The name "Menabe", in turn, means "big red", after the color of laterite rock that dominates the landscape.

Among its most famous rulers was Ranaimo or Andriandrainarivo (ruled 1718–1727) who is known through the memoirs of Europeans such as Robert Drury, James Cook, the crew of the Dutch East Indiaman Barneveld, 1719,[4] François Valentijn (1726).

Finally, Ramitraho king of Menabe at the time, sued for peace by giving his daughter Rasalimo to Radama as his wife.

Eventually the Merina conquered and subjugated the southern Menabe territories in 1834 right after Ramitraho's death.

Queen Ranavalona I then garrisoned major Menabe towns and sent farmers to colonize the area.

The northern Menabe largely escaped Merina authority and stayed independent despite the fact that they no longer posed any threat to the monarchy in Antananarivo.