马达加斯加起义

The Malagasy Uprising (French: Insurrection malgache; Malagasy: Tolom-bahoaka tamin' ny 1947) was a Malagasy nationalist rebellion against French colonial rule in Madagascar, lasting from March 1947 to February 1949. Starting in late 1945, Madagascar's first French National Assembly deputies, Joseph Raseta, Joseph Ravoahangy, and Jacques Rabemananjara of the Mouvement démocratique de la rénovation malgache (MDRM) political party, led an effort to achieve independence for Madagascar through legal channels. The failure of this initiative and the harsh response it drew from the Socialist Ramadier administration radicalized elements of the Malagasy population, including leaders of several militant nationalist secret societies.

On the evening of 29 March 1947, coordinated surprise attacks were launched by Malagasy nationalists, armed mainly with spears, against military bases and French-owned plantations in the eastern part of the island concentrated around Moramanga and Manakara. The nationalist cause was rapidly adopted in the south and spread to the central highlands and the capital of Antananarivo by the following month, with the number of Malagasy nationalist fighters estimated at over one million.

By May 1947, the French began to counter the nationalists. The French tripled the number of troops on the island to 18,000, primarily by transferring soldiers from French colonies elsewhere in Africa. The colonial authorities sought to fight on the physical and psychological fronts and engaged in a variety of terror tactics designed to demoralize the population.……

Background

By the close of the 19th century, Madagascar was largely under the control of the Kingdom of Imerina, with its royal palaces at its capital in Antananarivo. Although the kingdom had existed since the early 16th century, it expanded its control beyond its traditional borders in the 1820s under King Radama I, who the British government officially recognized as the sovereign over the entire island of Madagascar.……

Independence movement

Nationalist insurgency

The Malagasy Uprising began on the evening of 29 March 1947, the evening before Palm Sunday. The timing had additional significance as the historic date of the traditional Merina Kingdom fandroana new year's festival, historically celebrated by a ritual period of anarchy followed by the Merina sovereign's reestablishment of order.……

Aftermath

Although the MDRM leadership consistently maintained its innocence, the party was outlawed by the French colonial rulers. The French government classified the Malagasy Uprising documentation of the military, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Colonies.

The French media reported little on the event as it happened, and relatively little mention of the nationalist struggle was mentioned in Les Temps Modernes, the leftist publication that would become considered the leading anti-colonial advocate after the launch of the French offensive in Indochina.……

Trials and executions

From July to October 1948 in Antananarivo, the French organized a large public trial of the uprising, charging 77 officials of the MDRM.……

Commemoration

The Malagasy government has organized official annual commemorations of the Uprising since 1967, when 29 March was first declared a day of mourning by President Tsiranana. It is now observed as Martyrs' Day. The annual commemorations under his administration brought together perpetrators of war crimes, their surviving victims, former nationalist guerrillas and leaders, and family members of those killed, and characterized the Uprising as a tragic mistake.……