Madagascar - mădˌəgăsˈcär, officially Democratic Republic of Madagascar, republic (1995 est. pop. 13,862,000), 226,658 sq mi (587,045 sq km), in the Indian Ocean, separated from E Africa by the Mozambique Channel. Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island. The country also claims several small islands including Juan de Nova, Europa, the Glorioso Islands, Tromelin, and Bassas da India. The capital and largest city is Antananarivo. The country is divided into six provinces.

Land, People, and Government

Madagascar is made up of a highland plateau fringed by a lowland coastal strip, narrow (c.30 mi/50 km) in the east and considerably wider (c.60–125 mi/100–200 km) in the west. The plateau attains greater heights in the north, where Mt. Maromokotro (9,450 ft/2,880 m), the loftiest point in the country, is located, and in the center, where the Ankaratra Mts. reach c.8,670 ft (2,640 m). Once a mosaic of forest, brush, and grassland, the plateau is now largely deforested. A national park was established in 1997 to protect the island's lemurs, rare orchids, and other unique wild species, products of the island's 80-million-year isolation from the mainland. A series of lagoons along much of the east coast is connected in part by the Pangalanes Canal, which runs (c.400 mi/640 km) between Farafangana and Mahavelona and can accommodate small boats. The island has several rivers, including the Sofia, Betsiboka, Manambao, Mangoro, Tsiribihina, Mangoky, Mananara, and Onilahy. In addition to the capital, other cities include Antsirabe, Antsiranana, Fianarantsoa, Mahajanga, Toamasina, and Toliary.

The inhabitants of Madagascar fall into two main groups—those largely of Malayo-Indonesian descent and those principally of African descent. Of the roughly 18 ethnicities, the main Indonesian groups are the Merina, who live near Antananarivo, and the Bétsiléo, who live around Fianarantsoa. The principal African groups are the Betsimisáraka, who live near Toamasina; the Tsimihety, based in the N highlands; the Sakalawa and the Antandroy, who live in the west; and the Antaisaka, who live in the southeast. There are small numbers of French and Asian Indians. All the people speak Malagasy, a language of Indonesian origin; it and French are official languages. Over 50% of the people follow traditional religious beliefs; about 40% are Christian (equally divided between Roman Catholics and Protestants), and 7% are Muslim.

Madagascar is governed under the 1992 constitution. The executive branch is headed by a president, who is elected by popular vote for a five-year term. The legislature consists of a 150-seat national assembly, whose members are popularly elected for four-year terms. The president appoints a prime minister from a list of candidates nominated by the national assembly.

Economy

The economy of Madagascar is overwhelmingly agricultural, largely of a subsistence type; the best farmland is in the east and northwest. The principal cash crops are coffee, vanilla, sugarcane, cloves, and cocoa. The main food crops are rice, cassava, bananas, beans, and peanuts. In addition, large numbers of poultry, cattle, goats, sheep, and hogs are raised. Fishing and forestry are also important.

Manufactures are mostly confined to agricultural products, beverages, and textiles. There is also some oil refining and automobile assembly. The chief minerals extracted are chromite, graphite, coal, bauxite, salt, zircon, and industrial beryl and garnets. There is an extensive but degraded road system and only a very limited rail network. Toamasina and Mahajanga are the chief ports.

Madagascar carries on a relatively small foreign trade, and the annual value of imports is usually higher than the value of exports. The main imports are metals, machinery, petroleum, transport equipment, consumer goods, and food products. The leading exports are coffee, vanilla, shellfish, sugar, textiles, chromite, and petroleum products. The principal trade partners are France, Japan, Italy, and the United States. Madagascar relies heavily upon assistance from members of the European Union.

History

Early History to the End of Native Monarchy

The earliest history of Madagascar is unclear. Africans and Indonesians reached the island in about the 5th cent. a.d., the Indonesian immigration continuing until the 15th cent. From the 9th cent., Muslim traders (including some Arabs) from E Africa and the Comoro Islands settled in NW and SE Madagascar. Probably the first European to see Madagascar was Diogo Dias, a Portuguese navigator, in 1500. Between 1600 and 1619, Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries tried unsuccessfully to convert the Malagasy. From 1642 until the late 18th cent. the French maintained footholds, first at Taolagnaro (formerly Fort-Dauphin) in the southeast and finally on Sainte Marie Island off the east coast.

By the beginning of the 17th cent. there were a number of small Malagasy kingdoms, including those of the Antemoro, Antaisaka, Bétsiléo, and Merina. Later in the century the Sakalawa under Andriandahifotsi conquered W and N Madagascar, but the kingdom disintegrated in the 18th cent. At the end of the 18th cent. the Merina people of the interior were united under King Andrianampoinimerina (reigned 1787–1810), who also subjugated the Bétsiléo. Radama I (reigned 1810–28), in return for agreeing to end the slave trade, received British aid in modernizing and equipping his army, which helped him to conquer the Betsimisáraka kingdom. The Protestant London Missionary Society was welcomed, and it gained many converts, opened schools, and helped to transcribe the Merina language. Merina culture began to spread over Madagascar.

Radama was succeeded by his wife Ranavalona I (reigned 1828–1861), who, suspicious of foreigners, declared (1835) Christianity illegal and halted most foreign trade. During her rule the Merina kingdom was wracked by intermittent civil war. Under Radama II (reigned 1861–63) and his widow and successor Rasoherina (reigned 1863–68) the anti-European policy was reversed and missionaries (including Roman Catholics) and traders were welcomed again. Rainilaiarivony, the prime minister, controlled the government during the reigns of Ranavalona II (1868–83) and Ranavalona III (1883–96); by then the Merina kingdom included all Madagascar except the south and part of the west. Ranavalona II publicly recognized Christianity, and she and her husband were baptized.

In 1883 the French bombarded and occupied Toamsina (then Tamatave), and in 1885 they established a protectorate over Madagascar, which was recognized by Great Britain in 1890. Rainilaiarivony organized resistance to the French, and there was heavy fighting from 1894 to 1896. In 1896, French troops under J. S. Gallieni defeated the Merina and abolished the monarchy.

Colonialism, Independence, and One-Man Rule

By 1904 the French fully controlled the island. Under the French, who governed the Malagasy through a divide-and-rule policy, development was concentrated in the Tananarive region, and thus the Merina benefited most from colonial rule. Merina nationalism developed early in the 20th cent., and in 1916 (during World War I) a Merina secret society was suppressed by the French after a plot against the colonialists was discovered.

During World War II, Madagascar was aligned with Vichy France until 1942, when it was conquered by the British; in 1943 the Free French regime assumed control. From 1947 to 1948 there was a major uprising against the French, who crushed the rebellion, killing between 11,000 and 80,000 (estimates vary) Malagasy in the process. As in other French colonies, indigenous political activity increased in 1956, and the Social Democratic party (PSD), led by Philibert Tsiranana (a Tsimihety), gained predominance in Madagascar.

On Oct. 14, 1958, the country—renamed the Malagasy Republic—became autonomous within the French Community and Tsiranana was elected president. On June 26, 1960, it became fully independent. Under Tsiranana (reelected in 1965 and 1972), an autocratic ruler whose PSD controlled parliament, government was centralized, the coastal peoples (côtiers) were favored over those of the interior (especially the Merina), and French economic and cultural influence remained strong. Beginning in 1967, Tsiranana cultivated economic relations with white-ruled South Africa.

In 1972, students and workers, discontented with the president's policies and with the deteriorating economic situation, staged a wave of protest demonstrations. At the height of the crisis Tsiranana handed over power to Gen. Gabriel Ramanantsoa, who became prime minister. In Oct., 1972, a national referendum overwhelmingly approved Ramanantsoa's plan to rule without parliament for five years; Tsiranana, who opposed the plan, resigned the presidency shortly after the vote.

The New Madagascar

Ramanantsoa freed political prisoners jailed by Tsiranana, began to reduce French influence in the country, broke off relations with South Africa, and generally followed a moderately leftist course. In 1975, a new constitution was approved that renamed the Malagasy Republic the Democratic Republic of Madagascar. That same year, Ramanantsoa dissolved his government in response to mounting unrest in the military and internal disagreements regarding economic policy. Col. Ratsimandrava assumed power but was assassinated a month later and Lt. Comdr. Didier Ratsiraka was elected president in a referendum.

The military-backed Supreme Revolutionary Council (CSR), with Ratsiraka as its head, comprised the government's executive branch. Ratsiraka's Marxist-socialist government nationalized most of the economy and borrowed widely to pay for major investments in development. The nation fell into a crippling debt crisis. Ratsiraka's policies of