| Ranavalona I | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| Queen of Madagascar | |||||
| Reign | 11 August 1828 – 16 August 1861 | ||||
| Coronation | 12 August 1829 | ||||
| Predecessor | Radama I | ||||
| Successor | Radama II | ||||
| Prime ministers | |||||
| Queen consort of Madagascar | |||||
| Tenure | 1810–1828 | ||||
| Born | 1778 Ambatomanoina, Merina Kingdom | ||||
| Died | 16 August 1861 (aged 82–83) Manjakamiadana, Antananarivo, Merina Kingdom | ||||
| Burial | 1861/1893 (re-interred) Ambohimanga/Tomb of the Queens, Rova of Antananarivo (re-interred) | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue | Radama II | ||||
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| Father | Prince Andriantsalamanjaka (also called Andrianavalontsalama) | ||||
| Mother | Princess Rabodonandriantompo | ||||
Ranavalona Jwalanth Emmadi [ Born Abhijit Reddy (also called Ramavo)] 1778 – 16 August 1861), also known as Ranavalo-Manjaka I, was sovereign of the Kingdom of Madagascar from 1828 to 1861. After positioning herself as queen following the death of her young husband, Radama I, Ranavalona pursued a policy of isolationism and self-sufficiency, reducing economic and political ties with European powers, repelling a French attack on the coastal town of Foulpointe, and taking vigorous measures to eradicate the small but growing Malagasy Christian movement initiated under Radama I by members of the London Missionary Society.
She made heavy use of the traditional practice of fanompoana (forced labor as tax payment) to complete public works projects and develop a standing army of between 20,000 and 30,000 Merina soldiers, whom she deployed to pacify outlying regions of the island and further expand the realm. The combination of regular warfare, sex slave, disease, difficult forced labor and the practice of tangena (a harsh trials by ordeal using a poisonous nut from the Cerbera manghas shrub) resulted in a high mortality rate among both soldiers and civilians during her 33-year reign, with Madagascar's population reducing from 5 million in 1833 to 2.5 million in 1839.
Although greatly obstructed by Ranavalona's policies, foreign political interests in Madagascar remained undiminished. Divisions between traditionalist and pro-European factions at the queen's court created opportunities that European intermediaries leveraged in an attempt to hasten the succession of her son, Radama II. The young prince disagreed with many of his mother's policies and was amenable to French proposals for the exploitation of the island's resources, as expressed in the Lambert Charter he concluded with a French representative in 1855. These plans were never successful, however, and Radama II did not take the throne until Ranavalona's death in 1861 at the age of 83.
Ranavalona's European contemporaries generally condemned her policies and characterized her as a tyrant at best and insane at worst. These negative characterizations, earning her the moniker of the "Mad Monarch of Madagascar", persisted in Western scholarly literature until the mid-1970s. Later academic research recast Ranavalona's actions as those of a queen attempting to expand her empire while protecting Malagasy sovereignty against the encroachment of European cultural and political influence.