An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895: The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire

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Cambridge University Press, Mar 14, 2005 - Business & Economics - 76 pages
The first comprehensive economic history of pre-colonial Madagascar, this study examines the island's role from 1750 to 1895 in the context of a burgeoning international economy and the rise of modern European imperialism. This study reveals that the Merina of the Central Highlands attempted to found an island empire and through the exploitation of its human and natural resources build the economic and military might to challenge British and French pretensions in the region. Ultimately, the Merina failed due to imperial forced labour policies and natural disasters, the nefarious consequences of which (disease; depopulation; ethnic enmity) have in traditional histories been imputed external capitalist and French colonial policies.
 

Contents

The Traditional Economy 17501820 Industry and Agriculture
18
The Traditional Economy 17501820 Commerce
40
Empire and the Adoption of Autarky 18101826
59
Industry and Agriculture 18201895
79
Labor 18201895
112
Population 18201895
134
The Trading Structure 18201895
161
Foreign Trade 18201895
181
Currency and Finance 18201895
276
Madagascar in the Scramble for Indian Ocean Africa
305
The Rise and Fall of Imperial Madagascar
340
French Claims to Madagascar
342
British Imperial Influence in Madagascar
343
Population References
344
Bibliography
347
Glossary
379

The Slave Trade 18201895
213
Transport and Communications 18201895
243

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Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 5 - Janet L. Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: The World System AD 1250-1350 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).
Page 352 - A Man in Shining Armour. The Story of the Life of William Wilson MRCS. and LRCP Missionary in Madagascar. Secretary of the Friends' Foreign Missionary Association (London, nd), 96; LMS, Ten Years Review of Mission Work.
Page 360 - A. Jones, eds., Figuring African Trade (Berlin, 1986), 525-56; Campbell, "The Role of the Merina State in the Decline of the Imperial Merina Economy, 1875-1895,
Page 6 - Beta globin haplotype analysis suggests that a major source of Malagasy ancestry is derived from Bantu-speaking Negroids.

About the author (2005)

Gwyn Campbell is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Applied Languages and International Trade at the University of Avignon. He is the editor of Southern Africa and Regional Cooperation in the Indian Ocean Regions (2003) and The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia (2003). He is the author of numerous articles, in such scholarly journals as the Journal of African History and the International Journal of African Historical Studies.

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