ABSTRACT
On 6 November 1995, an event took place in the present-day capital of Madagascar at Tananarive which was of a rare gravity for the history and culture of the country: the burning down of what was commonly referred to as the Queen's Palace. This chapter examines the religious forces at work or which were put to work in the sense of royal power and its consolidation during the last century. It discusses the relationship between the construction of the State and religious legitimacy for the period 1800-68 and then that between the conversion of the monarchy to Christianity and the consolidation of a now-Christian state (1868-96). In short, the Prime Minister used the Protestant religion for his own gain, but the reintroduction of Christianity to the kingdom had already had the effect of consolidating the monarchical regime. Christianity made a great contribution to improving the management of the State in Madagascar in the nineteenth century and to its development.
