The most popular, and among the most valuable, rare Madagascar stamp was issued by a country that never (officially) governed Madagascar.
How could that be?
And what does it tell us about postal history and the history of the imperial age, which quite nicely coincides with the explosion of postal systems.
And that’s no coincidence.
French troops in the Crimean War. France may have had a revolution but was as much an imperial power as the rest of Europe's great states.
The history of Madagascar stamps
Madagascar is an island off the south-east coast of the African continent in the Indian Ocean.
Mozambique is the nearest country on the continental mainland.
It's exactly the sort of place a European power can't take over without a good communications network.
The islands of the Seychelles lie to its north, and Reunion and Mauritius to its east.
As an island it has an independently developed natural life and is well known for its lemurs, a group of types of primates that have evolved very specifically to their life on the island.
And it’s the name given to a set of fun family films - they’re very good, you should watch them.
It is now considered a front-line state for the impacts of climate change. The UN rates it as the fourth most threatened state in the world.
And, it has a colonial past that has given it a postal history that spans two great empires: France and Great Britain. And four distinct territories: Madagascar, Nossi-Be, Sainte Marie de Madagascar, and Diego-Suárez.
And there are Norwegians.
Norway was just about the poorest country in Europe in the 19th century, but sent missionaries around the world.
Madagascar and outside powers
Traders from Arabia had first come to Madagascar from the 10th century.
And in 1500 the Portuguese arrived.
They set up a small settlement linked to their territories in India.
Why were the traders there?
Geography plays a part. Madagascar is a good staging point or meeting place between Asia and Africa. It’s an oceanic crossroads.
Most of the people who were there when the Portuguese arrived had first come from Indonesia.
There was conflict on the island, which is slightly larger than mainland France, before the Europeans arrived.
And the Europeans joined in, carving out ports and trading posts they could use.
But, those who came seeking great wealth on Madagascar were often disappointed.
While the island is now an important producer of spices (almost all of the world’s vanilla comes from the Madagascar), early colonists didn’t find much to justify the trouble of setting up there.
There are significant gem deposits on the island but it's no gold mine, and an attempt to start a literal gold rush there in the 19th century did not find the El Dorado some European settlers believed awaited them.
The French East India Company founded Fort Dauphin in 1643, but abandoned it in 1673 in the face of local hostility, disease, and cold, hard economic realities.
While rival indigenous states battled over the island, many of the European visitors from that period on were pirates using it as a base to pick off Indian Ocean trade routes. Slave traders also used the island as a jumping off point from the African continent.
The French remained strongly interested in the islands and had trading posts (founded using slaves) on smaller islands off the main landmass.
Their influence, and the size of their territorial holdings, would grow over time.
And by the early 19th century Britain and France were vying for control of the island run by a Malagasy king.
For the ordinary people of the island this period was a disaster.
King Radama agreed to abolish the slave trade in a deal with the British.
King Radama, who did deals with the British.
As a result, missionary activity on the island ramped up.
And his successor, Queen Ranavalona I reacted against this influence.
There was almost continuous war, harsh legal crackdowns, and worse.
In just six years from 1833 to 1839 it's thought that the population of Madagascar fell by 50% to 2.5 million.
British influence on the island remained strong until 1882 when the French Malagasy Protectorate was founded.
This was a deal.
It came at the height of what historians call the Scramble for Africa. Seven European powers traded and bargained over their imperial possessions on the continent.
In this case, France agreed to recognise Britain’s claim to Zanzibar, and Britain agreed to back France’s claim to Madagascar in return.
Protectorates aren’t uncommon in imperial history. And they’re usually a step towards full occupation.
And, so it was in this case.
In 1882 France set up the protectorate and in 1897 a military conquest was completed.
And Madagascar remained in French hands (for a while collaborationist Vichy French hands) until 1960 when independence came.
And we need to mention a third party: Norwegian missionaries.
After South Africa, the Norwegian Missionary Society established an Evangelical-Lutheran (British missionaries were Quaker and protestants, there were French Catholics too) mission on the island.
They were successful enough to play something of a role in our Madagascar postal story with a small postal system linking their churches to each other and Norway.
The stamps of Madagascar
So how is this complex colonial picture represented in the philately of Madagascar?
You can't have Empires without communications. There's no understanding the Age of Empires without the concurrent development of cheap, global postage systems.
Madagascan stamps are usually French.
Functional, and to the point, Madagascar's first adhesive stamps were British issues.
But the first dedicated local issues are British.
And some of them are Norwegian.
From March 1884 British Consular Mail could be sent from Madagascar using adhesive stamps.
They were made quickly and cheaply, and they're quite rudimentary - the paper is compared to newsprint by catalogues.
Perhaps there’s an elegance to their simplicity. There’s certainly a good degree of rarity to those that survive.
French stamps were also used on the island, but these were initially the general issue stamps that could be used across the French Empire.
These were issued from 1859, when a 10c Eagle design set off across the oceans.
These stamps were modelled on domestic issues. Some are imperforate. And some have different colours to stamps of the interior.
A French colonial issue, printed for Saint Marie de Madagascar.
From 1881 to 1886 they carried a “Colonies / Postes” inscription.
Collectors differentiate them by their postmarks, which can usually be relied on to place them geographically.
By 1882 on Madagascar there was a Norwegian missionary post covering much of the island.
In 1889 there was an overprint of the French colonial issues with new values.
Before France produced stamps for the whole of Madagascar it issued them on Nossi-Be, an island off the coast, that had been a French colony since 1841, and was key to France’s claims to the whole archipelago.
Nossi-Be stamps were issued from 1889 to 1894.
And Diego-Suárez, in the north of the main island, had its own postage stamps from 1890 to 1894. These were essentially French, but the imaginative local authorities produced over 60 types of stamp.
France first produced stamps for Madagascar on Madagascar in 1891.
Another territory off Madagascar, Sainte Marie de Madagascar, which had been French since 1750 got its own stamps in 1894.
Also in 1894 the Norwegian missionary mail issues adhesive stamps.
In 1895 the British issued special stamps for domestic Malagasy use during France’s invasion.
In 1896 France issued a set of definitives for the island.
In 1897 the British Consular Mail service stops issuing stamps but continues with hand stamps on envelopes or letters.
And the Norwegian missionary post stops putting out stamps too.
Leaving French issues - with the exception of a rebellion after WWII that ran its own mail service for a while - ruling the roost until the triumphant founding of the Paositra Malagasy and the issuing of the first truly Madagascan stamps in 1958.
A colonial story that is transactional, competitive and confusing is a perfect description of the period.
Buy rare colonial stamps today
You can buy rare Madagascar stamps from us today.
And many other British Empire issues.
We are now one of the most significant stamp dealers in the world. If you’d like to know more about our collections, when we get new pieces and more then just sign up for our free newsletter here.
