Combining the analytical lenses of all four thematic frontiers (biological, mental, socio-ecological and commercial) that make up the CATTLEFRONTIERS project, this study analyses the transformation of cattle production in Madagascar from the late precolonial to early postcolonial period (1870s-1970s). It examines why, how and to what effect European (mostly but not only French) and Malagasy administrators, entrepreneurs and veterinary experts, in often conflictual interaction with indigenous pastoralists, tried to transform pre-existing cattle economies on the island and to turn cattle into profitable commodities. This project shows that the making of such a capitalist-colonial cattle frontier implied a broad range of interventions, from the improvement of local breeds and new methods of cattle disease management to the submission and taxation of cattle pastoralists and the establishment of meat factories and new cattle/commodity trading networks.

While some of them already began under Merina rule, these interventions intensified much under French colonialism and effectively turned the island into one of colonial Africa’s main producers and exporters of cattle commodities, most notably hides and canned/frozen beef. However, Madagascar never became the “new Argentina” some had hoped for. The project shows how the manifold tensions, conflicts and negotiation processes underwriting the processes of frontier-making as well as the (intended and unintended) social, economic and ecological consequences limited the scope of Madagascar’s cattle industry, eventually also leading to its gradual disconnection from regional, imperial and global markets. This book-length study will be the first one unpacking the making and unmaking of this paradigmatic cattle frontier. It will also play a pivotal and synthesising role within CATTLEFRONTIERS, as it will integrate and feed back into key conceptual and empirical insights from the other case studies.