Andrianampoinimerina

Continuing his conquests in the 1790s, Andrianampoinimerina began establishing control over a comparatively large part of the highlands of Madagascar including the twelve sacred hills of Imerina. He soon proclaimed his ambition to become the sole King of Madagascar, using the Merina hain-teny metaphoric style to announce to the people of Ambohimanga: "The sea is the limit of my ricefield" (Ny ranomasina no valam-parihiko). Andrianampoinimerina centralized power into his own hands and amassed European firearms. This allowed him to gradually conquer neighboring Merina principalities before moving on to those of the Vakinankaratra and Betsileo.

It is notable that Andrianampoinimerina achieved many of his victories by relying heavily on shrewd diplomacy and alliance treaties, only resorting to military conquest when it was essential and unavoidable. He liked to remind his officers of one of his favorite principles: "Force is weaker than the spirit" (Ny hery tsy mahaleo ny fanahy). The extension of his rule allowed Andrianampoinimerina to stop paying tribute to the Sakalava kingdom, the western clan who had continuously disrupted life the Malagasy central highlands by slave hunting. Read Less

He designated his 17-year-old son Radama I to succeed him upon his death. The king's body was interred in a tomb at Ambohimanga in 1810. In an effort to desacralize the holy city of Ambohimanga, the French colonial authority transferred all the royal remains from their original tombs to those at the Rova of Antananarivo originally built for Radama I and Rasoherina; Andrianampoinimerina's remains were placed within the tomb of his son, Radama.

Much of what is known about Andrianampoinimerina comes from Father François Callet's book Tantara ny Andriana eto Madagasikara ("History of the Nobles in Madagascar"). This collection of oral tradition about the history of the Merina Dynasty was originally written in Malagasy and published between 1878 and 1881. Callet translated it in French under the title Tantara ny Andriana (Histoire des rois) in 1908. Tantara ny Andriana constitutes the core material for the historians studying the Merina history, and has been commented upon, criticized and challenged ever since by numerous historians from Madagascar, Europe and North America (see for example: Rasamimanana, 1930; Ravelojaona et al., 1937; Ramilison, 1951; Kent, 1970; Délivré, 1974; Berg 1988; and Larson, 2000). The work is complemented by oral traditions of other tribes collected by Malagasy historians. Read Less