French Madagascar

The Colony of Madagascar and Dependencies was a French colonial administration that existed from 1897 to 1958. Madagascar had become a French protectorate in 1885 after the First Franco-Hova War, but French control remained limited. In 1895 a French expedition captured Antananarivo, and Queen Ranavalona III was exiled first to Reunion and then to Algeria. The following year Madagascar was formally annexed as a colony, and a governor-general ruled from Tananarive. Pacification against rural resistance lasted about fifteen years and cost more than 100,000 lives. The colony exported vanilla, coffee, cloves and other tropical products, while French companies obtained large concessions and forced labour was used until the late 1940s. A nationalist uprising in 1947-1948 was suppressed with heavy casualties. After the 1958 referendum, Madagascar became the autonomous Malagasy Republic within the French Community, and it achieved full independence in 1960. The port of Tamatave handled most of the colony's external trade, while roads and railways linked the highlands to the coast.