Vatomandry

Vatomandry lies on Madagascar's east coast in the country of the Betsimisaraka, where lagoons, sandy shores and forested slopes meet the Indian Ocean. Coastal communities fished the lagoons, grew rice and cassava on the plains behind the shore, and traded by sea and along the river paths that linked them with the interior.

In the eighteenth century, the groups of the east coast came together in political alliances that gave rise to the Betsimisaraka confederation. Local chiefs such as the lord of Vatomandry joined these alliances or fought over them, and the coast's trade in cattle, rice and imported goods made harbours like this one valuable. In the early nineteenth century Merina expansion from the central highlands reached the east coast and changed the balance of power there.