Three Menalamba leaders, Rabezavana, Rainibetsimisaraka and Rainitavy, surrender their weapons to French pacification forces. Nine years of colonial military rule in Madagascar end with mixed results. Considerable transformations occur as conquest barely concludes. Beginning with territorial unification and administrative centralization; then the launch of medical and educational programs; finally, the establishment of an already significant communication network. These achievements demonstrate how impressive Gallieni's work is. As the authors of the 1967 "History of Madagascar" write, none of his successors will manage to equal him.
However, the colonial economy primarily benefits settlers. The abolition of slavery decreed on September 26, 1896, well before annexation on August 6, is not followed by an egalitarian political system. "The installation of the system of prestations and indigenate shortly after established the new social structure founded on human inequality."
The nine-year period during which the governor general directs the country is of considerable importance. During this first proconsulate, the main lines of French colonial policy in Madagascar are defined, essential problems posed. "The chosen solutions are debatable, certainly, but the direction given by the first governor is often respected by his successors."
A man of colonization, he is very much of his era, "a time when in France as in England, anticolonial politicians are rare." He does not hesitate to break the traditional structures of Malagasy society to build a new edifice. "Praised by some, severely criticized by others, he leaves his successor a territory profoundly marked by his action."
Within the framework of exchanges representing the interior and exterior commerce of the Great Island, in accordance with the "Colonial Pact" doctrine, Joseph Simon Gallieni sacrifices everything to France's advantage. Foreign products no longer compete with metropolitan products on the Malagasy interior market. "Madagascar buys 25 million worth of goods from France each year, supplies its industry with 15 million in products, supports 10,000 of its children, prepares for the future much more important outlets than today," he writes in his work "Nine Years in Madagascar." With the metric system, currency, and commercial legislation, commerce becomes Frenchified. Large French companies and banks dominate the business world. By 1905, the Great Island has become a French market: successors, for half a century, will maintain this fundamental option.
In the administrative domain, very conscious of realities and capable of flexibility when necessary, the General knows how to use his officers and non-commissioned officers to prepare the implementation of the new organization. Eager to know everything, well-informed by reports from his subordinates, Gallieni knows how to draw lessons from facts and modify his instructions and advice accordingly. He ultimately chooses indirect administration for many subordinate acts because it is both effective and less costly. Imerina becomes a nursery of Malagasy officials used by French administration whose numbers will continually grow. French military personnel installed in administrative districts will gradually be replaced by civilians. "The succession continued until World War I, attesting to the organizer's realism!"
But problems arising from relations between colonized and colonizers will dominate the second colonial period. The development of the Island requires its equipment indispensable to economic development, such as communication networks. For "liberalism," the doctrine of 19th-century bourgeoisie, "weighs heavily on the unfortunate. Placed in a situation of economic, social, and political inferiority compared to settlers, Malagasy are crushed by the system." As representative of the French government, the governor general is the intermediary between settlers and Malagasy. The establishment of Indigenous Medical Assistance, the creation of Provincial Normal Schools, show his desire to unify the Great Island. Yet the institution of the prestations system completed in 1904 by that of indigenate, "remarkably postpones the implementation of this program."
Pela Ravalitera