work, impoverished people were sent back to their villages. Their homes were often long distances away which they had to walk on foot, with no money and without food which resulted in many dying of hunger on the journey home.
Additionally, she worked to consolidate power back into the hands of nobles and shamans. All previous liberal reforms made by the prior two kings were quickly rolled back.
Like her predecessor and husband Radama, and Radama’s father, Ranavalona continued to expand her kingdom, waging aggressive wars to conquer the entire island.
To do this, she raised an army of 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers. These troops were deployed to extend her rule, suppress resistance, collect tribute, and maintain control over conquered regions.
To quell the population, mass executions were carried out to force submission. Those who were not murdered were enslaved, with all their valuables seized for the crown.
Historian Gwyn Campbell has estimated that roughly 60,000 non-Merina people died violently in the campaigns conducted by Radama I and Ranavalona between 1816 and 1853.
The soldiers carrying out the campaign also had high mortality rates. Many died outside of the battlefield, suffering from famine they caused through partaking in scorched earth tactics, or from disease like malaria.
Those perceived as acting against her were punished severely. This was a large reason for the loss of life under her reign. This escalated to mass purges, executions, and the creation of an intensive surveillance state.
One of the main punishments used during Ranavalona’s reign was trial by ordeal. The most famous of these was the “tangena ordeal.” In the tangena ordeal, the accused swallowed poison from the tangena nut, along with pieces of chicken skin; survival and the successful regurgitation of the prescribed pieces could be interpreted as proof of innocence.
Some historical demographic reconstructions estimate that Madagascar’s population fell from roughly five million to 2.5 million during part of Ranavalona’s reign, although population estimates for early-19th-century Madagascar are necessarily uncertain.
As this continued, foreign powers still tried to gain influence over Madagascar. The French in particular were relentless. One of their main goals was to get Ranavalona’s son in power.
Ranavalona’s son Rakoto, the future Radama II, was officially treated as the son of Radama I, although he was born on September 23, 1829, nearly fourteen months after Radama’s death.
The French had a better relationship with Radama II and had already signed an extremely predatory treaty that would come into effect once he took the throne.
This treaty was known as the Lambert Charter. Signed in 1855, the agreement gave French Businessman Joseph-François Lambert exclusive rights to exploit all minerals, forests, and unoccupied territory in Madagascar in exchange for paying a royalty to the monarchy.
To speed up the process, Lambert tried to conduct a coup against Ranavalona in 1857. This plot failed as the queen was tipped off.
Ranavalona died on August 16, 1861, in her sleep. She went out with a bang… literally. At her funeral, a spark ignited a barrel of gunpowder, resulting in an explosion and fire that killed several bystanders.
Her son succeeded her. Under Radama II, her efforts to remove European influence were reversed, and religious freedom was restored.
European missionaries and other foreign observers produced many of the accounts that shaped Ranavalona’s later reputation, and those sources have to be read with a pinch of salt.
European accounts sometimes exaggerated or framed Ranavalona’s actions in ways that served missionary and colonial interests. They were also extremely bitter that they were expelled from the country.
While her actions were undeniably brutal, her basic instinct to protect Madagascar’s independence can be understood, especially given how colonization impacted other African countries.
Madagascar ultimately became a French colony in 1896, thirty-five years after Ranavalona’s death, and remained under French rule until independence in 1960
Queen Ranavalona remains one of the most controversial rulers in African history. Her reign was marked by forced labor, warfare, persecution, and enormous loss of life, but it was also shaped by a determination to preserve Madagascar’s independence in the face of growing European pressure.