The Long-Term Effects of Colonial Repression in Madagascar Omar García-Ponce - University of California, Davis Leonard Wantchekon - Princeton University LSE-Stanford-Universidad de los Andes Conference on Long-Run Development in Latin America, London School of Economics and Political Science, 16-17 May 2018 The Long-Term Eects of Colonial Repression in Madagascar Omar García-Ponce Leonard Wantchekon Uni versity of California, Davis Princeton University
[email protected] [email protected] May 15, 2018 Abstract The repression of the 1947 Malagasy uprising is regarded as one of the bloodiest episodes in the history of Colonial Africa. In this paper we show that this violent repression has had a long-lasting impact on people’s political attitudes. Using recent individual-level survey data and geographic and ethnographic information about the repression, we examine the long-term eects of this event on current levels of self-reported freedom of expression. Our empirical strategy is based on a regression discontinuity design that exploits plausible exogenous variation in exposure to the rebellion generated by a mountain range. We nd that exposure to the legacy of repression negatively aects people’s freedom of expression. 1 Introduction On March 29, 1947, a group of Malagasy nationalists revolted against the colonial rule of France in the eastern part of the island. The uprising immediately spread over one-third of Madagascar’s territory, but the French armed forces were able to restore order after receiving reinforcements. By November 1948, the rebels had been erased from the map, resulting in numerous arrests and a death toll estimated to range into the thousands.