Civil War
Once Andriamasinavalona's sons had been installed in their territories, Andriantomponimerina tested his authority by imposing a particular hairstyle upon the Marovatana people he ruled. Years earlier, when Andriamasinavalona had affected the incorporation of this community into the Kingdom of Imerina, the king had promised they could keep their own customs. When the Marovatana reminded the king of this vow and refused to submit, the king and his sons launched a war against the people of the fief. According to oral history, a half-brother to the prince named Andrianentoarivo planted the suggestion that Andriantomponimerina could supplant his father as king through trickery.
In opposition to Andriamasinavalona's intentions, his sons forsook the concept of unity and instead fought one another in an effort to expand their realms. As a consequence of this decision, Imerina was to remain fragmented and wracked with conflict among principalities until it was once again united during the reign of Andrianampoinimerina (1787–1810).
Before his death, Andriamasinavalona was humiliatingly imprisoned for five years by his own son, Andriantomponimerina I, then ruler of the western principality.
Read more about this topic: Andriamasinavalona
Famous quotes related to civil war:
“At Hayes’ General Store, west of the cemetery, hangs an old army rifle, used by a discouraged Civil War veteran to end his earthly troubles. The grocer took the rifle as payment ‘on account.’”
—Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“They have been waiting for us in a foetor
Of vegetable sweat since civil war days,
Since the gravel-crunching, interminable departure
Of the expropriated mycologist.”
—Derek Mahon (b. 1941)