Editing History of Madagascar (section)

====End of the monarchy====
{{main|Franco-Hova Wars|First Madagascar expedition|Second Madagascar expedition}}
[[File:FrenchTroopsMadagasgar.jpg|thumb|Landing of the ''40th Bataillon de Chasseur à Pieds'' in [[Majunga]], between 5 May and 24 May 1895.]]
Angry at the cancellation of the [[Lambert Charter]] and seeking to restore property seized from French citizens, France invaded Madagascar in 1883 in what became known as the first [[Franco-Hova War]] (''Hova'' as a name referring to the Merina aristocrats). At the war's end, Madagascar ceded [[Antsiranana]] (Diégo Suarez) on the northern coast to France and paid 560,000 [[gold franc]]s to the heirs of Joseph-François Lambert. In Europe, meanwhile, European diplomats had worked out an agreement whereby Britain, in order to establish control over the [[Sultanate of Zanzibar]], ceded its rights over the island of [[Heligoland]] to [[German Empire|Germany]] and renounced all claims of influence in Madagascar in favor of France. The agreement spelled the end of the Madagascan political independence. [[Rainilaiarivony]] had succeeded in playing the various European powers against one another, but now France could act without fear of British support towards the Madagascans.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

In 1895, a French [[flying column]] landed in [[Mahajanga]] (Majunga) and marched by way of the [[Betsiboka River]] to the capital, [[Antananarivo]], taking the city's defenders by surprise (they had expected an attack from the much closer east coast). Twenty French soldiers died fighting and 6,000 died of [[malaria]] and other diseases before the second Franco-Hova War ended. In 1896 the [[French Parliament]] voted to [[annexation|annex]] Madagascar. The 103-year-old Merina monarchy ended with the royal family sent into exile in [[Algeria]].