Radama encouraged these London Missionary Society envoys to establish schools to teach tradecraft and literacy to nobles and potential military and civil service recruits.

A wide range of political and social reforms were enacted under Radama's rule, including an end to the international slave trade, although this had historically been a key source of wealth and armaments for the Merina monarchy.

He was succeeded by his highest-ranking wife, Ranavalona I. Radama was the son of Rambolamasoandro[2] and King Andrianampoinimerina of Imerina, a growing kingdom in the central plateau of the island around Antananarivo.

[5] Radama was invited to join his father on a military expedition during his campaign to pacify the Betsileo, who had forsaken an oath sworn to Andrianampoinimerina.

[9] The young ruler immediately had to embark on military campaigns that successfully put down the rebellions and secured his position, which included completing the pacification of the Betsileo kingdom.

[12] It was under Radama's rule that LMS missionaries (with notable contributions from Scottsman James Cameron) set up craft industries in carpentry, leather, tin plating and cotton, introduced the first printing press, translated and printed Bibles in the Malagasy language[3] and oversaw Radama's plan to establish dozens of schools.

Radama's European contacts describe him as openly skeptical of many of the religious rituals and traditions that formed the legitimacy of the Merina monarchy over the past four centuries.

[13] Many of the cultural and technological innovations Radama introduced during his reign were rejected by the broader population as a denial of the heritage of their ancestors and their traditions.

Radama reportedly admired Napoleon Bonaparte and drew upon European structure and tactics to modernize his army, which included French, British and Jamaican generals.

Many years of military campaigning certainly took their toll,[18] and Radama was prone to drinking heavily; shortly before his death he displayed symptoms of advanced alcoholism as his health rapidly declined.

In line with Malagasy architectural norms, his tomb was topped with a trano masina ("sacred house") symbolic of royalty.

Like his father Andrianampoinimerina and other Merina sovereigns that would follow him, he was laid to rest in a silver coffin, and it is said the funerary goods buried with him were the most extensive and richest of any tomb in Madagascar.

These included a deep red silk lamba mena, imported paintings of European royalty, thousands of coins, eighty articles of clothing, swords, jewels, gold vases, containers of silver and so forth.