An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar: The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750–1895: The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire by Gwyn Campbell Alison Fletcher An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750–1895: The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire. By Gwyn Campbell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Recently there has been a growing recognition of the importance of Madagascar to African history and to the history of the Indian Ocean World. The wide array of documents available to historians of Madagascar has enabled Francophone and Anglophone scholars to add to our understanding of state-making in pre-colonial societies, the slave trade through the nineteenth century in the Indian Ocean World, the development of ethnicity and the spread of European imperialism in the region. An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750–1895, by Gwyn Campbell, makes a substantial contribution to this growing scholarship. Exploring in considerable detail the internal and external trade in rice, cattle and slaves, Campbell demonstrates that the powerful Merina kingdom, in the central highlands of the island, resisted European incursions for most of the nineteenth century, by internal economic modernization and by a brutal expansionist campaign against its neighbors. While the autarkic economic policies that underpinned these strategies initially strengthened the Merina kingdom, over time they undermined its viability, ultimately leading to French colonization. Of particular interest to historians of empire is Gywn Campbell’s argument that the Merina kingdom was an empire. Arguing that most scholarship on Madagascar relies too heavily on the work of William Ellis, a prolific writer and missionary with the London Missionary Society, Campbell takes issue with what he argues is the predominant view of the Merina kingdom as a benign and progressive state. Rather, he says it was a brutal empire whose people shared a distinct identity that set them apart from other ethnic groups in Madagascar’ He argues that the policies of the Merina Empire were shaped by the imperial rivalry between three empires: Britain, France and Merina. It was this rivalry that led to the imposition of an autarkic regime in central Madagascar and the expansionist policies of the Merina Empire against other ethnic groups on the island. Considering Campbell’s emphasis on the importance of the Mascarene trading networks to the economy of Madagascar, it is somewhat surprising that he does not discuss the community of Malagasy living in Mauritius’ This community grew in size over the nineteenth century as people left the island largely because of the imposition of forced labor and the anti-Christian policies of the Merina court. Many were skilled artisans who, had they remained, could have made a contribution to the economy of the island. While this is an important study, there are a number of problems that give the reader pause, mostly arising from Campbell’s concentration on economic factors as the principal, perhaps sole, determinant of historical change. Additionally, at times Campbell overstates his contribution to the historiography of imperialism in Africa’ While it is a helpful reminder that British imperial policy towards Madagascar was shaped by competition with other European empires, it is not new knowledge. However, his argument that a poorly prepared French army was able to colonize Madagascar only because the economic policies of the Merina court had badly weakened the internal structure of the island is helpful in understanding why Madagascar became a colony after resisting for so long French and British attempts to add to their empires. While Campbell does discuss the importance of education in mission schools to the economic growth of the Merina kingdom, his analysis would have benefitted from a consideration of how political tensions in the Merina court were exacerbated by the education of many elites in the educational system begun by the London Missionary Society in the 1820s. Perhaps, because most Anglophone historiography on Madagascar places the London Missionary Society at the center of the history of island, Campbell has largely ignored their influence. This has had the unfortunate effect of marginalizing the impact of Christianity on the island. After the expulsion of the British missionaries in the 1830s, Christianity spread on the island due to the proselytizing of Malagasy converts. It would have been interesting to explore whether the...