From his initial capital Ambohimanga, and later from the Rova of Antananarivo, this Merina king rapidly expanded his rule over neighboring principalities.

A series of Merina monarchs ruled over the Kingdom of Madagascar throughout the 19th century and engaged in the process of modernization through close diplomatic ties to Britain that led to the establishment of European-style schools, government institutions and infrastructure.

With the establishment of dominion over the greater part of the Highlands, Andrianampoinimerina became the first Merina monarch to be considered a king of Madagascar.

Beginning in the late 18th century, Merina sovereigns extended political domination over the rest of the island, ultimately uniting it under their rule.

This staple of the diet is so central to the Merina that it is considered to be masina, or holy, and a common Merina belief holds that the eating of rice is the key to moral behaviour, and the French who occupied Merina lands were often looked down upon for eating bread over rice.

This allowed him to gradually conquer neighboring Merina principalities before moving on to those of the Vakinankaratra and Betsileo.

The Malagasy ethnic group is often divided into eighteen or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands.

The Sakalava and Merina kingdoms in particular exploited European trade to strengthen the power of their kingdoms, trading Malagasy slaves in exchange for European firearms and other goods.

Even prior to their eventual domination and unification of the entire island, the political and cultural activities of Merina royalty were to leave an indelible mark on contemporary Malagasy identity.

Malagasy ethnic Merina children

In the study of Malagasy Autosomal DNA shows the highlanders ethic group like Merina are almost an even mixture of Asian and Bantu origin, while the Coastal ethnic group have much higher Bantu mixture in their autosomal DNA suggesting they are mixture of new Bantu migrants and the already established highlander ethnic group.

The Merina are concentrated in the Highlands and speak the official dialect of the Malagasy language, which is a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language group derived from the Barito languages, spoken in southern Borneo.

Among all the Malagasy ethnicities, the Merina historically have one of the most stratified caste systems.

Beginning in the early 19th century, most of the island was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a series of Merina nobles.

Probably the descendants of an earlier and less technologically advanced Austronesian settlement wave, the Vazimba were expelled from the highlands by Merina kings Andriamanelo, Ralambo and Andrianjaka in the 16th and early 17th centuries.

By the early 19th century, however, the army of the Kingdom of Imerina was able to bring much of the island under Merina control.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries Merina state policies stimulated agricultural production, which helped to create a larger and healthier population and laid the foundation for Merina military and economic expansion within Madagascar.

The sampy were dispersed to the sacred villages where they had originated under 16th-century Merina king Ralambo and other early monarchs.

The piano was introduced to the royal Merina court in the early 19th century by envoys of the London Missionary Society, and soon afterward, local musicians began creating their own compositions for piano based on valiha technique.

It was built in the early 19th century by the Merina as the administrative capital for the newly conquered Betsileo kingdoms.

While the tubular valiha is the most emblematic form of the instrument most likely due to its popularization by the 19th century Merina aristocracy, other forms of the instrument exist across the island.

A variety of European aerophones were introduced in the 19th century under the Merina monarchy.

Geo Shaw, a missionary to Madagascar in the 19th century, described observing Betsileo and Merina serfs singing in the rice fields, " timing the music to the movements of their bodies, so that at each accented note they plant a stalk.

These kings and their successors descended from a line of ancient Merina royalty who ruled the lands of Imerina in the central Highlands of Madagascar since at least the 16th century.

For instance, in the Highlands, the valiha and more subdued vocal styles are emblematic of the Merina, the predominantly Austronesian ethnic group that has inhabited the area since at least the 15th century, whereas among the southern Bara people, who trace their ancestry back to the African mainland, their a cappella vocal traditions bear close resemblance to the polyharmonic singing style common to South Africa.

However, beginning in the mid-19th century, playing the instrument became the prerogative of the Merina aristocracy to such an extent that possessing long fingernails became symbolic of nobility.

While the origins of the hira gasy are uncertain, oral history attributes its modern form to 18th century Merina king Andrianampoinimerina, who reportedly employed musicians to gather the public together for royal speeches and announcements ( kabary ) and to entertain them as they labored on public works projects such as building dikes to irrigate the rice paddies surrounding Antananarivo.

For almost a century, from the end of the reign of King Ralambo ( 1575 – 1600 ) to King Andriamasinavalona ( 1675 – 1710 ), the part of the Highlands controlled by the Merina had developed, witnessed economic growth, and enjoyed a certain civil peace.

Among some communities, such as the Sakalava, Merina and Betsimisaraka, leaders seized the opportunity to unite these disparate communities and establish true kingdoms under their rule.

Andrianampoinimerina was the first Merina King to establish formal civil and penal codes, the latter ameliorated and transcribed by his son Radama I.

Thus, starting from 1817, the central Merina kingdoms, Betsileo, Bezanozano, and Sihanaka, unified by Radama I was known to the outside world as the Kingdom of Madagascar.

The monarchy of Madagascar, known as the Merina Kingdom, came to an end in 1897 when France made it a colony and overthrew Queen Ranavalona III.

* Merina Kingdom

* Hova ( Madagascar ), meaning " free commoners ", one of the three main social classes in the pre-colonial Kingdom of Imerina in Madagascar ( alongside andriana – aristocracy, and andevo – slaves ), incorrectly used by the French colonial administration to refer to all people of the Merina ethnic group.

Andriamasinavalona's prophecy suggest that the Merina Kings had long intended to extend their kingdom to the North by absorbing the great and menacing Zafimamy Kingdom of Alahamadintany.

At the same time, the Zafimamy Kings of Alahamadintany had also wished to extend their land to the South by absorbing the Merina Kingdom.

France annexed Madagascar in 1896 and declared it a colony the following year, dissolving the Merina monarchy and sending the royal family into exile on Reunion Island and to Algeria.

In 1896 the French colonizers of Madagascar adopted the Merina capital as their center of colonial administration.

* February 20 – Ranavalona II, the Merina Queen of Madagascar, is baptized.

King Andrianampoinimerina ( 1785 – 1810 ) and his son, Radama I ( 1810 – 1828 ) succeeded in uniting nearly all of Madagascar under Merina rule.

This document gave Joseph-François Lambert, an enterprising French businessman who had arrived in Madagascar only three weeks before, the exclusive right to develop all minerals, forests, and unoccupied land in Madagascar in exchange for a 10-percent royalty payable to the Merina monarchy.

Rainilaiarivony would rule Madagascar from behind the scenes for the remaining 32 years of the Merina monarchy, marrying each of the final three queens of Madagascar in succession.

Angry at the cancellation of the Lambert Charter and seeking to restore property stolen 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 ).

Like his father Andrianampoinimerina and other Merina sovereigns that would follow him, he was laid to rest in a silver coffin, and it is said the funerary goods buried with him were the most extensive and richest of any tomb in Madagascar.

Campbell argues that in 19th-century Madagascar the human factor, in the form of the Merina state, was the predominant demographic influence.

The demographic " crisis " in Africa, ascribed by critics of the demographic transition theory to the colonial era, stemmed in Madagascar from the policies of the imperial Merina regime, which in this sense formed a link to the French regime of the colonial era.

Originally he was a Merina and served as the military president of Madagascar ( Chairman of the National Military Leadership Committee ) between 12 February and 15 June 1975.

The Merina are an ethnic group from Madagascar.

In 1895 – 96 the French colonized Madagascar and abolished the Merina monarchy by force in 1897.