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Madagascar
Negotiated exit following pacification of brutal 1947 nationalist uprising.
- Independence
- June 26, 1960
- Before
- Malagasy Republic
- Metropole
- France
- Leader
- Philibert Tsiranana
- Transition
- Negotiated
- Movement
- Mouvement Démocratique de la Rénovation Malgache (MDRM); later Parti Social Démocrate (PSD)
Conquest of the Merina Kingdom
French troops landed at Majunga in January 1895 and occupied Antananarivo on 30 September. The French parliament voted to annex the island on 6 August 1896, and General Joseph Gallieni, sent to put down resistance, exiled Queen Ranavalona III on 27 February 1897, first to Réunion and later to Algiers. French rule was resisted by the Menalamba rising, which broke out in late 1895 and was not fully suppressed until 1899, and, later, by secret nationalist societies such as the Vy Vato Sakelika (VVS), outlawed in 1915.
The 1947 Uprising
In February 1946 the Malagasy deputies Joseph Raseta and Joseph Ravoahangy, with Jacques Rabemananjara, founded the MDRM, which demanded that Madagascar become a free state within the French Union. On the night of 29–30 March 1947 an armed insurrection broke out around Moramanga and Manakara in the east. French forces, reinforced to some 30,000 troops, crushed it by late 1948, and the last armed bands surrendered in early 1949. The death toll remains disputed: estimates run from about 11,000 to the French military's figure of 89,000 or more, including deaths from famine and disease.
Tsiranana and Negotiated Independence
Although the MDRM leaders denied organising the revolt, the three deputies were tried in Antananarivo from July to October 1948 in a trial marked by irregularities; Raseta and Ravoahangy were sentenced to death, and President Auriol commuted the sentences in July 1949. Nationalism re-emerged in more moderate form. Philibert Tsiranana founded the PSD in December 1956, the autonomous Malagasy Republic was proclaimed on 14 October 1958, and full independence followed on 26 June 1960.
Chronology
- 30 September 1895 — French forces occupy Antananarivo
- 6 August 1896 — French parliament votes to annex Madagascar
- 27 February 1897 — Queen Ranavalona III sent into exile
- 29–30 March 1947 — Malagasy uprising begins
- July–4 October 1948 — MDRM deputies tried in Antananarivo
- 14 October 1958 — Autonomous Malagasy Republic proclaimed
- 2 April 1960 — Franco-Malagasy accords signed in Paris
- 26 June 1960 — Full independence
Aftermath
Tsiranana maintained close ties with France until the May 1972 revolt of students and workers forced him to hand power to General Gabriel Ramanantsoa. Didier Ratsiraka's socialist Democratic Republic of Madagascar followed in 1975. Since 1967, 29 March has been marked as a national day of remembrance.
Legacy
The suppression of the 1947 revolt removed the radical nationalist leadership and allowed a moderate, pro-French elite to lead the country to independence. The memory of 1947 remains central to Malagasy national identity and to grievances against France.