Hippolyte Laroche (26 January 1848 - 14 September 1914) was a French naval officer, colonial administrator and politician. While Resident General of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

he succeeded in abolishing slavery.

Career

Hippolyte Laroche was born on 26 January 1848 in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, France. His father was a colonel of the Engineers. Laroche attended Naval Academy and became a naval officer. He was then made prefect of

Charente Charente (; Saintongese: ''Chérente''; oc, Charanta ) is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, south western France. It is named after the river Charente, the most important and longest river in the department, an ...

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

and

Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country's ...

. Laroche was appointed Resident General in Madagascar, and arrived at

Tananarive Antananarivo ( French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("Antananarivo-Mother Hill" or "An ...

on 16 January 1896. Paul Anthelme Bourde was appointed Secretary General of

in 1895. Bourde left France for Madagascar in January 1896. He soon fell out with Laroche, who accused him of trying to usurp his position. In his short term of office, Laroche succeeded in passing a law that abolished slavery. He had the difficult task of keeping a balance between the French settlers and military and Queen

Ranavalona III Ranavalona III (; 22 November 1861 – 23 May 1917) was the last sovereign of the Kingdom of Madagascar. She ruled from 30 July 1883 to 28 February 1897 in a reign marked by ultimately futile efforts to resist the colonial designs of the go ...

. He did not succeed since he had no control over the military, who pursued a scorched earth policy in suppressing an uprising of the local people. He left on 10 October 1896 when the government ended his mission. Laroche signed the ''Adresse à Dreyfus'' that appeared in ''L'Aurore'' in September 1899. On 19 February 1904 Laroche was an unsuccessful candidate for the Assembly in a by-election for the arrondissement of

La Flèche La Flèche () is a town and commune in the French department of Sarthe, in the Pays de la Loire region in the Loire Valley. It is the sub-prefecture of the South-Sarthe, the chief district and the chief city of a canton, and the second most po ...

. In the general elections the next year he ran again and won by a narrow margin. He ran again in 1910 and was reelected. He was a member of commissions on Foreign affairs and the colonies, posts and telegraphs and the military. Laroche died on 14 September 1914 in

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

, Sarthe, France.

References

Citations Sources * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laroche, Hippolyte 1848 births 1914 deaths French politicians