1918-1939 Independence 1960-1980







Late Colony, 1939-1960



On June 25th 1940, France surrendered to Germany. Madagascar remained loyal to the new French administration at VICHY. German officials now seriously considered the MADAGASCAR PLAN as an option for the ill-described Final Solution of the Jewish Question envisaged in Hitler's Mein Kampf.
In 1942, British and South African troops occupied Madagascar; in 1943 they handed the island's administration over to the Free French.

After World War II, both Madagascar's French and Malagasy population, were finally granted representation in the constituent assembly to the French Fourth Republic. In 1946, Madagascar was declared an OVERSEAS TERRITORY (thus ending the status of colony); the COMORO ISLANDS were again separated from Madagascar. The MDRM (Democratic Movement of Malgache Reform) emerged as the dominant political organization.
France offered full citizenship to the Malagasy; yet the measures aimed at the assimilation of the Malagasy. The MDRM objected to this policy, and in 1947 an anti-French revolt broke out, which was suppressed. The French assimilation policy had failed. In 1956, UNIVERSAL ADULT SUFFRAGE was introduced, as well as parliamentary government. In 1960, Madagascar declared full indepndence.


Population of Madagascar, 1950-1960
1950
1960 		4,230,000
5,309,000






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Articles from Infoplease : Madagascar
Madagascar, from Library of Congress, Country Studies
A History of Madagascar, Review of a book by Stephen Ellis from Univ. Leiden
Armed Conflict Event Data : Madagascar 1800-1999, from OnWar.com
The Madagascar Plan, by Jennifer Rosenberg
DOCUMENTS Flag of Madagascar as French Protectorate, from FOTW
REFERENCE Madagascar, in : Jasper H. Stembridge, The Oxford War Atlas Volume II, 1 September 1941 to 1 January 1943, Oxford : UP 1943 [G]
Article : French Colonial Empire, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1946 pp.329-330, 1947 pp.344-345 [G]
Article : French Overseas Territories, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1948 pp.330-332, 1949 pp.287-290 [G]
Article : French Union, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1950 pp.305-308 [G]
Article : Madagascar, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1951 p.436, 1952 pp.438-439, 1953 pp.432-433, 1954 p.437, 1955 pp.479-480, 1956 p.416, 1957 pp.477-478, 1958 p.418, 1959 pp.413-414, 1960 pp.407-408 [G]
Article : Madagascar, in : Statesman's Year Book 1943 pp.926-930 [G]
Article : Madagascar, in : Americana Annual 1943 pp.446-447, 1944 pp.421-422, 1945 pp.446-447, 1946 pp.466-467, 1947 pp.423-424, 1957 p.469 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on June 17th 2008

Click here to go Home
Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster
Click here to go to Statistics