#villain

This post is with thanks to Rejected Princesses who did all the hard research and translations to tell us about this remarkable woman.

If you’ve always identified with Ursula over Ariel, thought Maleficent was really not that bad or would actually really like to see Yzma on the throne then Queen Ranavalona is really the woman for you. This woman started life as a peasant and became supreme ruler and Queen. She fought off colonial rule, started one of the first industrial revolutions outside Europe and maintained Madagascar as an independent, self sufficient state making developments in science, engineering and agriculture. She also, errrrrrr, murdered 30%-50% of her own people, outlawed clapping, dancing and mattresses, forced everyone in her kingdom to shave their hair and developed so many methods of killing and torture that it’s really hard to keep up. She was beautiful but also brutal and harnessed the powers of STEM to develop weapons and torture devices to destroy her enemies.

Ranavalona was born into poverty but got a lucky break when her father uncovered a murder plot against the king. As a reward, the King took in Ranavalona as a member of his own family and married her off to his first born son Radma . She was the first of his 12 wives and whilst at the palace made as many friends and allies as possible. Now here’s where things get fishy, we can’t say for sure but it looks like almost certainly, definitely, yes Ranavalona murdered her husband Radma so she could take the throne. She then used her friends and allies to secure the palace and killed off every single member and distant relative of the royal family. Welp! With all her challengers banished or executed she was officially crowned Queen and ultimate ruler of Imerina, modern day Madagascar. 

Madagascar was under constant threat from European forces, Ranavalona knew that if they were going to survive as an independent nation they had to be self sufficient and be able to protect themselves. A young French explorer by the name of Jean Laborde became shipwrecked on the island and Ranavalona took him in and got him to teach her and her people everything he knows. It wasn’t long before Madagascar became an engineering and manufacturing powerhouse - they developed factories, mills, plants, mines, roads and weapons and all with no imported machinery. 

Ranavalona took lead position in the industrial development of Madagascar, particularly when it came to the manufacture of weapons. One of her craziest ideas was to build a ginormous pair of scissors that she could use on the battlefield to cut her enemies in two - sadly that one never got built.

Most of the writing we have about her comes from the French and they characterise her as being a mad evil villain. I actually think this is totally unfair. Some would call it bizarre that invaders such as the French would classify those they are trying to occupy as the evil ones but hey, I guess that's colonialism for you! Ranavalona destroyed any attempts the Europeans made to take over the kingdom of Imerina, everytime they attacked she fought them back and everytime they tried to overthrow her she foiled their plans. Sadly, after her death, her son undid most of her rulings, in particular he allowed free untaxed trade with the west. It wasn’t long before Madagascar fell into decline and 30 years later the French took over, it remained a colony of France for the next 100 years.

Her son who was very pro-European

“She was undoubtedly a hardline ruler, if not an outright despot, and it’s indisputable that a great many died under her reign. But she saw herself, not unreasonably, as a sovereign at war, and in that context she was an arguably fantastic leader. By associating herself so strongly with the native beliefs, she legitimized her reign. This enabled her to make the country self-reliant, strengthen her own nation’s culture, and repel the team-up invasion efforts of the two most powerful nations in the world — a feat that her successors failed at, to dire consequences." -RejectedPrincesses.com

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Sources:Rejected Princesses,Laidler