Jean Laborde (16 October 1805 in

Auch Auch (; oc, label= Gascon, Aush ) is a commune in southwestern France. Located in the region of Occitanie, it is the capital of the Gers department. Auch is the historical capital of Gascony. Geography Localization Hydrography The ...

- 27 December 1878 in

Mantasoa Mantasoa is a municipality in Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Manjakandriana, which is a part of Analamanga Region. The population of the municipality was 10,604 in 2018. Mantasoa is located at 68 km East of Antananarivo. 60 villages ...

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 Afric ...

) was an

adventurer An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...

and early

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through per ...

. He became the chief

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...

of the

Merina The Merina people (also known as the Imerina, Antimerina, or Hova) are the largest ethnic group in Madagascar.Merina ...

monarchy A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic ( constitutional monar ...

, supervising the creation of a modern manufacturing center under Queen Ranavalona I. Later he became the first French consul to Madagascar, when the government of

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

used him to establish French influence on the island. Born to a blacksmith, Laborde emigrated to India, before attempting to recover treasure from ships wrecked along the coast of Madagascar in 1831. After becoming shipwrecked himself, Laborde made his way to Antananarivo where he manufactured muskets and gunpowder for the queen in a factory located in

Ilafy Ilafy is a town and commune ( mg, kaominina) in Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Ambatondrazaka, which is a part of Alaotra-Mangoro Region. The population of the commune was estimated to be approximately 13,000 in 2001 commune census. P ...

. Laborde then organized 20,000 forced labourers to build an industrial complex in

, closer to water, wood, and iron ore. There, 1,200 workmen produced cannon, swords, bricks, tiles, pottery, glass, porcelain, silk, soap, candles, sealing-wax, lime, cement, charcoal, ink, dyes, sugar, rum, sulphuric acid, and lightning conductors. Laborde also constructed Rainiharo's tomb, and the

Queen's Palace Tajbeg Palace ( ps, د تاج بېګ ماڼۍ; fa, قصر تاج بيگ; ''Palace of the Large Crown''), also inaccurately called the Queen's Palace, is one of the palaces in the popular Darulaman area of Kabul, Afghanistan. The stately mansion is ...

. Laborde got involved in the 1857 coup instigated by

Joseph-François Lambert Joseph-François Lambert, the "Duke of Imerina" (1824–1873) was a French adventurer, businessman, and diplomat who fathered the Lambert Charter. Early years Lambert was born in Redon, Ille-et-Vilaine in 1824. He traveled to Mauritius where, a ...

and was banned by the queen. After the queen was succeeded by Radama II, he was able to return in 1861. Napoleon III named him as the first French consul to the Merina court. The French government became involved in a dispute with the Malagasy over the inheritance of Laborde's property after his death in 1878, some of which was a gift from Queen Ranavalona I. These and other French claims formed the pretext for France's later armed intervention. A

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colors, bein ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to Madagascar, ''

Furcifer labordi Labord's chameleon (''Furcifer labordi'') is a semelparous species of chameleon, a lizard in the family Chamaeleonidae. The species is endemic to Madagascar. Etymology The specific name, ''labordi'', is in honor of French adventurer Jean Labor ...

'', is named in his honor.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Laborde", p. 149).

References

External links

Biography (in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laborde, Jean 1805 births 1878 deaths 19th-century French diplomats History of Madagascar