1. Rainilaiarivony was a Malagasy politician who served as the prime minister of Madagascar from 1864 to 1895, succeeding his older brother Rainivoninahitriniony, who had held the post for thirteen years.
51 Facts About Rainilaiarivony
1. 2.
Rainilaiarivony co-led a critical military expedition with Rainivoninahitriniony at the age of 24 and was promoted to commander-in-chief of the army following the death of the queen in 1861.
3.
Rainilaiarivony influenced the transformation of the kingdom's government from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one, in which power was shared between the sovereign and the prime minister.
4.
Rainilaiarivony exercised care not to offend traditional norms, while gradually limiting traditional practices, such as slavery, polygamy, and unilateral repudiation of wives.
5.
Rainilaiarivony was born on 30 January 1828 in the Merina village of Ilafy, one of the twelve sacred hills of Imerina, into a family of statesmen.
6.
Rainilaiarivony's father, Rainiharo, was a high-ranking military officer and a deeply influential conservative political adviser to the reigning monarch, Queen Ranavalona I, at the time that his wife, Rabodomiarana, gave birth to Rainilaiarivony.
7.
Relatives took pity and adopted Rainilaiarivony to raise him within their own home.
8.
Rainiharo selected and groomed his elder son to follow in his footsteps as commander-in-chief and prime minister, while Rainilaiarivony was left to make his way in the world by his own merits.
9.
At age six, Rainilaiarivony began two years of study at one of the new schools opened by the London Missionary Society for the children of the noble class at the royal palace in Antananarivo.
10.
When Rainilaiarivony reached age 11 or 12, the relatives who had raised him decided he was old enough to make his own way in the world.
11.
Randravalahy, to whom Rainilaiarivony later ascribed the name Radilifera, was sent to France to study but returned before earning his diploma and faded into obscurity among the upper classes of Imerina.
12.
One of Rainilaiarivony's daughters died in her twenties following a self-induced abortion, and the rest married and lived quiet lives out of public view.
13.
Rainilaiarivony consequently awarded Rainilaiarivony a double promotion to Twelfth Honor ten days afterward, in preparation for an increase in military and political responsibilities.
14.
Shortly thereafter the queen expressed romantic interest in Rainilaiarivony and proposed that he assume the former role of his father as consort and prime minister.
15.
Rainilaiarivony took 80 slaves, while his older brother took more than 160.
16.
In May 1857, when Rainilaiarivony was 29 years old, Lambert consequently invited Prince Radama, Rainivoninahitriniony, Rainilaiarivony and a number of other officers to conspire with him in a plot to overthrow Ranavalona.
17.
Rainilaiarivony reacted by expelling the foreigners from the island and subjecting all the implicated Merina officers to the tangena ordeal in which they were forced to swallow a poison to determine their guilt or innocence.
18.
Rainilaiarivony successfully maintained authority over the palace guards anxiously awaiting the command from either faction to slaughter the other.
19.
Rainilaiarivony was made responsible for the tribunal where Ramboasalama's supporters were tried, convicted of subversion and sentenced to banishment and other punishments.
20.
The prime minister initiated the arrest of the menamaso, the prince's influential advisers, while Rainilaiarivony enacted his brother's instructions to keep the peace in the capital city.
21.
Not having been involved in the coup d'etat, Rainilaiarivony provided direction for his brother and the rest of the court as they grappled with the gravity of their acts.
22.
Rainilaiarivony proposed that future monarchs would no longer have absolute power but would instead rule by the consent of the nobles.
23.
Two of Rainilaiarivony's cousins urged him to take his elder brother's place in order to end the shame that Rainivoninahitriniony's behavior was bringing upon their family.
24.
The arrangement was sealed when Rainilaiarivony took Rasoherina as his bride and demoted his longtime spouse Rasoanalina to the status of second wife.
25.
Rainilaiarivony confided in a friend shortly before his death that he deeply loved his first wife and came to share the same degree of feeling toward Rasoherina as well, but never developed the same affection for the subsequent queens he married.
26.
The most prominent of Rainilaiarivony's properties was the Andafiavaratra Palace, constructed for him on the slope just below the royal Rova compound by English architect William Pool in 1873.
27.
In March 1876, Rainilaiarivony established eight cabinet ministries to manage foreign affairs, the interior, education, war, justice, commerce and industry, finance, and legislation.
28.
Rainilaiarivony actively encouraged Merina settlement in the coastal provinces, but coastal peoples were not invited to participate in political administration of the territories they inhabited.
29.
Rainilaiarivony recognized the growing power of Christianity on the island and identified the need to bring it under his influence in order to avert destabilizing cultural and political power struggles.
30.
Rainilaiarivony's biographers conclude that the prime minister's own conversion was largely a political gesture and most likely did not denote a genuine spiritual shift until late in his life, if ever.
31.
Some local officials attempted to force conversions to Protestantism by mandating church attendance and persecuting Catholics, but Rainilaiarivony quickly responded to quell these overzealous practices.
32.
The Christianization of the court came at a steep personal price: with the outlawing of polygamy, Rainilaiarivony was forced to repudiate his first wife.
33.
Rainilaiarivony expanded the public education system, declaring school attendance mandatory in 1881 and forming a cadre of school inspectors the following year to ensure education quality.
34.
Rainilaiarivony enacted a series of new legal codes over the course of his administration that sought to create a more humane social order.
35.
Rainilaiarivony purchased new local and imported firearms, reintroduced regular exercises and reorganized the ranking system.
36.
Rainilaiarivony prohibited the purchasing of rank promotions or exemptions from military service and instituted free medical care for soldiers in 1876.
37.
Rainilaiarivony established embassies in Mauritius, France and Britain, while treaties of friendship and trade were concluded with Britain and France in 1862 and revised in 1865 and 1868 respectively.
38.
Rainilaiarivony permitted foreigners to lease Malagasy land for 99 years but forbade its sale to non-citizens.
39.
Rainilaiarivony sent a diplomatic mission to England and France to negotiate release of their claims on Malagasy lands and was successful in brokering a new agreement with the British.
40.
Rainilaiarivony chose her 22-year-old niece, Princess Razafindrahety, to replace her under the throne name Ranavalona III.
41.
In December 1885, Rainilaiarivony successfully negotiated the cessation of hostilities in the first Franco-Hova War.
42.
Rainilaiarivony sent an interpreter to carry a white flag to the French commander and entreat his clemency.
43.
The French ordered Rainilaiarivony to be exiled to French Algeria, although he initially remained in Antananarivo for several months after the treaty was signed.
44.
On 6 February 1896, at the age of 68, Rainilaiarivony boarded a ship bound for Algiers and left his island for the first time in his life.
45.
Rainilaiarivony was accompanied by his grandson, Ratelifera, as well as an interpreter and four servants.
46.
Rainilaiarivony was assigned a French attendant and guard named Joseph Vasse, who maintained detailed documentation on the personality and activities of Rainilaiarivony throughout his exile in French Algeria.
47.
The beauty of his Villa des Fleurs home and the warm reception he received in French Algeria pleased Rainilaiarivony and contributed to a positive impression of his new life in Algiers.
48.
Rainilaiarivony quickly developed an excellent reputation among the local high society, who perceived him as a kind, intelligent, generous and charming figure.
49.
The Governor-General of French Algeria regularly invited him to diplomatic balls and social events where Rainilaiarivony danced with the enthusiasm and endurance of a much younger man.
50.
Rainilaiarivony was constantly attended by his closest friends and loved ones.
51.
Rainilaiarivony's body was initially interred within a stone tomb in Algiers.