Queen Rabodoandrianampoinimerina

Is she usually seen as a figure of extreme despotism like Joseph Stalin, or is she generally considered "lighter" than her more recent counterparts?

At first thought that might be a made-up name, but then guessed correctly this was another name for Ranavalona.

I first learned of her from the Flashman series (in the novel Flashman's Lady), where she's presented as a truly cruel and insane tyrant. I kind of took this with a grain of salt, since Fraser seems to use her as an argument in favor of colonialism. However, other sources present a similarly bad picture of her.

Edit- While Rabodoandrianampoinimerina is apparently her actual name, wonder if it might be a good idea to change it to Ranavalona- people are more likely to be familiar with that one and less likely to think you are trolling

edited 11th Dec '11 8:30:22 AM by Jordan

Gesundheit?

I've never heard of her, and I don't care enough to do personal research. Anyone want to give me a brief overview?

Here's a link to what the other wiki says about her. The short version is that she was queen of Madagascar in the mid 1800's and had a very negative reputation. One of her nicknames was "The Female Caligula". She persecuted Christians and had somewhat xenophobic policies.

The Other Wiki indicates that her bad rep might be a bit overblown, at least to the extent that the policies against Europeans make sense as an effort to avoid getting colonized- which did happen to Madagascar within the next generation or so.

Can't speak for her behavior toward her own people though.

I opted for her original name because I thought it sounded more original. However, the name of the thread can be changed.

How sad. A choice between autocracy by your own sovereign and autocracy by faraway lands you cannot hope to fight without your own sovereign.

A real-life case of He Who Fights Monsters if there ever was one...

That really does seem like a kind of He Who Fights Monsters to me. She oppressed her people in the hopes of keeping Madagascar strong enough to resist the Europeans...

And almost as soon as she died, France took over. What was the point, in the end?

If by "almost as soon" you mean "a generation later."

Calling her a Caligula is probably overblown. That said, she falls under the category of a lot of tyrants such as Vlad the Impaler or Oda Nobunaga. Not nice, not good, but potentially beneficial to the country. And the persecution of Christians was targeting legitimate enemies, since the Christians weren't too thrilled with her worshipping the old gods either.

That's how Africa works, really. Thrones are propped up by a mountain of skulls. Ranavalona defended her nation the only way she saw possible (and whether or not you think colonialism is a good thing, it's pretty much a given that a sovereign has a right to defend her territory), and she did a pretty damn good job at that.